Spiced Pumpkin Bread/Kürbisgewürzbrot (Germany)

Spiced Pumpkin Bread is a great example of how European bakers included a wide range of ingredients, such as oil seeds, nuts, cabbage, carrots, potatoes – even moss and the ground inner bark of pine trees – to augment and extend their flour in times of scarcity. Although the custom first developed during pre-Industrial times, when famine was a real and recurring challenge, it has persisted into these times of plenty, much to our good fortune.

What with it being autumn and the pumpkin-spice marketing blitz in full hue and cry, I had mixed feelings about baking and blogging it. On one hand, I’m not a bandwagon-jumper, and the sheer volume and ubiquity of the pumpkin-spice hype aroused a strong reluctance to become just another seasonally opportunistic self-promoter. On the other hand, this is a really good bread that deserves its moment in the seasonal sun.

I adapted this particular recipe from Ingeborg Biermann, a baker from Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) in northern Germany. It uses a massive amount of pumpkin – 100% of total flour weight – and contains 30% rye and 70% wheat, although I suspect that when this bread first came to light, the bakers used anything they could find – barley, oats, buckwheat, spelt.

I’ve baked this bread before, using canned pumpkin. For this bake, I roasted a cooking pumpkin and, frankly, the difference was stunning: I’m through with the canned stuff, even if it means I can only have this bread a couple of months a year.

The fresh pumpkin produced a moist, open and coarse crumb with a complex flavor profile that combines the sweet-sour of the pumpkin with the spiciness of the rye and subtle caraway-anise notes. Poppy and sesame seeds add a delicate crunch to the chew, punctuated by the rich nuttiness of coarsely chopped walnuts. This is a great all-around table bread, as good with cheese and charcuterie as it is with soups and stews.

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and use the dough hook at low (KA2) speed to mix into a soft, sticky dough, 8-10 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature (70°F/21°C) until doubled in bulk, 60-75 minutes.

Return the dough to the mixer and use the dough hook at low speed to return the dough to its original volume, 2-3 minutes.

Turn the dough, which will be very sticky, onto a well-floured work surface and use floured hands to shape it into a rounded oblong loaf. Place the loaf on a well-floured peel or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover and proof at room temperature until the loaf has visibly expanded and the surface shows cracks or broken bubbles, 15-20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 390°F/200°C and bake until the bottom of the loaf thumps when tapped with a finger and the internal temperature is at least 198°F/92°C, about 1 hour. Transfer to a rack and cool thoroughly before slicing.

Note: To bake a fresh pumpkin, cut it in half, remove the seeds and place the halves cut side down on a lightly oiled baking sheet (I line mine with aluminum foil for easy cleanup). Bake at 325°F/165°C (300°F/150°C for convection ovens) until the flesh is tender, about 1 hour. Let cool and use a spoon to scrape the flesh out of the skin. Put the flesh through a sieve or ricer.