This pumpkin sourdough quick bread tastes like pumpkin pie in bread form.

Pumpkin sourdough quick bread, “Now BPA-free!”

My family has always eaten lots of pumpkin in the fall, usually in the forms of pumpkin pie and pumpkin quick bread. Back when I decided to kick the plastic in 2011, I soon discovered I’d have to also to kick the cans of pumpkin purée that I’d used for baking.

Canned food contains a plastic lining that often contains bisphenols, known hormone disruptors. And while many manufacturers no longer put BPA (one kind of bisphenol) in their can linings, many have turned to BPS or BPF (other types of bisphenols).

Some food manufacturers have begun to line their cans with natural resins but you’d have to do some sleuthing to figure out which cans contain those more natural linings because the practice of slapping the “natural” claim on food labels has rendered the term natural completely meaningless and even suspect. I see the natural claim and wonder, “What are they hiding?“

Feeding ourselves should not require this much googling. When I buy pumpkin, I just want damn pumpkin.

A whole solution

Fortunately I can buy a whole, unadulterated fresh pumpkin and transform it into fabulous purée fairly easily. A whole sugar pie pumpkin will cook in a pressure cooker in minutes. Roasting in the oven takes longer but renders a richer flavor. I then either run the flesh through a food mill or my food processor. Of course, opening a can requires zero work but once you taste fresh pumpkin in this quick bread (or this pie), you’ll want to eat fresh pumpkin only.

And in other good news, within days after you stop eating canned food, your BPA levels drop quickly.

A pumpkin by any other name would taste as sweet

For this recipe, I use either a sugar pie pumpkin or kabocha squash. You could also use a combination of the two. Large jack-o-lantern type pumpkins contains too many strings, too much water and too little flavor for baking.

My daughter MK prefers kabocha squash over pumpkin and in fact, some canned pumpkin contains squash, not pumpkin. This kind of labeling may mislead a little bit but eating squash instead of pumpkin poses no health risks. I don’t feel the need to schedule a blood test to detect my squash levels, after all. And even if a test could detect my squash levels, pumpkins are a type of squash, so…

If you prefer a more vivid orange color in your pumpkin sourdough quick bread, choose a kabocha squash. Kabocha squash are also known as Japanese pumpkins so you have a few name choices for this recipe if your bake with kabocha:

Kabocha sourdough quick bread
Japanese pumpkin sourdough quick bread
Dessert

A loaf of pumpkin sourdough quick bread in a loaf pan on a white and grey marble background. Above it are a sugar pie pumpkin and a kabocha squash. — This loaf contains pumpkin purée but the green kabocha squash also tastes delicious

Make a dent in your sourdough discard jar

When I started baking sourdough, I couldn’t bring myself to waste the starter left over from feedings. Over time, I came up with a bunch of recipes to use it up.

One loaf of this quick bread calls for ½ cup of discard—more than I add to my discard jar per feeding, which helps keep that jar manageable. Do your part and bake this yummy quick bread to prevent food waste!

SOS: Save our seeds!

Reduce more food waste by roasting the pumpkin seeds for a delicious seasonal treat. After I cook my whole pumpkin, I cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and save them to roast. Roast them at the same time as you bake this sourdough pumpkin quick bread and you’ll conserve energy too.

Kabocha seeds can be a little too thick and wonky to snack on, in which case, I compost them. This year, I’ve also saved some to plant next year. To save seeds for planting, cut the pumpkin or squash in half and remove the seeds before cooking.

A large bowl containing the dry ingredients for pumpkin sourdough quick bread. The bowl is sitting on a grey and white marble background and is surrounded by the other ingredients in small bowls and measureing cups. — The kabocha squash version

Sourdough pumpkin quick bread batter in a metal loaf pan sitting on a grey and white marble background — Kabocha squash quick bread batter about to bake

Pumpkin sourdough quick bread in a metal loaf pan cooling on a metal rack sitting on a marble background — Kabocha squash quick bread cooling

Close up of slices of pumpkin sourdough quick bread on a wooden cutting board — Note the more orangey color the kabocha squash rendered

A sliced loaf of pumpkin sourdough quick bread on a wooden cutting board with a towel on its upper left and blue plate with a slice on its lower right — The sugar pie pumpkin version has little orange color but all the flavor

Even if you double this recipe, you may have leftover pumpkin or squash purée. Use it to make this pumpkin dal, pumpkin pasta, add it to Shop-the-Fridge Soup or freeze the pumpkin to use later. If you’d like a vegan pumpkin or squash dessert, check out my sourdough discard vegan pumpkin-ginger cake. I based it on a Depression-era wacky cake.

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