Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls are a soft yeast dough enriched with pumpkin puree, an egg and melted butter, rolled around a brown sugar and spice filling and finished with cream cheese frosting while they are still warm. The pumpkin does more than tint the dough orange. It keeps the crumb moist for days, which is the thing plain cinnamon rolls never manage.

This is a two-hour project, and most of that is waiting on the dough. The hands-on part is about thirty minutes, and the overnight method in the make-ahead section means you can do the shaping the night before and bake them fresh for breakfast. The recipe makes twelve rolls, either in one 9-by-13-inch pan or split between two smaller dishes, which is how the batch in the photos was baked.

Pictured: half the batch, six rolls baked in a small rectangular glass dish. The recipe makes twelve, and the two-dish option in the Variations section is how these were baked.

Why These Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls Stay Soft

Half a cup of pumpkin puree replaces part of the liquid in a standard sweet dough, and puree is mostly water bound up in fiber. That fiber holds on to moisture through baking and afterward, so pumpkin cinnamon rolls stay tender a full day longer than a plain batch. The same thing makes the dough slightly tackier to handle, which is normal and not a reason to add more flour.

The other soft-crumb trick is the egg and melted butter. Both are fats, and fat shortens the gluten strands so the rolls tear apart in feathery layers rather than chewy ones. Use pure pumpkin puree, not pie filling, which is pre-sweetened and spiced and would throw off both the sugar and the salt.

If you cook your own puree from a pie pumpkin, Illinois Extension advises keeping it refrigerated and using it within three to four days. Canned puree is more consistent in thickness, and for this dough it is the safer bet.

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Ingredient Notes

• Warm milk. Three-quarters of a cup at about 110°F, which feels warm on the wrist but not hot. Hotter than 120°F starts to kill the yeast.
• Active dry yeast. One packet, 2 1/4 teaspoons. It is proofed in the milk first so you know it is alive before the flour goes in. Instant yeast works too and needs no proofing.
• Pumpkin puree. Half a cup of 100 percent pure pumpkin. Blot it on a paper towel if the can is watery, which some brands are.
• Granulated sugar. A quarter cup in the dough, just enough to feed the yeast and sweeten the crumb a little.
• Unsalted butter. A quarter cup, melted and cooled so it does not scramble the egg. The filling uses a third of a cup, softened, and the frosting two tablespoons.
• Egg. One large, at room temperature, for richness and a tender crumb.
• All-purpose flour. Three and a half cups, spooned into the cup and leveled. Bread flour gives a chewier, taller roll if you have it.
• Pumpkin pie spice. Two teaspoons in the dough and one more in the filling. It is cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, and it carries the pumpkin flavor.
• Light brown sugar. Three-quarters of a cup, packed, for the filling. Dark brown works and tastes more of molasses.
• Ground cinnamon. A full tablespoon in the filling, plus a pinch in the frosting if you like.
• Cream cheese. Four ounces, full fat and softened, for a frosting that is tangy enough to balance the sugar.
• Powdered sugar and vanilla. One cup of sugar, sifted, and half a teaspoon of vanilla in the frosting.

Which Yeast to Use for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

The recipe is written for active dry yeast, which is what most kitchens have. It is dissolved in the warm milk and left for five to ten minutes until the surface turns foamy. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead or the milk was too hot, and it is far better to find that out now than after the flour is in.

Instant yeast can be stirred straight into the flour with no proofing, and it works a little faster, so check the first rise at forty-five minutes instead of an hour. Use the same amount. Whichever you choose, the yeast in pumpkin cinnamon rolls has more work to do than usual, because the puree and the butter both weigh the dough down, so give the rises the time they need rather than rushing them.

A warm spot helps. An oven that is switched off with the light on sits at about 80°F, which is close to ideal.

How To Make Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

First, warm the milk to about 110°F, stir in the yeast and let it stand until foamy, five to ten minutes. Add the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, cooled melted butter, egg and vanilla and stir until mostly smooth.

Next, add the flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Knead by hand on a lightly floured counter or with a dough hook for seven to eight minutes, until it is smooth, elastic and still slightly tacky. Resist adding much more flour, because a dry dough makes tough rolls. Put it in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled, about an hour.

Filling, Rolling and Slicing

Then, while the dough rises, stir the softened butter into the brown sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice until it forms a damp, crumbly paste. Rubbing the sugar into the butter this way is what keeps the filling inside the swirl instead of leaking into the pan.

After that, punch the dough down and press or roll it into an 18-by-12-inch rectangle on a lightly floured board. Drop spoonfuls of the filling across the surface and spread it almost to the edges. Starting from a long side, roll the dough up into a tight log and cut it into twelve pieces with a length of unflavored dental floss or a sharp knife.

