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Last Sunday turned out to be an impromptu pumpkin fest! I’m trying to mend my pumpkin feelings. Before going to visit my friends in Santa Monica to bottle the pumpkin beer we’ve been brewing, I received a distress call:
“Melissa, we’re having a bit of a bottle situation. We have to drink 11 beers before we can start bottling.”
I’ve heard of much worse situations to be in. We successfully finished the 11 beers and bottled the pumpkin beer while eating pumpkin-spiced ribs with pumpkin barbecue sauce, pumpkin streusel muffins, and these pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
Oh, and just to be clear, I love pumpkin beer. That’s one pumpkin item I’m not sick of.
These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are also GREAT. Some pumpkin goes into the dough, but it also really shines as a filling. Using pumpkin makes them really moist and gooey while cutting back on the butter.
Now, mathematically, you should end up with 10 rolls, but each time I’ve made it, I’ve ended up with more. I’m not complaining. Also, I made these Christmas morning in outside temps of around 40 degrees, and also on a scorching 90+ degree day. On the hot day, the rolls rose MUCH bigger than on Christmas. Still, not complaining. They were both great, just a little different. I did also use The Laughing Cow Light Cinnamon Cream Cheese in place of regular cream cheese because it’s what I had on hand. You may want to add a dash of cinnamon to the glaze, because I really liked the extra spice.
These are the smaller Christmas morning rolls:
Still pretty delectable looking, right?
no rise pumpkin cinnamon rolls
makes 10-12 rolls
- Ingredients
- rolls
- 1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- FILLING
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- glaze
- 2 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon milk
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking dish (can be 9×13, 8×8, 9×9, cake pan, pie pan, anything with tall edges.
In a large bowl, add the water, yeast, sugar, and oil. Stir and allow to sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast begins to foam. Mix in the egg and pumpkin. Add salt and then flour, cup by cup, until a ball of dough forms and pulls from the bowl. If it’s too sticky to handle, add more flour.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and soft. Lightly cover the dough with a clean towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, stir the butter and pumpkin together until uniform. Mix in cinnamon and nutmeg.
Evenly roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 12 by 15 inches. Spread the filling evenly over the dough and sprinkle with the sugars.
Roll up the dough from the long end. You want to roll a bit tightly so the filling doesn’t ooze out when the rolls are baked. At the end of the roll, pinch the long seam together to seal.
Next, cut the rolls. If you have it (and I hope you do!! ;)), slide a long piece of dental floss under the roll, 1 1/2 inches from the end. Bring the floss up and around the roll, then cross the ends and pull on them to slice the loaf. Continue slicing in 1 1/2 inch increments. If your measurements are all pretty accurate, you should have about 10 rolls. Place the rolls into the pan with the sides touching each other.
Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned.
Prepare the icing by beating together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar, followed by the vanilla and milk.
Pour the icing over the still warm cinnamon rolls for an ooey gooey treat! Note: If you’d like the icing to be more frosting-like and hold its shape, continue adding powdered sugar until the mixture is no longer runny and holds its shape when you scoop up a spoonful.