Well it is almost fall and soon Instagram will be full of pumpkin shaped breads. I have never tried to make one of these so thought it might be fun to do. I also haven’t shaped a boule in sometime so thought I was due.
I still have some mashed purple sweet potato from months ago that I prepared using the instant pot and froze in small portions. I will say that the addition of purple sweet potato to this dough seems to slow down the yeast which surprised me somewhat. As I have been doing lately, I prepare two aliquot jars to watch fermentation, one for rise and the other to measure pH. The gradual fall in pH was as expected so the potato wasn’t affecting LAB at all. However, the rise was extremely slow. I typically see a rise of 40-50% with a pH of around 4.4-4.5, but for this loaf there was only a 20% rise at a pH of 4.4. At that point I did shape this. The dough was left in the banneton until the pH reached 3.9 at which time cold retard was started.
I dipped the string in neutral oil to help make them release more easily after baking. The photos show my process in preparing the dough for final bake. The oven was preheated at 500ºF. Once scored the dough was baked at 450ºF with steam for 20 mins, then the steam was exhausted and the temperature was dropped to 420ºF and the loaf was baked for another 30 mins turning halfway through.
Overall I’m pleased with the external appearance of this loaf. I can see one spot where the outward spring of the dough tore the crust. I think that could be avoided by tying the string a bit less tight or overproofing the dough a bit more.
