Pumpkin seed bread

freshly baked pumpkin seed bread fresh from the oven

Our day started not too well. Ok I have to admit, a cup of fresh coffee in the morning does get me going. But when I don’t have a slice of fresh artisanal bread in the morning, it’s just not the same. So I definitely had to do something about that, I can see that you will agree with me on this one. Recently I saw this pumpkin seed artisan bread that looked so delightfully delicious so that I just had to try to bake it. Again I found the recipe on the website of Ketex (this guy really has some awesome recipes over there).

mash - roasted pumpin seeds soaking in water

But also in his blog some of the people already discussed that the recipe did not work with all of them. When making the dough, I did encounter the same problems. When I followed his recipe by the letter, the dough was way too wet, it was more like a mashed potato consistency and I could not really work with it. So I had to modify the recipe and I added some more flour in order to get the dough to a consistency that I could work with. The result is a scrumptious, phizz whizzing, delightfully delicious and comopletely organic bread (only getting organic flour for baking) that makes it easily on top of my favorite bread recipe lists. Eventually this is due to my sourdough getting better and better every week or eventually I am just getting more and more skillful every week in baking breads? Be it as it may, here is my modified recipe of this self made pumpkin seed bread

Sourdough

• 150 g rye flour
• 150 g water
• rye sourdhough starter (if you missed the story on how to make a sourdhough, please go here)
• Mix it well and let it rest for 16 – 18 hours

Scald  / mash / soaker (not sure which word ist he appropriate here)

• 133 g roasted pumpkin seeds
• 133 g water
• 13 g salt
• infuse the pumpkin seed and the salt with hot water and let it rest for 15 – 18 hours

Dough

• Sourdough
• MAsh
• 230 g rye flour
• 230 g spelt flour
• 100 g water
• 13 g fresh yeast or 2 g dried yeast (not 7 g as I wrote before....)
• 1 Table spoon of honey

Mix everything well together for 5 minutes until well worked through, you should have a good ball of dough now. Then you add the mash and you knead 2 – 3 minutes more. Now you give the dough his first rest for 30 minutes.

After these 30 minutes start to shape the bread. When shaping the bread, you can use some of the techniques from this video that I posted in my earlier recipes. I will not actually post the video to my “how to” links so it’s more easy for you to access it from here if you need more detailed instructions on forming the breads. After you formed the bread, you can wet it from the outside and roll it in a coating of pumpkin seeds.

If you are not sure if you want to make a free form bread (in one of my next recipes I will explain a bit more on how to make a free form bread), you can also use a baking pan to make this bread, compare the picture above, I made one free form as well as one using a baking tray. Then just work and knead the dough in a lengthy form that fits in your baking tray, wet it all over, roll it in the seeds and pop it in the well buttered baking tray.

Now the bread has a second rest of another 60 minutes before it goes in the oven. The oven should be pre heated on 240°C. Now put a cup of hot water in the oven, pop the bread in the oven and pour a cup of water on the floor of the oven. Quickly close the door so the hot steam will be caught in the oven. Having all the water in the oven is extremely important for a scrumptious crust and a great consistency of the bread.
Bake for 15 minutes now, then open up the door, let the steam out, lower the heat on 180°C and continue to bake the bread for another 45 – 50 minutes. Now switch off the heat, keep the door open and let the bread cool down slowly.

Last but not least, this is a rye based sourdough bread. Rye based breads are best consumed one day after they are baked. I know it is hard to wait with all those fantastic smells around you when the bread is fresh from the oven, but be patient, wait for one day and you will be rewarded with an awesome tasting bread indeed. 

Slices of pumpkin seed bread