Kürbiskernbrot -- Pumpkin seed bread, 100% whole grain sourdough
I lived for a few years in Austria, including one year in the south where pumpkin seeds are especially loved and are frequently incorporated into deliciously moist, soft, airy loaves. This is my favorite rendition of that bread. I use an organic pumpkin seed oil (made from Styrian seeds) that I buy from a health food store here in California. I love the flavor the oil imparts, but be warned that it does give the bread a bit of a green color. I don't mind that at all, and try to balance the green with some yellow corn flour that I bring out with a gentle bake. The photo below was taken with some daylight and pretty accurately represents the color of the crust.
The loaf is composed of soaked wholegrain spelt and corn flour with a rye starter. I soak the spelt and fine corn flour overnight with salt and then mix the soaker, starter and pumpkin seed oil for the initial fermentation. After some folds I incorporate the pumpkin seeds and put in a greased pan to proof.
The pan is baked with a lid on to give it a good steam. Here's a shot of the moist, fluffy crumb:
My daughter loves it in the evening with some butter and honey. Guten Appetit!
Nice loaf of bread, I like pumpkin seeds in bread (more as sunflower seeds) too! Nur weiter so!
Mirko
Would you be willing to share the recipe? It would be a tasty way to use my spelt and pumpkin seed stockpile.
I too grew up with pumpkinseed oil--my dad would use it in salad dressings or other uncooked recipes. He was fond of telling stories about harvest time in his hometown near the Austro-Hungarian border: the whole village would gather in a farmer's barn in an evening to shell the pumpkin seeds before sending them off to be pressed. People would tell stories and sing songs while they worked. Sounds like more fun than TV!
Makes me want to find some pumpkinseed oil now...
must really give it a great and unique flavor like walnut oil does for walnut bread - only that turns the bread crumb purple instead of green. Well Done!
Fresh,shelled, raw or roasted pumpkin seeds, salted or unsalted are available at Sprouts and Whole Foods. Pumpkin seed oil is also available at these same stores much of the time and many other upscale groceries and specialty shops. i used to distribute the Roland brand of specialty oils of all kinds from France - all over the country too. It you contact Roland they can tell you where to get it retail in your local area I am sure.
Happy baking,
Glad to hear it sounds appealing to you. Here is the recipe I used:
The rye went into the starter at 100% hydration and the spelt and corn flour were mixed with the remaining water and the salt and left overnight.
Looks deliciousand healthy , aguats! well done.
Delicious and healthy is my goal! Thanks for the positive feedback.
Great bread!
Living in southern Germany and Austria I couldn't imagine that it was hard to find pumpkin seed oil. Even the discounters have it here.
What do you do with the pumpkin seeds in the US? Watching Halloween movies or series ("Charly Brown - It's the great pumpkin") I thought pumpkins must have an important role in the US agriculture.
the nut companies will roast the pumpkin seeds and then coat them with salt. I think we're supposed to eat the whole thing, but it's more work than I care for. Unless I make my own, in which case I roast the daylights out of them and the shell becomes brown and crisp.
Using pumpkin seeds to make oil never occurred to Americans, which is a shame. Most people don't even know that you can eat pumpkins--their idea is to carve them into funny faces for Halloween, and then throw them away...while the Windisch folks would feed the pumpkin to the pigs--which I think would make for amazing ham.
Most canned pumpkin here is really squash and people have no idea...
We are finishing off a few loaves of Pierre Nury's Light Rye (from Local Breads) and then I can try out the Kuerbiskernbrot. Maybe this weekend? One of the local supermarkets claims to have pumpkinseed oil, and I have a few ideas about other places than might stock it.
Yum! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Certainly! Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. Your bread really looks delicious! What are the dimensions of the pan you used? I'm asking because it doesn't look very full in the picture, but your loaves look really tall. Do they rise a great deal in proofing or in baking?
I think my pan is about 9 x 4 x 4. It looks like this one from KAF but isn't corrugated: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bread-loaf-pan-9-x-4-x-4
The dough increased its size by maybe 75% in the pan. The photo shows it in the pan prior to proofing.
Thanks for the info, aguats. It looked to me like the final loaf is at least 3 times the height of the dough in the pan. Maybe it's the angle of the pictures.
I don't know about three times its height. Maybe 2.5x? It gained probably 75% during proofing and then gained again during baking, so more than double.
Nice job on the kurbiskernbrot! If it tastes as good as it looks, then you are set! Thanks for sharing the recipe. When I get better at this baking, I will have to give this a go. I love pumpkin seeds and I do buy pumpkins to carve out for Halloween. But I mainly buy them so that I can bake the yummy seeds after brining them.
Aguats, the bread is rising slowly, ever so slowly in the pan. The dough was very soft, given the 80% hydration--do you ever use part of the water to make a soaker with the pumpkin seeds?
My parents and uncle are due to arrive this evening--hopefully ahead of the storm they're predicting here in Philadelphia. I know they'll love the bread. My husband is a little jealous, in that he's headed out to his factory tonight--also ahead of the storm--and wants to take a loaf with him as well. Maybe we'll cut it in half?Or maybe someone could also make the ultimate sacrifice and content themselves with one of the linseed loaves I'm also making...