Oh hello! It’s been a while, but I’m back!

It’s my favourite season again…and the creative juices are flowing. Farm life is as hectic as always, but I’ve been carving out precious moments for Fall baking and these pumpkin shaped buns were well worth the effort. I’ve been seeing pumpkin shaped bread for a few years now, and am so glad I finally tried it out.

You use baking twine (also called butcher’s twine, kitchen twine, etc. which is 100% cotton twine that’s safe for the oven!) which is wrapped around the bread to create a pumpkin shape. The technique is quite simple, but the results are so beautiful. I do love a themed dessert, and these are so fun.

I have a few variations in this recipe, including plain pumpkin buns, cinnamon sugar pumpkin buns, and pumpkin shaped cinnamon buns. The cinnamon buns are definitely the most effort here, and I think my favourite is just the cinnamon sugar buns!

pumpkin shaped buns (and cinnamon buns)

PRINT RECIPE HERE

recipe: Kelsey Siemens

yields: approx 12 buns

ingredients:

1/4 cup warm 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

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

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!)

filling (optional)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon salted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

cream or milk - as needed

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 your dough's a little sticky here, rather than adding too much flour).

Cover with a clean, damp cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.

To make pumpkin buns:

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, and roll into round balls. Cut a piece of string long enough that it can wrap around the dough ball four times (repeat 11 times).

Carefully place the center of the string over the first dough ball, flip over, cross the string over itself so it creates tension, flip the dough over again, and repeat. The goal is to create four equal cross sections of the ball. See the photos below, or go to my instagram for a video! The string should be snug enough to stay in place, but no tighter than that, as it will tighten as the dough continues to rise. Tie a double knot at the end, and trim the ends of the string so they aren’t too long. Place onto a baking sheet, and repeat for all remaining dough balls.

Cover dough balls with a towel, and let rise for about 30 minutes, or until you can press a finger into the dough and it leaves an indent (if it bounces back quickly, it needs more rise time).

Bake the dough for 15-17 minutes, or until golden. Remove and allow to cool slightly before cutting and removing the string, and serving.

For cinnamon sugar buns: Brush the hot buns with butter and roll in cinnamon sugar if desired.

To make pumpkin cinnamon rolls:

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).

Follow the above directions to obtain a pumpkin shape for each roll.

Cover the rolls with a towel, and let rise for about 30 minutes, or until you can press a finger into the dough and it leaves an indent (if it bounces back quickly, it needs more rise time).

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-17 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from baking sheet and cutting and removing the string. Best served warm with a glaze/icing.

To make the glaze

Whisk together the powdered sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract, and cream. Use cream to adjust the consistency until you reach the desired thickness.