Gooey, sticky, sweet, delicious frosted pumpkin cinnamon rolls – They are perfect for Fall!
Want one??? Or maybe an entire pan???!
Normally, homemade cinnamon rolls are so good on their own that there’s not really much you can do to make them even better… But stuffing the pastries with pumpkin and even more cinnamon somehow manages to do just that! Imagine a cinnamon roll filled with pumpkin pie.
Add a sticky, sugary glaze and you’re taking the cinnamon rolls to uncharted territory in deliciousness.
I made this particular batch of vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls on Saturday when my friend Sara came to visit from Minnesota. (You’ll be hearing much more about Sara in the near future.)
Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt like you’ve known that person your entire life?
This is exactly how I felt when I met Sara two weeks ago…
We bonded over a shared love of photography, music, Saved by the Bell, and Freddie Prinze Jr. (Did you know he’s almost 40?!), talking non-stop the entire day about everything from awkward middle school dating experiences to our goals and dreams for the future.
We also spent quite a bit of time with the pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
Can you blame us?
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp yeast
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 2 tbsp sweetener of choice (not xylitol or stevia)
- 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or all-purpose flour, or a combination
- 2 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup sugar of choice
- 1/8 tsp pure stevia extract, or 4 more tbsp granulated sugar of choice
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 4 tbsp melted coconut oil or full-fat (but trans-fat-free) butter-type spread
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp whole-wheat pastry or all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp sugar of choice (I like Sucanat here)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- optional, 1/2 cup raisins
- scant 1 cup pumpkin puree
- dash salt
Instructions
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls recipe: Warm the milk in a small measuring bowl. You want it warm, but not boiling: if you have a candy thermometer, it should read 110 degrees F. Stir in the 2 tbsp sweetener, sprinkle the yeast on top, and set aside for 5 minutes. During this time, it should bubble up. (If it does not bubble up, either your yeast is no good or your milk was too hot or cold.)
In a large measuring bowl, combine the 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar of choice, stevia, salt, the 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Stir very well.
Stir the melted oil and vanilla extract into the milk mixture, then pour this into the large measuring bowl of dry ingredients and stir to form a dough. Especially if using spelt flour, you may need to add a little extra flour until it’s dry enough to form a dough. Form dough into a ball, then place in a lightly-greased large bowl. Cover loosely with a towel, and set in a warm place to rise 20 minutes or until doubled in size. (If your oven has a “bread proof” setting, this is the perfect place to let your pumpkin cinnamon rolls rise.)
Meanwhile, stir together all remaining pumpkin cinnamon roll ingredients (except the 5 tbsp flour) in a medium measuring bowl. Set aside. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking pan. Set aside.
After the dough has risen, punch dough to deflate. Knead dough with your hands, adding the 5 tbsp flour as you knead so that the dough is not sticking to your hands. Knead 5 minutes. On a lightly-floured surface, roll out the dough into a very thin rectangle. Spread the contents of the medium mixing bowl evenly on top. Carefully roll up the dough, lengthwise, lifting and rolling the dough.
Using a large, sharp knife, slice dough into 13 even rolls, wiping the knife after each cut. The filling may ooze out a bit, but this is okay. Place the rolls in the prepared baking pan, and return to the warm place for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. When it reaches this temperature, place cinnamon rolls in the oven and bake 20 minutes. Glaze with the recipe below:
For the Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar or Sugar-Free Powdered Sugar
3 1/2 to 4 tsp milk of choice (or more or less to achieve desired glaze thickness)
Whisk ingredients together to form a glaze. Using a spoon, drizzle evenly over pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
Link Of The Day:
No Thanksgiving where I live so pumpkin isn’t really a “thing” around here (not to mention that unfortunately I, nor anyone else I know, likes it very much) but I absolutely love cinnamon rolls. Any plans on posting a non-pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe sometime? Or can the pumpkin puree be substituted here for something else? 🙂
There is one going in the cookbook 🙂
You could try cooked and mashed sweet potatoes or a winter squash (butternut or acorn), or experiment with any pureed fruit you like (apple would be good, just cook it some to reduce the liquid). This seems like a versatile recipe 🙂
Made these for a friend’s birthday. They were delicious, my only regret is that I didn’t double the batch! I eased up on the sugar to avoid the dreaded over-sweet that cinnamon rolls can become, and they were perfect!
I made these and they came out delicious! I used whole wheat pastry flour. The pumpkin flavor was subtle.
Just made these–they are SO GOOD. Every bit as amazing as a bakery cinnamon roll, but so so much healthier. I subbed the whole half cup of sugar in the first flour mix with stevia in the raw and added some chopped pecans to the filling. I frosted them with cream cheese and pumpkin butter frosting. So much fun to make and really fantastic, totally the highlight of the brunch I hosted this morning!
What a fabulous recipe! This is my first time ever replying to anything on line. I just had to!
I’m from the Caribbean, so I thought of adjusting this to use up the guava and mango I had. I left the spices out, added extra vanilla and used almond milk, to make 2 separate batches: Guava Coconut and Banana Mango. They were gone by the afternoon! 3 teens…all approved! Thank you!
Your apple pie pancakes are also on the menu, at least one a week!
I love your variations!
I made these with sugar and white wheat flour. My husband and I liked them a lot! Next time I will consider doubling the recipe and freezing half the way other comments have mentioned. Thanks for the recipe.
What incredible rolls! They’re beautiful and positively pop out of the screen. If only I weren’t avoiding sugar and gluten …
These look amazing. Is there a big difference in whole wheat pastry flour and regular whole wheat flour? I don’t have WW pastry and was wondering if plain whole wheat would suffice.
I used all-purpose flour for my rolls and it worked, I reckon all-purpose whole wheat flour would work!
Why not Xylitol or Stevia this time?
I believe it’s because the yeast needs to feed on real sugar
Hi, do you think I could use pumpkin butter for the filling instead of pumpkin and spices and leave out the flour since it’s not as watery? Thanks!