Jack Skellington Sourdough Bread

Delicious and spooky  Jack Skellington Sourdough  Bread made with naturally leavened starter, flours, and salt. Excellent bread goes well with bowl of soup.

This Jack Skellington-inspired sourdough bread is excellent for Halloween! This is a simple sourdough bread  made with few ingredients.

Halloween is  almost here,  if you’re one who can’t get enough of all things spooky-themed, then this spooky looking like as well fun bread recipe just might become your go-to for ending the season with a hit.

Jack Skellington is pumpkin king in Halloween town. It is a character in the movie The Nightmare before Christmas

Ingredients

You need an

Active sourdough starter If you don’t have active sourdough starter in hand, make one gwith recipe in this website.  ( 20% of the dough )

Bread flour :  I used artisan bread flour  ( 87.5%)

Whole wheat flour :  ( 6.25% of total flour )

Rye flour :  It adds nuttiness to the bread  ( 6.25% of the total flour )

Water : Keep the hydration around 70% so that you will be able to score the dough .

Salt :  Adds  taste to the bread as well as adjust the rate of fermentation.( 2%)

Black cocoa powder : for decoration

Basically, this is easy sourdough bread you can make in matter of time. Yes, only requires flour, water, salt, and starter  then show your artistic creativity in the bread. This is a version of my everyday sourdough bread.

Thus, you get a whole carbs version of Jack Skellington. Which not only looks cute but also taste delicious too.

Since it is a sourdough bread it requires one day, if you are going for instant yeast version, it will be ready in  2-3 hours.

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

To make this bread along with flour, water, salt you need active sourdough starter

First make the dough and then do a bulk proof about 5 hours

Refrigerate overnight then next morning score the dough.

Variations

Adding extra flavors like rosemary, garlic, chive will make it more flavor rich sourdough bread.

Instead, black cocoa powder you can use active charcoal too. However, it can interfere with the medications so use black sesame seeds or black food color.

You can increase quantity of whole grains in the bread, however more than 50% of wholegrains can make the bread dense.

Equipment

For making this bread you need to have weighing balance, Dutch oven and Pyrex bowl.

Storage

This Sourdough Bread will remain fresh for first 4-5 days.

For long time storage you can freeze the bread by slice them and wrap individually.

Tips to make perfect Jack Skellington Sourdough bread

Always use 70% hydration of dough. If you use more, you won’t be able to score the dough.

When you are using black cocoa powder or activated charcoal, make a paste, and use it as coloring.  Powder won’t stick well.

First make an outline of Jack Skellington in the bread and then color it.

You can make black colored bread and then dust with rice powder and stencil to make Jack Skellington looks too.

While scoring  there should  be a deep score in the dough otherwise dough will crack its own way during baking.
Scoring has two purpose one to make the bread looks beautiful.

Second, bread dough rapidly expands when it is first placed in the oven  known as “oven spring” and scoring controls this expansion. Bakers score their loaves to prevent them from cracking—and to give the dough a helpful boost and decide to where to open.

BAKING SCHEDULE FOR MAKING THIS BREAD

Autolyse the Flours with  water 12.30 A.M

Incorporate leaven/levain into the dough 1.00 P.M

Add salt into dough around 1.30 P.M

After 1 hour stretch and fold the dough around 2.30 P.M

Then around stretch and fold dough at 3.30 P.M

At 4.30 P.M coil fold the dough second time

Around 5.00 P.M Laminate the dough.

First coil fold 6.00 P.M Coil fold the dough.

Pre-shape at 7.00 P.M.

Shape the dough 7.15 P.M

Cold Retard/ Refrigerator Overnight up to 14 hours

Bake at  7.00 A.M

Print Recipe

5 from 68 votes

Jack Skellington Sourdough  Bread

Delicious and spooky  Jack Skellington Sourdough  Bread made with naturally leavened starter, flours, and salt. Excellent bread goes well with bowl of soup.

Cook Time5 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

14 hours hrs

Total Time19 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: #sourdoughbread, Jack Skellington Sourdough bread

Servings: 12 servings

Calories: 140kcal

Author: Swathi (Ambujom Saraswathy)

Equipment

• kitchen scale
• Dutch oven
• Pyrex bowl

Ingredients

Dough

• 350 g Bread flour
• 50 g Whole wheat flour
• 50 g Rye flour
• 80 g starter
• 280 g water
• 8 g salt

For scoring

• 2 tablespoon black cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoon Water

Instructions

Autolyse the dough

• When you are ready to make the dough. Mix all the flours in 280g water in a large bowl. And mix by hand until there are no dry bits. Knead for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes

Make Dough

• After 30 minutes incorporate starter into the autolyzed dough
• Then after 30 minutes add salt and rest of water. Mix well and cover the dough again and set aside

Stretch and fold

• Then do two stretch and fold the dough at 1 hour interval. This means grabbing the underside of the dough and stretching it up and over the rest of the dough. Perform a few of these turns each time you handle the dough..

Laminate the dough

• Thirty minutes after last coil fold do a lamination of the dough. Means spread the dough into thin sheet and fold them into a letter fold.

Coil fold

• After 1 hour of lamination of coil fold.

Shaping the dough

• Then transfer the dough lightly floured workspace and shape them into round Boule. Fold the third of the dough closest to you inward, and then stretch the dough out to the sides. Fold the right, and then left sides in toward the center. Fold the top of the dough inward, and then wrap the bottom part of the dough over it all. If you want, you can make pre-shape and set aside for 15 minutes and then make a final shape.
• Work this into a round shape, and place seam side up in a proofing basket lined well with flour.

Cold Proof

• After transferring to Banneton, Let rise the dough overnight in the refrigerator. You can keep this cold retard up to 14 hours.

Score and Bake

• When you are ready to bake preheat oven to 500°F/ 260°C.
• Remove the dough from the proofing basket and score .
• Make a black paste with black cocoa powder and water.
• Make sketch of Jack Skellington and then score the bread.
• Transfer to Dutch oven and close the lid and immediately place the top back on and return to the oven.
• At 475°F/246.1°C and cook for 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 450°F/ 232°C for 20 minutes with lid.
• After 10 minutes remove the top of the Dutch oven and rotate the pan. Continue to bake the bread for another 15 minutes, until the crust is deeply caramelized. Give 10-15 minutes extra if you want more crusty bread.
• If you want crackling crust after switching off the oven keep oven door ajar and keep the bread inside.
• Once bread comes out of oven cool completely in the wire rack and cut it into slice and enjoy

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 140kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 260mg | Potassium: 60mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.