Fluffy Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Published: Oct 5, 2018 · Modified: May 29, 2020 by Lizet Flores de Bowen

{updated recipe. May, 2016}

These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are super fluffy and they just melt in your mouth. Hard to stop at one.

Cinnamon rolls are made with a yeast dough, which is rolled out and smeared with a good amount of butter. A mixture of sugar and cinnamon is spread over it. The dough is rolled and cut. Once these cinnamon rolls are baked and still warm, a delicious cream cheese icing is spread all over them.

In this recipe we are using some pumpkin puree in the dough with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. This combination of flavor is very common in pumpkin pie, a pie I've eaten many times in the USA during the fall.

Rollos de calabaza y canela / Pumpkin cinnamon rolls

In Paraguay I use butternut squash because is a little bit sweeter than the other kinds of squash I can find here.

How to make homemade pumpkin puree

There are several ways to cook pumpkin for these fluffy pumpkin cinnamon rolls. You can peel it, cut it and cook it with a little bit of water in a saucepan over the stove; you can bake it in the oven or in the microwave and this is what I do. Cut it in half, take the seeds out, wrap it with film and microwave it for about 8 minutes. Once cold, take the pulp out of the skin and mash.

I like doing it like this because it is fast and it doesn't absorb any water in the process. Because I can't use all the puree, I measure the rest and freeze it for the next time I need it.

It is important to have all the ingredients at room temperature before you start, and have everything measured.

Once you mix the ingredients for the dough, you need to knead it. Either by hand, or with the help of a machine. If you have a bread maker, you can add all the ingredients according to the manual and use the dough option. Once it's ready, you can roll it out.

Put the dough on a flat surface and flour your hands. This dough will be a bit sticky, so the flour will prevent it from getting stuck to your hands. Do this every two minutes or every time you feel it too sticky. When working with this dough, I prefer flouring my hands rather than sprinkling it on the countertop.

After kneading for 10 minutes, place the dough in a greased bowl (use neutral, vegetal oil), flip the dough to cover it in oil, and cover with plastic film. Set aside in a warm place. I generally leave it in the laundry room. This time, I let it rise for an hour. When the weather is cold, it takes between an hour and a half and two hours. It will be ready by the time it has doubled its size.

After rolling out, filling and cutting the dough, it needs to rest once more before baking.

In about 25 to 30 minutes these pumpkin cinnamon rolls are ready. Make some delicious cream cheese icing to spread on top. Of course you can serve them without any icing too.

But you won't regret spreading a thick layer of icing. Look at it! The bread itself is not very sweet. So the icing goes perfectly well with all those warm pumpkin-cinnamon flavors.

I hope you add these fluffy pumpkin cinnamon rolls to your baking list for this weekend!

Check out these Homemade, Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls

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5 from 23 votes