Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 from 2 votes

These pumpkin dinner rolls are soft, light, and fluffy. They're buttery and bursting with pumpkin flavor, and they look so adorable. We're showing you 1 dough recipe that be used in 3 different ways. Perfect to serve in your Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas dinner.

Prep Time30

Cook Time20

Proof Time1 30

Servings: rolls

Author: Bea & Marco

Ingredients

Dough

2 ½ cup bread flour
½ cup canned pumpkin puree , room temperature
1 large egg , room temperature
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted
⅓ cup full-fat milk , warm
2 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast

Others

1 egg , for brushing
some melted butter , for brushing

Instructions

Dough

Add bread flour, pumpkin puree, egg, salt, brown sugar, honey, melted butter, warm milk, and instant dry yeast into a stand mixer bowl. Knead for 10 minutes using a hook attachment. You'll have a soft and sticky dough.
Oil your hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Form it into a ball and place it in a greased bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film and leave it to rise until it doubles its size, for more or less 1-1.5 hours.

Shape

Place the dough on a lightly floured kitchen top, and knead it briefly into a thick disk. Slice it into 16 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and cover them with a cling film to prevent them from drying out.
Take one ball and tie it loosely with 4 kitchen strings to get 8 sections. Don't tie too tight. Flour your hands to prevent the dough from sticking as it's quite soft. See other ways to shape these pumpkin dinner rolls above in the post.
Place the pumpkin-shaped balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, with some space in between. Cover the pumpkin bread rolls loosely with cling film and leave them to slightly puff up, not until they double their size.

Bake

Brush them with some egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF(175ºC), on the middle rack, for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and while still hot, brush them with some melted butter. Leave to cool completely.

Remove The Strings

Cut slightly into between the pumpkins' sections with a knife, to make removing the strings easier since they tend to get buried inside the buns. This also makes our pumpkin dinner rolls look neater, without having the pieces of the buns tearing out as we pull out the strings. Don't cut in too deep, just enough for the strings to come out.
Cut the top string knots with a scissor and gently pull the string out. Enjoy!

Notes

Use the spoon and level method for cup measurements. This will prevent the use of excessive flour that'll make the buns tough. Don't scoop the flour with the cup.
A kitchen scale is a more precise tool in baking. I use it all the time for dry ingredients like flour and sugar.
Keep the dough in the fridge if you're taking quite some time to tie the knots to shape the balls into pumpkins. This will slow down their rising process, giving you plenty of time to finish without rushing.
Don't tie the dough too tight to give room for the dough to rise again. This will give the perfect look of pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls.
Always cover the dough with cling film. This is to prevent it from drying out during each rising process and while you're shaping the balls into pumpkins.
Make sure the milk is warm, around 110-115ºF (43-46ºC). Hot milk or liquid will kill the yeast, making the dough not able to rise properly, and the rolls will end up dense.
Use a portable oven thermometer to get the accurate oven temperature. I use it every single time I bake.

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