No Knead Pumpkin Bread

Welcome to this little bread I’ve been baking every week for the past two months. I am usually baking sourdough loaves, so I very rarely venture into the ‘no knead bread’ territory but this pumpkin bread has a hold on me this fall! I want it with all my soups, stews and tbh, I just love eating it hot slathered with some salted butter. 

Recipe Origins 

I think every home baker with a dutch oven has tried Jim Lahey’s no knead bread. I worked off of his recipe to bring you this one: swapping some of the water for pumpkin puree, reworking the technique, rising times and quantities to accommodate a pumpkin heavy, and smaller loaf. After about 5-6 loaves of this bread, I think I’ve landed us right where we want to be: a dough that requires very little effort, is quite flexible in terms of timing and yields a perfect little loaf to accompany any fall meal. 

Recipe Ingredients 

Water: tap water at a cool room temperature (not cold). 

Yeast: active dry yeast. You can also use rapid rise. 

Pumpkin puree: just pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. I like Libby’s (other brands tend to have more water in them). 

Flour: bread flour, of a protein content that’s around 12-13%. 

Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount. 

How to make No Knead Pumpkin Bread

Mix together the water & yeast: 

Whisk in the pumpkin puree: 

Add the flour and salt and stir: 

Mix by hand: 

Let rest 1 hour, then do a ‘fold’: 

Let rest another 3 hours, then chill for 12 hours or overnight.

Shape on a piece of parchment paper: 

Let rise for 3-4 hours. 

Preheat oven with the dutch oven to 450 F. Score the loaf, place in the hot dutch oven,

cover and bake for 20 minutes, then cover and bake for another 20-25 minutes (depending on how dark you want the crust): 

Let cool for 1-2 hours, then slice: 

Topping & Shaping the Pumpkin Bread 

Two things I didn’t do, but feel I absolutely must mention (in case you’re feeling fancy and/or decorative): 

• Pumpkin shape: using baker’s twine, you can shape the loaf to look like an actual pumpkin. Sugar Geek Show has a great tutorial on how to do that here. 
• Pumpkin seeds: Before scoring the dough, wet your hands and then gently rub them over the top of the bread. Place the pumpkin seeds on top (be sure to leave space for the scoring) and gently press them in to adhere. 

Notes on making this recipe 

1. I tend to mix this dough in the early evening, around 4pm, and set it in the fridge around 8pm. I take it out around 8am, shape it and let it rest on the counter until 12pm. This means it’s ready to eat at lunchtime. If you aim to have this with dinner instead, you can start it around 6 or 7pm. 
2. Alternatively, make the dough at night with less yeast, let rise on the counter, then shape and do the second rise in the am. See the notes for more details.
3. Pay attention to the dough itself, not the timings. If your kitchen is on the colder side, the room temperature rises/rests will take a bit longer. If the kitchen is warm, they will likely be shorter. 
4. I deliberately wrote this recipe for people who don’t bake sourdough often, simplifying the steps and using terminology that isn’t too niche. If you do bake sourdough, or you are very familiar with the no knead variety, some of the instructions will seem overly detailed. Ignore them, get the gist of the recipe and do what you know 😉 

No Knead Pumpkin Bread Recipe

No Knead Pumpkin Bread

Rustic artisan pumpkin bread: a low effort bread made with a just handful of ingredients and pumpkin puree.

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 22 hours hrs

Rest Time: 20 hours hrs

Yields: 1 medium sized boule

5 from 1 vote

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Ingredients

• 180 g water cool
• ½ tsp active dry yeast (use ¼ tsp for an overnight rise on the counter - see notes)
• 225 g pumpkin puree
• 425 g bread flour
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Method

• In a large bowl add the cool water, then add the yeast. Whisk or stir gently to combine. Let sit for a few minutes so the yeast can dissolve.
• Add the pumpkin puree, whisking it well so you have a loose, orange colored liquid (puree clumps that aren’t mixed in will become clumps of baked puree in the bread - we dont’ want that!).
• Add the flour and sea salt and stir, best you can with a rubber spatula. Then switch to your hands, squeezing and folding the dough to mix everything in evenly. It will be sticky.
• Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature. After an hour, wet your fingers and then do a dough fold: lift the dough from one side and fold it over itself. Do this a few times, until the dough shows signs of tension and resists folding.
• Cover the bowl again and let it rest until it increases in volume by about a third, for another 3-4 hours. If you see big bubbles forming, poke or pinch them to release the air.
• Transfer the dough to the fridge to chill for about 12 hours, overnight.
• In the morning, transfer the dough to a floured surface and shape it into a tight, round ball. Tuck the sides of your hands, palms faced up, under the dough and gently but firmly move them to round out the dough ball.
• Set the dough on a small piece of parchment paper, flour it and cover with a tea towel. Leave it to rise for 3-4 hours, until puffy.
• Set a 4-6 quart dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450 F. Ten to 20 minutes after it has preheated, score the dough by slashing it with a sharp paring knife, making a half cm deep indentation across the dough (it can be in the center or off to the side).
• Take the dutch oven out and carefully lift the parchment paper and place it in the center of the pan. Cover and set in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
• After the 20 minute mark, remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 minutes, until golden.
• Out of the oven, let the bread cool for at least an hour before slicing.

Notes

There are a few ways to manage the rising times, the first is as instructed above.

Alternatively, use a quarter teaspoon of yeast and mix the dough at night (8pm), do the fold at 9pm and leave it on the counter to rise overnight. At 8am the next morning, the dough will have doubled. A this point you can shape it on the parchment paper and leave it for the second rise at room temperature (about 3 hours), or you can place it in the fridge for a longer second rise (6-7 hours). These timings depend on kitchen temperature. 

Important: watch your dough not the clock! The first rise is done when the dough has almost doubled, the second when the dough is puffy has swelled to about 50% bigger.  

If you have a bread baton basket, you can use that for the second rise. 

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