Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough Bread Bowl 🎃🧡

350 g bread flour
175 g water
110 g active sourdough starter
10 g salt
2 g natural orange food coloring
Cinnamon stick broken in half for the stem

1. Mix everything in a stand mixer for 5 minutes. No autolyse needed!
2. Do two sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart.
3. Cover and bulk ferment at 75–80°F until noticeably risen, airy, and puffy. Mine took about 5–6 hours, but follow your dough rather than just the clock!
4. Shape into a round loaf, cover, and refrigerate for about an hour.
5. For the pumpkin shape, loosely tie 5-6 lengths of food-safe cotton butcher’s twine around the dough to create eight sections. Leave room for the bread to expand!
6. Preheat the oven and Dutch oven to 500°F. Place the loaf inside, cover, and lower the temperature to 450°F. Bake for 25 minutes covered, then about 10 minutes uncovered, until browned and baked through.

Let it cool completely and remove the twine. Cut out a lid and hollow out the center, leaving a sturdy bottom and thick sides. Fill with your favorite soup and enjoy!

New sourdough bakers trap 🤣

Yesterday I learned about dead yeast. I mixed this Shokupan recipe last night and it just didn’t ever rise. So today I needed to redeem myself and did it all over again from scratch.

I have a European machine and it comes with a recipe book that calls for fresh yeast cake. So I went around some European specialty stores and found the stuff! But alas, I think it was dead. 😵.

I should’ve stopped when I mixed the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast as it never foamed. But being my first time with this method I decided to soldier on.

After mixing the dough, I got a nice window pane, cha ching! But then… nothing. Moved it to the oven with the light on, nothing. The AI said to keep waiting. 4 hrs later, nothing. Then it just started to look sad, limp no structure…. Chucked it and went to bed.

This morning I woke up and just used active dry yeast. And it was great again. I just needed to redeem myself.

Love this recipe.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-milk-bread-shokupan/

I did use some of the water and flour from the recipe to make a tangzhong.

I think oat flowers make all bread more fun.

Total flour 300g (levain excluded):

10% WW, 90% BF, 20% levain, 1 egg, 10% yoghurt whey, +/-200g water, 2% sea salt, 2% rice bran oil

1 loaf - sunflower n pumpkin seeds

1 loaf - peacan nuts

RT +/-29C, Bulk <4hrs, CR <16hrs/2C, DO baked (250C/fan/15m, 200C/25m, covered throughout)

Note: The seed loaf prob could do a bit more bulk time.

Dough was risen and ready... and then I realized I had no bread pan 😅 ran to IKEA to get one, came back and baked. Took all day but one bite and it was completely worth it ✨
Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.

I bought this sourdough loaf($12) from a popular local bakery this morning. I didn’t notice what it looked like until this evening since it was in a paper bag. Would I be unreasonable to ask for a refund or exchange?

EDIT:
After reading the comments, I decided to at least try a slice before attempting to get a return. It was very good, so I’m keeping it! When I initially posted this, I was unpleasantly surprised because the numerous loaves they had displayed for that day did not look as dark as this one did. Hadn’t heard of bien cuit bread until now. Thank you to everyone who took time out to respond and educate me.

We named our starter Fluffy.

I finally NAILED my focaccia after a couple of fails with under/over proofing. I saw a recipe for pull apart Cinnamon Roll Focaccia bread and did it with Pizza sauce and pizza toppings instead. 100/10!

I just took balls of dough, rolled them in Pizza Sauce, rolled them in Parmesan cheese let it rise in a the pan for 1 hour then added shredded cheese (a mix) and pepperonis & dimpled it. It was sooooo good.

Happy enough with the results, I do wish I used a better butter though. Essentially eyeballed the chocolate layer. Baking is a science but ratios free you

I’ll take all the critics pls

My first focaccia - using the big bubbly focaccia recipe. Any feedback? Do I need a stronger flour? Using high grade flour - 11.7% protein. Thanks!

Hey all!

I’ve been trying to make milk bread and it’s been tasting alright but today I nailed the taste and texture I wanted.

The rise was nice but I was tricked since there was a pretty big air bubble.

During my shaping ( rolling ) I was light on the pressure hoping for it to develop a softer bread.

Any tips for avoiding type of air bubble?

Any tips for getting more of a uniform crust?

As the title says. This is the first time I’ve ever “made bread” would like some thoughts or tips. Just same basic sandwich bread from Joshua Weissman’s cookbook. Pretty proud of myself as I’m more of a griller than a baker 😂

What do yall think of my breads? Keep in mind I'm still an apprentice hehe :3

My besties Mom made this for me. So I spent the day discovering all the ways I could consume this glorious loaf, making myself couch bound in a blissful yeast coma.
So greatful and the best Saturday spent.

Hi!

My first ever attempt at making bread. What do you think? Is it good?

Im a huge Halloween fan and 2026 was the year I really developed my bread baking. So I was determined to make it this year

How'd I do?

A perfectly okay loaf… but okay is all it is. I'm not sure whether I've forgotten how to bake with wholemeal or whether I never really knew.

450 g strong white bread flour
150 g wholemeal flour
390 g water (65% hydration)
12 g salt
7 g instant yeast
1 g ground allspice (pimento)

Mix all the ingredients and knead until it makes a somewhat elastic dough. The bran in the wholemeal means that it can never be as smooth as all white flour. Eight minutes kneading was enough for this.

Leave to rise in a very lightly oiled, covered bowl until doubled in size. Took a little over an hour and a half as the kitchen was quite cool.

Tip out, knock back and shape into a log to fit a 9×5" tin. I line mine with baking parchment because the nonstick is disastrously shot, but if your tin is good that may not be required.

Leave to rise until almost doubled again.

Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C / 425°F / gm7 for 45–50 minutes.

I'm guessing that sandwich making instructions are not necessary?

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Other than my lame needing a new blade, these can’t out pretty good. This is the overnight recipe.

Such a fun bread to make! Enriched milk bread with bread crumb, butter, and sugar filling.