Butternut Squash Sourdough

Trader Joe’s was almost giving away avocados and butternut squash this week – $1 and $1.99 respectively. So in addition to making guacamole three days in a row, I decided to make two loaves of Butternut Squash Sourdough. I substituted one cup of flour for one cup of butternut squash, and I drastically reduced the water in the recipe.

The result was a tasty and wet bread. Super with butter or shaved and slightly melted pecorino romano cheese.

Recipe

2.5 cups bread flour (King Arthur’s)
1 cup cooked mashed butternut squash (oven roasted or microwaved)
1.5 tsp salt
1/3 cup fresh starter (mine is approx 140℅ hydration – what can I say except it works for me and I was about 100 loaves in before I learned how to calculate that!)
1/2 – 3/4 cup water (I used 3/4 cup and the dough was like batter. It worked but I may use less next time)

In the pictures below, you’ll see the measurements are double because I made two loaves at the same time. I used the no knead method from breadtopia.com only the final rise was in the refrigerator, which helps me handle soupy doughs.

First, the gorgeous squash:

Now cooked and mashed, next to a floating starter:

The dough at 0 hours and after a 14 hour bulk fermentation in 65-68′ room.

In the following pictures, you can see how wet the dough is and the nice yellow-peach color.

I put one boule into a colander lined with a heavily floured tea towel. I was worried about how wet the dough was, so to make sure at least one loaf survived the transfer to the baking vessel, I put the second dough in a basket lined with oiled saran wrap.