Fluffy Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (Shaped Like Pumpkins!)

If you enjoy a regular cinnamon roll (who doesn't?) and are a fan of pumpkin flavor (yes!), then I am fairly confident that you will love my pumpkin cinnamon rolls....which happen to be shaped like adorable little pumpkins. These pillowy pastries pop with pumpkin and plenty of pumpkin pie spice (say that ten times fast.) They fill your kitchen with an enticing sweet aroma, and they are a staple in my seasonal baking rotation.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, But Make Them Festive

The process to create these sweet, seasonal treats out of cinnamon roll dough is easy and straightforward, and I've detailed it all for you in this post.

Although you can certainly form my pumpkin version of this popular breakfast item into the traditional round, surprising someone with a mini pumpkin shaped pastry alongside their cup of coffee is guaranteed to make their morning extra festive.

Julie's Top Tips For Making the Best Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

1. Knead the dough: Make sure that you knead the dough long enough to get a smooth, elastic, and soft dough, whether you use your mixer or knead it by hand. See photos below for how the dough should look after kneading.
2. Don't over or under proof the dough: Pay attention the rise time in the instructions. The first rise is about one hour in a warm spot, until the dough has doubled in size. The second rise is a short 30 minutes. Over or under-proofing the dough will affect the final texture and the rise while baking.
3. Wrap the slices carefully!: Wrapping the slices with twine is the most tedious part of the recipe, but take your time while doing it. Don't wrap the slices too tightly or else the twine will cut through the layers of your cinnamon rolls while baking as opposed to just creating grooved sides that look like the sides of a pumpkin.
4. Cut neat slices: For best results, use unflavored dental floss or string to cut the neatest slices of dough. You can also use a very sharp knife, but this sometimes presses the dough down and makes ovals vs. rounds.    

Ingredients and Special Equipment

See recipe card at the bottom of this post for specific quantities

Ingredient Notes

• Whole milk: You can substitute 2% milk but I would not recommend nonfat. Heavy cream can be used as a substitute in the glaze.
• Granulated sugar
• Instant yeast: You can substitute active dry yeast in this recipe because it will be activated in the warm milk.
• Large egg
• Unsalted butter: Use room temperature butter for the dough, and very softened butter to spread for the filling.
• Canned pumpkin puree: NOT pumpkin pie filling, which contains additional ingredients. You can use fresh or canned pumpkin puree for this recipe; however, I have found that fresh puree can be a bit watery, so be sure to drain it first.
• Pumpkin pie spice: Or do a combination of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves or nutmeg.
• Salt
• All purpose flour
• Light brown sugar: Substitute with dark brown sugar
• Confectioner's sugar
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon sticks: Optional, but fun! Look for there in your grocer's spice aisle.

Special Equipment

• Stand mixer: Fitted with the paddle attachment and dough hook. If you don't own a stand mixer with a dough hook, then simply transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead it for 8-10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.
• Unflavored dental floss: Ideal to cut rolls into very clean cuts (see Step by Step photos)
• Kitchen twine: Use this to tie around the slices of dough.
• Rolling pin

Step By Step Photos and Instructions

Make the Dough

1. Warm milk to 105-110F degrees by placing milk in a microwave safe bowl and then microwaving it for 30 seconds.  Transfer warm milk and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl and then sprinkle yeast on top.
2. Add the canned pumpkin puree, melted butter, salt and egg, mixing with your stand mixer or a hand mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
3. Mix in the pumpkin pie spice and 3-¼ cups of flour until a dough begins to form, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

4. Place the dough hook on your mixer and then knead dough on low speed for 8-10 minutes. Dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky. Alternatively, knead the dough by hand on a lightly floured work surface. folding the dough over and push down with the heel of your hand as you knead, then turn and repeat.

5. Transfer the dough ball to a large bowl sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in the greased bowl for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Prepare the Filling and Assemble

1. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt. 
2. After dough has doubled in size, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and roll out into a 12X14 inch large rectangle. Spread butter over dough, leaving a ¼ inch margin at the far long side of the dough.
3. Sprinkle spice mixture over the dough, and then rub it into the butter.
4. Tightly roll up the dough, starting from the long side, and place seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough as best you can. Trim the ends of the roll to make the shape even.

5. Use unflavored dental floss or thin string ,cut even 1-inch sections from the roll by placing the floss under the roll and bringing the ends together to form neat slices. 

6. Cut a piece of string or twine long enough that it can wrap around a cinnamon roll slice four times. Make a total of 12 of these strings. Flip the slice over, then turn it 90 degrees, and cross the string over itself like you are wrapping a present. Flip the slice over again and wrap it two more times so that the slice is divided into 8 sections.

7. Tie a double knot at the end, and trim the ends of the string so they aren’t too long.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and repeat for all remaining slices.

8. Cover slices with plastic wrap and let rise again for about 30 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to 350℉.  Remove plastic wrap and bake the cinnamon rolls for 15-18 minutes or until light golden brown on the edges.. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before icing.

Glaze Your Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls!

Whisk together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and milk in a medium bowl. Drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls, and then stick a half cinnamon stick in the center to resemble a pumpkin. Serve warm!

Variations on Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

• Shape: The next time you make these cinnamon rolls, you can shape them into traditional rounds instead of pumpkins. Just leave them to rise on the baking sheets, spaced apart, after you slice them.
• Filling: Feel free to add finely chopped dried cranberries, figs, apricots, or golden raisins to the filling mixture.  Instead of using pumpkin pie spice, use 2 parts ground cinnamon to one part each ginger, nutmeg and allspice or cloves.
• Topping: Replace the vanilla glaze with cream cheese icing or cream cheese glaze, cinnamon sugar, a sprinkle of confectioner's sugar or a maple syrup flavored glaze.

Make ahead and Storage Tips

• Overnight pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe: To make your dough in the afternoon or even to enjoy the next morning, prepare the dough up through Step 4 and then transfer it to a bowl covered with plastic wrap. Refrigerate it for up to 24 hours.  The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before rolling it out, adding the filling, and shaping it into pumpkins! 
• Freezing: To freeze baked cinnamon rolls, cool the rolls, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and then freeze. When ready to eat, thaw and warm rolls in a 300F oven for 5-10 minutes, then glaze.
• Storage: Cinnamon rolls will keep at room-temperature, (covered) for up to 2 days, in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week, and in the freezer for up to 2 months.

• Your dough did not rise: This could be due to expired yeast or "dead" yeast from liquid that was too hot. Make sure the milk is warm (105-110F) but not hot. It could also be the result of not enough rise time. If your kitchen is cold, the rise will take longer than the hour. A good trick is to run your (empty) clothes dryer for 10 minutes and then place the covered proofing bowl in the dryer to rise. This creates a warm, humid environment.
• The twine cut through the layers: You likely tied the rounds of dough too tightly. The twine should just graze the sides of the rounds so that it doesn't cut into them when they rise.
• No stand mixer or electric mixer: You can mix the dough by hand! Use a sturdy wooden spoon (and your muscles!) to mix the ingredients and then knead the dough by hand on a lightly floured work surface.

other Great Breakfast Recipes, perfect for holiday Mornings: 

• White Chocolate Raspberry Scones
• Ham and Gruyere Quiche
• Flaky Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits with Fresh Herbs
• Fresh Blueberry Crumb Cake with Streusel Topping

Tried this recipe and loved it? Take a photo and tag me on Instagram or give it a review!