Colorful sourdough bread with pumpkin and sepia

What is Sepia?

Sepia is a natural black dye obtained from cuttlefish. Cuttlefish ink is used in gastronomy to color dishes. It dyes black, aromatizes and gives the original "sea flavor". Using cuttlefish sepia, prepare Venetian pasta ( pasta al nero di seppia ), polenta, dumplings ( gnocchi ), risotto, Spanish black rice ( arroz negro ), paella, squid in ink sauce, black soups, ink dips etc.
Sepia is also used to color pizza dough, rolls or bread.

I was afraid that sepia would give the finished bread a "sea flavor" after the bread dough was colored. Fortunately, this characteristic aroma and taste is practically imperceptible in the bread and only the black color remains.

Natural black dye , i.e. cuttlefish sepia can be bought in online stores, among others in Cuisines of the World .

As an example I will give you a schedule according to which I prepare bread:

07:00 - stirring the leaven

17:00 - autolysis

17:30 - kneading dough

18:00 - submission

18:30 - folding

19:00 - folding

19:30 - folding

20:00 - board rest

20:30 - loaf forming, basket, proofing in the fridge

07:00 - 12:00 - baking

Ingredients for 2 loaves

LEVAIN (Start)

25 g of leaven

125 g of water

125 g of type 750 wheat flour

PUMPKIN CAKE

1/2 grout

400 g of common wheat bread flour, type 750

100 g of type 2000 wholemeal rye flour

150 - 200 g of water *

250 g pumpkin puree **

8 g ​​of salt

An additional 200 g of baked pumpkin, diced

CAKE WITH SEPIA

1/2 grout

8 g ​​sepia

330 g of water

400 g of common wheat bread flour, type 750

100 g of type 2000 wholemeal rye flour

8 g ​​of salt

Execution

LEVAIN (leaven)

10-16 hours before kneading the bread dough, mix all the leaven ingredients in a bowl, cover and leave at room temperature.

PUMPKIN CAKE

Add all ingredients for the dough, except salt, to a large bowl. We only mix until the ingredients are combined, cover the bowl with cling film and let it autolyze for an hour. At the end of the autolysis, sprinkle the dough with salt and knead it for about 2-3 minutes in a mixer with a hook or about 5 minutes by hand. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place for initial fermentation for about 2.5 hours. During fermentation, fold the dough three / four times with an interval of 30 minutes.

How to fold bread? Short video tutorial

30 minutes after the last folding, gently slide the dough onto the capital sprinkled with flour, divide it into 2 equal portions. Form them into round-shaped loaves and leave them for about an hour, uncovered.

SEPIA CAKE

Mix sepia with 330 g of water, add the remaining ingredients for the dough, except salt. We only mix until the ingredients are combined, cover the bowl with cling film and let it autolyze for an hour. Then proceed in the same way as for the pumpkin pie.

FORMING AND BAKING

After one hour of rest on the board, we start shaping all the portions of dough.
For one loaf we take one portion of pumpkin pie and one portion of sepia. We gently stretch each portion of the pie dough in our hands and combine the two colors of the cakes with each other. Place the baked pumpkin cubes between the cakes and on top. Fold the combined cakes into an envelope, form a loaf and put them in the basket. Put in the fridge for about 10 - 16 hours. Do the same with colored cakes for the second bread.

Before baking, heat the cast iron pot in an oven for 45 - 60 minutes at 250 ° C. Gently put the loaf on baking paper, cut it with a razor, for example. Put into a hot pot and bake for 20 minutes at 250 ° C with the lid. Let us remember about protective gloves all the time! After this time, remove the lid, reduce the temperature to 210/230 ° C (the temperature depends on the oven) and bake for another 20 minutes. Cool the baked bread on a wire rack.

Enjoy your meal!

* the amount of water depends on the thickness of the pumpkin puree

** Pumpkin purée - cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds with the fibrous flesh, and cut into small pieces. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper with the skin side down and bake at 160 ° C for about 30-40 minutes or until tender. After cooling, separate the flesh from the skin and mix until smooth.

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