Learn how to make pumpkin-shaped sourdough with these simple steps. Making a sourdough pumpkin is easy and adds an aesthetic touch to all your fall and holiday gatherings. Use your favorite sourdough recipe!

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When the weather cools, and the sun changes from its bright summer rays to a golden autumn hue, I am ready for all things fall-related.

Every year, we go to the North Carolina mountains to see the changing leaves (the leaves don’t change much here on the coast). While there, we go apple picking and make sourdough apple cinnamon bread with fresh apples from the orchard.

Of course, we also go on pumpkin patch hayrides and enjoy about every pumpkin recipe we can, like sourdough pumpkin cobbler and this pumpkin-shaped sourdough bread.

Learning how to make pumpkin-shaped sourdough is easy as long as you are familiar with making sourdough bread. Check out my starter guide and no-knead sourdough tutorial on YouTube if you haven’t made sourdough.

I use my classic sourdough bread recipe. However, sourdough boules of any kind work for a pumpkin-shaped loaf. You can even make pumpkin sourdough bread if you have a favorite pumpkin-flavored recipe.

A sourdough pumpkin looks stunning on a fall or Thanksgiving table and tastes delicious, too!

Why You’ll Love Making Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough

Use any bread recipe – As long as the dough can hold its shape, you can turn it into a pumpkin. Chocolate sourdough, maple oatmeal bread, and even sourdough sandwich bread are great choices. Check out the section below for tips on making pumpkin-shaped bread using any recipe.
Fall aesthetic – Pumpkin-shaped sourdough is a pretty and useful way to add a touch of fall to your kitchen.
Easy – Making pumpkin-shaped sourdough is an easy DIY fall project. It’s as simple as tying a few pieces of twine around a batch of dough.
Fun for kids – This is also an easy project for kids to enjoy. My 3-year-old loves making “bread that’s a pumpkin.”
Simple gift-giving – Check out my tips below for gifting a sourdough pumpkin throughout the fall holidays.

Tips for Making Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough

Soak the twine in oil – Soaking the butcher’s twine in oil can make removing it easier. I usually skip this step, but it is helpful if you find it hard to remove the twine.
Knot the twine together – Before arranging the twine across the dough, knot it together in the middle. This makes it much easier to turn the dough over without losing the twine’s placement.
Let the bread cool completely – The baking process isn’t complete until the bread is room temperature. So don’t remove the string or cut into the bread until it is cool to the touch. Waiting to eat it is the hardest part of the process, haha!
Use an active starter – An active starter will ferment the dough faster. If you aren’t in a hurry, an inactive starter will work; it just takes longer. Check out my baking with active vs. inactive starter video on YouTube to learn more.
Bake the dough while it is cold – Baking sourdough while it’s cold creates more steam, resulting in a fuller loaf of bread. Sourdough can expand up to 30% in the oven! So, oven spring is the difference between a flat sourdough pumpkin and one with a plump, round shape.
Use a Dutch oven – In the same vein as above, a Dutch oven holds the steam to create a better oven spring.
Use butcher’s twine – Though it looks like just a few pieces of string, you specifically need butcher’s twine because it is food- and oven-safe.

Tools You Will Need

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Banneton basket – A banneton basket or proofing basket helps maintain the dough’s shape while cold proofing. Use a round banneton basket for pumpkin-shaped sourdough.
Bowl and towel – If you don’t have a banneton basket, a towel-lined bowl will work. Just make sure the bowl’s sides are tall enough to support the dough.
Parchment paper – Parchment paper makes transferring the dough to the Dutch oven easier and prevents sticking.
Cutting board – A small cutting board helps turn the dough over without losing the placement of the butcher’s twine.
Butcher’s twine – Butcher’s twine creates the ribs of the pumpkin shape.
Oil – This is an optional step, but the twine is easier to remove if you soak it in oil first. Olive oil, vegetable oil, and avocado oil are good choices.
Flour – All-purpose flour or rice flour will make your scoring stand out.
Lame – Score the dough with a lame (pronounced “lahm”) or a regular razor blade.
Cast iron Dutch oven – The tight-fitting lid on a Dutch oven holds in the steam and creates a better oven spring. Check out my Dutch oven review on YouTube to learn more about the best ones for baking and cooking.
Cinnamon stick – A cinnamon stick works perfectly for a cute pumpkin stem.
Bay leaves – Though they don’t look like pumpkin leaves, adding a few bay leaves next to the cinnamon stick stem creates a finished aesthetic.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Preheat and Prepare

Prepare your dough as you normally would. Shape the dough into a tight ball for a round loaf. When you are ready to bake, preheat a cast iron Dutch oven to the temperature the recipe recommends.

Leave the dough in the fridge while you prep the supplies.

Cut 4 pieces of butcher’s twine about 36-40 inches long. Tie them in a knot in the middle. This will keep them in place as you shape the dough.

Butchers twine knotted I the middle with a roll of twine and scissors in the background

Make the Pumpkin Shape

Remove the dough from the fridge, but keep it in the banneton basket or towel-lined bowl.

Place the knotted twine vertically across the top of the dough. Make sure the knot is in the center of the dough.

Dough in banneton basket with knotted twine across it, shown with a roll of butchers twine and gold scissors.

Spread and align the twine so that it creates 8 equal sections.

Sourdough dough with four pieces of twine spread across it, shown with a roll of butchers twine and gold scissors

Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough. Make sure the banneton, dough, and string are fully covered.

Parchment paper covering the banneton basket and dough.

Place a cutting board on top of the parchment-covered banneton basket and use it to turn the dough over.

Banneton basket with parchment paper and a cutting board underneath it

Rub a light coating of flour on the dough. This will make your scoring stand out and help prevent the butcher’s twine from sticking. Note: you can skip this step if you prefer a toasted look rather than a white boule (I skipped this part for the main photo in this post).

