pumpkin cinnamon rolls
Hello! I can hardly believe this is my first pumpkin recipe of the season since it's one of my favourite things to bake with.
For proof see here: pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice ice cream, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin layer cake, pumpkin loaf in a pumpkin pan, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, simple pumpkin soup, or pumpkin pull-apart bread!
Anyway, let's talk about these rolls! You can make them in less than 90 minutes...hurray! And they make your house smell like pumpkin spice/bread-y heaven. Seriously. The best. Especially for those of use lacking in patience...ahem. Definitely not me.
Fall is just moving along here, and I can hardly believe that October is more than half over! My apartment is slowly being overtaken by every colour of pumpkin...and I couldn't be happier about that.
pumpkin cinnamon rolls
ingredients:
1/4 cup water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup white sugar (1 tablespoon for yeast mixture, 3 tablespoons in the rest of the dough)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup butter
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (*important: don't add this all at once. depending on your pumpkin puree thickness, and baking conditions, you may not need it all!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
directions:
In a small bowl, add water, a tablespoon of white sugar, and yeast. Stir together and set aside to rise.
In a small saucepan, stir together pumpkin puree and butter on a medium heat, stirring constantly. Allow to cool slightly.
In a large mixing bowl, add 2 1/4 cups of flour, remaining 3 tablespoons of white sugar, and salt. Stir in yeast and egg, and mix well. Add in pumpkin and butter mixture. Add in remaining cup of flour, 1/2 cup at a time (*note: you may not need all of the flour depending on the consistency of your pumpkin puree - you want your dough to pull away from the bowl, but not to get too dry. A little stickiness is good as long as you can still work with it!) Stir well until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes until smooth (again....it's better if you're dough's a little sticky here, rather than adding too much flour).
Cover with a clean, damp cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.
Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and soft butter.
Roll dough out into a 9x12 rectangle.
Spread butter-sugar mixture evenly across the dough. Then, roll up the long side of the dough as tight as you can. Pinch the seam where it ends, so that it doesn't come apart. Use either a serrated knife to cut the roll into 12 even pieces, or you can use a piece of plain floss (slide it under the dough, bring it up, cross over each other, and cut).
*Hint: I often trim the ends of the roll off and bake it in a mini pan to help the buns stay more even!
Arrange the twelve buns into a greased 9x13 pan. Cover with a clean dish towel, and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place. (Or you can place them in a pie dish as seen in the photos above.) I placed any extra bits or warped rolls into a greased muffin tin.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 18-20 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan/pie dish. Best served warm with a glaze/icing.
maple glaze
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
3 tablespoons butter (softened)
1/2 cup maple syrup
directions:
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together and adjust to taste/desired thickness. Drizzle or spread over cinnamon rolls. I like to soften my butter a lot, so it spreads on easy, and then will firm up.
Happy pumpkin roll making!