Baking and Frosting

Finally, arrange the rolls in a greased 9-by-13-inch pan, or six to a smaller dish as pictured, cover, and let them rise until puffy and touching, thirty to forty minutes. Bake at 350°F for twenty-two to twenty-five minutes, until golden on top. While they bake, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, then beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Let the rolls cool for five to ten minutes, then spread the frosting over them so it melts into the swirls.

How To Tell When Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls Are Done

Color is the first check. The tops should be an even golden brown, and the rolls in the center of the pan should look as set as the ones at the edge. If the middle still looks pale and doughy at twenty-two minutes, give it three more. The pumpkin in the dough means these brown a shade darker than a plain batch, so do not wait for a deep tan.

The reliable check is a thermometer pushed into the center roll. Enriched dough is baked through at 190°F. Pull them any earlier and the middle rolls will be gummy where the swirls meet, however golden the top looks. Any later and they dry out, because pumpkin cinnamon rolls do not have the fat content of a brioche to protect them.

Over-baking is the more common mistake. If the tops are browning fast and the center is not there yet, tent the pan loosely with foil for the last five minutes.

Make It Ahead

The overnight method is the best way to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls for a morning. Do everything through slicing and arranging in the pan, then cover the pan tightly and refrigerate it for up to sixteen hours. The second rise happens slowly in the fridge. In the morning, take the pan out, let it sit at room temperature for thirty to forty-five minutes while the oven heats, and bake as written.

The frosting can be made a day ahead as well. Keep it covered in the fridge and let it soften on the counter for twenty minutes before spreading, or it will tear the tops of the rolls.

You can also freeze the shaped, unbaked rolls. Arrange them in the dish, freeze until solid, then wrap the whole dish. Thaw overnight in the fridge and give them a proper second rise at room temperature before baking.

Storing Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Frosted rolls keep in an airtight container at room temperature for two days, or in the fridge for up to five. Because of the cream cheese, do not leave them out much longer than that. Warm a refrigerated roll for fifteen to twenty seconds in the microwave and it will taste nearly fresh, which is where the pumpkin in the dough earns its keep.

For the freezer, bake and cool the rolls but leave them unfrosted. Wrap them individually or freeze a whole dish, well wrapped, for up to two months. Thaw at room temperature, warm them through in a 300°F oven for ten minutes, and frost while warm. Frosted rolls freeze too, but the frosting weeps a little as it thaws.

Variations and Substitutions

Two Dishes of Six (Pictured)

The rolls in these photographs were baked six to a dish in a small rectangular glass dish, about 8 by 6 inches, rather than twelve in a single 9-by-13-inch pan. The whole recipe divides neatly this way: shape all twelve, put six in each dish, and give them the same second rise and the same twenty-two to twenty-five minutes in the oven. Smaller dishes rise a touch taller because the rolls have less room to spread.

The point of splitting the batch is that one dish can be frozen unbaked while the other goes in the oven, or one can go to a neighbor. Halve the frosting if only one dish is being served, and make the rest fresh when the second dish is baked.

Other Ways to Change Them

Maple cream cheese frosting. Replace the vanilla with two tablespoons of pure maple syrup and cut the powdered sugar back by a quarter cup.

Brown butter frosting. Brown the two tablespoons of butter in a small pan until it smells nutty, cool it, then beat it into the cream cheese. It is worth the extra five minutes.

Pecans. Scatter half a cup of chopped toasted pecans over the filling before rolling.

Whole wheat. Swap up to half the flour for white whole wheat. The rolls will be a little denser and nuttier.

Dairy-free. Oat milk, plant butter and a dairy-free cream cheese all swap in one for one. The dough behaves the same way.

Bread flour. A straight swap for the all-purpose. Expect a chewier, taller roll that holds its swirl a little more sharply.

What to Serve with Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

A pan of pumpkin cinnamon rolls is a brunch on its own, but something savory alongside keeps it from being a sugar-only meal. Scrambled eggs, a few slices of bacon, or a wedge of frittata all do the job. Strong coffee is not optional.

If you are baking for a crowd, a cinnamon roll coffee cake covers a second table without any yeast to wait on, and Texas Roadhouse rolls with cinnamon honey butter use a very similar dough if you want a savory batch from the same afternoon of baking.

For the rest of the fall baking list, pumpkin beer bread uses up the leftover puree from the can, and a gingerbread loaf keeps the same spice cupboard busy.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls FAQ

More Questions About Pumpkin Rolls

Shape them the night before and pumpkin cinnamon rolls become the easiest good breakfast of the fall. Once you have the dough down, the coffee cake version is the natural next bake.