Sourdough dough with flour on it. Shown with a small dish of flour and gold scissors

If needed, readjust the strings so they are even. Then, grab two strings from opposite ends and tie a knot at the center of the dough. The string should be snug against the dough but not cut or pinch into it.

Cut the excess string above the knot.

Dough with two strings pulled across it and knotted in the center.

Repeat with each string, ensuring the knots are centered on the dough.

Sourdough dough with all the pieces of twin tied and knotted at the center of the dough. Shown with a roll of butchers twine, a small dish of flour, and gold scissors.

Optional: with a bread lame, add designs to each section on top of the loaf.

Pumpkin-shaped dough with scoring marks. Shown on parchment paper and cutting board.

Bake the Bread

Use the parchment paper to transfer the dough to the hot Dutch oven.

Pumpkin-shaped sourdough on parchment paper and in a cast iron Dutch oven

Follow the recipe instructions for baking. Most sourdough bread is ready when the top is golden brown and reaches an internal temperature of 190°-200° F.

When the bread is done, transfer it to a wire rack to cool. When it is cool to the touch, remove the string.

I usually cut strings at the top and pull them out gently. They can get a little embedded in the bread, but give them a little tug, and they should come out.

Use a small knife to pop a hole in the center of the dough, and insert half of a cinnamon stick for the stem. Add bay leaves for a cute finishing touch.

Last but not least, enjoy your beautiful sourdough pumpkin!

Pumpkin-shaped sourdough with a cinnamon stick stem and bay leaves for decoration

How to Store and Use Leftover Sourdough Bread

Leftover rustic sourdough is best stored with a little airflow. I like to use a kitchen towel and leave it on the counter for up to 2 days. You can also store sourdough bread in a ziplock bag, but it can make the crust soft.

If you think your bread will go stale, you can freeze sourdough bread for later use.

Sourdough bread is best consumed quickly. If you have bread that is drying out, make French toast, sourdough toast, or breadcrumbs with it before it goes stale.

FAQs & Troubleshooting

How do you score a sourdough pumpkin?

The trick to scoring a sourdough pumpkin is to use many small, shallow score marks. This will help the steam release.

For the best results, I shoot for about 8-10 score marks per section of the pumpkin. And I only cut about 1/8″ deep into the dough.

If you score too deeply, you will end up with a large opening and an unsightly ear.

If your dough is bursting open, that is a sign that there was an issue with the dough or that you scored too deeply. Check out my troubleshooting section below for remedying sourdough that bursts open.

You can see in the photo below I had a little trouble with that (it happens to every baker at some point). But it’s still a beautiful sourdough pumpkin boule!

Sourdough pumpkin showing where the scoring burst because it was underproofed

What type of container is best for proofing pumpkin-shaped sourdough?

Sourdough needs support to hold its shape. When you put your dough in the fridge to cold proof, it needs to be in a container with support.

Many sourdough bakers, myself included, use a banneton basket. They come in several different shapes and sizes, but I recommend an 8″ or 9″ round banneton basket for a sourdough pumpkin.

You can also use a towel-lined bowl as long as its sides are tall enough to support the dough—the flatter and wider the bowl, the less support the dough will have.

In turn, your sourdough pumpkin will not be as round and full once baked.

Sourdough dough in banneton basket with butchers twine across it

What other types of bread can be shaped like a pumpkin?

You can turn just about any bread into a pumpkin as long as the dough can hold its shape. Quick sweet breads like banana bread, for example, wouldn’t work because they are a batter and not a shaped dough.

For this post, I used my regular no-knead sourdough recipe. But any bread dough, from sourdough recipes to commercial yeast bread, will work.

Why is my sourdough pumpkin bursting?

I actually had issues with this recently. Every time I baked a sourdough pumpkin, it burst in a few places. In fact, you can see where that happened in some my pictures (the white pumpkin pictures).

Bursting is a sign of a few issues with your dough:

Underproofed – If your dough is underproofed, it can form a crust too quickly. Then, as it expands, it cracks. This was what happened to mine.
Not enough scoring – You don’t want to cut deep scores in a sourdough pumpkin. But scoring more shallow decorative marks can help release steam.
Overproofing – If your dough is overproofed, it will be too weak to rise, causing it to split open.
Dry dough – if your dough is too dry, the crust can crack open while baking.

Notice in this picture how some of the score marks split. This happened because my dough was underproofed.

Pumpkin-shaped sourdough with cinnamon stick and bay leaves for decoration

How to Gift a Sourdough Pumpkin

I’m a fan of handmade and useful gifts. Homemade sourdough bread is a gift that just about anyone will enjoy. It is made with your hands and love, and of course, it is delicious.

Here are a few tips for gifting sourdough pumpkins:

Batch prep the dough – If you plan on gifting a few pumpkins, batch prep the dough so you only have to make it once. You can store sourdough dough in the fridge for up to 3 days so you can bake it when you have time.
Don’t bake too far in advance – Sourdough is best eaten within a day or so. Try to plan your baking schedule so you bake the day of or the day before gifting a sourdough pumpkin.
Make smaller pumpkins – Don’t feel like you have to make a giant boule for every gift. Reduce the size of the pumpkin boules and make 3 or 4 out of one batch of dough.
Use a cake box – Put the sourdough pumpkin in a kraft cake box (affiliate link) and attach fall decorations like fake leaves and fall-colored ribbon to the box. Cake and pastry boxes come in many sizes. Make sure the box is the right size for your bread.

How To Make Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough

Yield: 1 boule

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Materials

Parchment paper
Cutting board
Butchers twine
Scissors
Lame
Cast iron Dutch oven
Cinnamon stick
Bay leaves