Made with silky pumpkin purée, tangy sourdough starter, and warm fall spices, this super-moist sourdough discard pumpkin bread can be made same-day, or chilled overnight for deeper flavor. The interior crumb will melt in your mouth! Makes (1) 9x-5-inch loaf.

Initially, I thought swapping the banana in my top-rated sourdough banana bread for pumpkin purée would be an easy, fool-proof variation. Not even close. The disasters that came out of my kitchen were too soggy, not sweet enough, and oddly chewy?

Naturally, I spun into an analytical spiral, Googling things at 3 AM that could possibly “help” and long story short: it was too much pumpkin purée.

Why Most Pumpkin Breads Fail

Canned pumpkin purée contains a lot of moisture. So does sourdough starter (it’s part water).

When combined in a recipe that calls for 1 full can of pumpkin (standard), the batter becomes too runny. Runny batter without enough flour = sunken center. More flour is needed to fix the runny batter, but then you need a bigger pan to compensate! I turned gray over this.

Eventually, after muffling my internal chatter with long walks and shower talks it clicked: scale back the pumpkin purée. I settled on using only 1/2 can, with enough leftover to make a second loaf (or my pumpkin sourdough scones). The texture is super moist, velvety-soft, and warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

How To Make Sourdough Pumpkin Bread {Step-By-Step Recipe}

To Start: Whisk your wet ingredients together: eggs, sugars (light brown & granulated) and vanilla extract. Then add the pumpkin purée, oil, and sourdough starter.

Sift the dry ingredients, then gradually add to your wet ingredients. Pour the batter into a parchment-lined loaf pan.

If baking right away, do so for 60-70 minutes @ 350 F. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted (you know the drill). To ferment overnight, cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator. Bake from cold the next day in a preheated oven.

Note: This loaf tastes completely different warm vs. room temperature. Personally, I prefer it at room temperature (e.g. cooled for a few hours). The flavor gets better as it sits!