Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
If you love cozy fall baking, these pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls are the perfect treat to make on a cool autumn morning. Soft, fluffy sourdough dough is filled with my recipe on how to make pumpkin puree from fresh pumpkin, brown sugar, and warm cinnamon spices, then topped with a creamy pumpkin cream cheese frosting. You can make these as an overnight sourdough cinnamon roll recipe for a long-fermented breakfast, or use my easy sourdough starter recipe and use sourdough discard and bake them the same day when you need a quick fall treat.
Quick Look: Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 🍳 Cook Time: 25 minutes
- 🕒 Total Time: 40 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 12
- 📊 Calories: ~573 kcal per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 🔥 Cook Method: Oven-baked in cast iron pan
- 👩🍳 Flavor Profile: Sweet and slightly tangy with warm pumpkin spice, tender sourdough layers, and rich, creamy pumpkin frosting.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy – beginner-friendly, mostly assembly and baking.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Perfect for fall baking – These soft pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls are filled with warm cinnamon and pumpkin spice, then topped with a rich pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
- Long-fermented or quick – You can let the dough ferment overnight for a long-fermented sourdough version, or use sourdough discard with baking powder and baking soda when you want to bake them right away.
- Soft and fluffy – The pumpkin, butter, and sourdough starter create tender, pillowy cinnamon rolls. I especially love using my recipe for how to make butter from raw milk when making these for an extra-rich, homemade flavor.
- Make-ahead friendly – Prepare the rolls the night before and let them rise overnight, making them perfect for a relaxed fall breakfast or weekend brunch. If you love this style of breakfast, you'll also want to try my best homemade cinnamon rolls recipe
- A delicious way to use pumpkin – If you have extra pumpkin puree, try using it in my pumpkin sourdough bread recipe or cream cheese-filled pumpkin muffins
- So many delicious variations – Once you fall in love with sourdough cinnamon rolls, there are plenty of ways to change them up. Try my orange cinnamon rolls recipe for a bright citrus twist, or sourdough monkey bread for another soft, cinnamon-filled sourdough treat.
- Perfect for a fall baking day – These rolls pair beautifully with other cozy fall favorites like sourdough pumpkin pie, making them a wonderful addition to Thanksgiving breakfast, brunch, or a fall gathering.
Ingredients
For a full list of ingredients needed to make this recipe, see the recipe card below.
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How To Make These Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Step 1: In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the first seven ingredients. If using a mixer, slowly add the flour while mixing on low until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You may need a little extra flour if using maple syrup. If mixing by hand, knead the dough until it forms a ball, then stretch and fold or knead every 15–30 minutes for a couple of hours. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about ¼-inch thick in a large rectangle.
Step 2: Mix the filling ingredients together in a small bowl. Spread some of the filling in the bottom of a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread the remaining filling evenly over the rolled-out dough.
Step 3: Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 equal strips. Roll each strip into a cinnamon roll and place them in the prepared skillet or baking dish.
Step 4: For the long-fermented version, cover the rolls with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let them rise in a warm place overnight. If you need to wait longer, refrigerate them and let them finish rising at room temperature for a couple of hours before baking. You can also freeze the rolls at this point and thaw and rise them before baking. For the quick version, proceed directly to baking.
Step 5: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the rolls for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. While they bake, prepare the pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
Step 6: Remove the rolls from the oven and spread with pumpkin cream cheese frosting. Serve warm with a pumpkin spice latte or hot cup of tea. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Tips For Making These Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- For the best sourdough flavor and digestibility, let the rolls ferment overnight at room temperature before baking.
- If using sourdough discard or you want to bake the rolls right away, add the baking powder and baking soda and skip the overnight rise.
- If your dough feels too sticky, add a little more flour. Maple syrup may require slightly more flour because it adds extra liquid to the dough.
- If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake the rolls, refrigerate them and let them finish rising at room temperature before baking.
- These cinnamon rolls can be frozen after shaping. Thaw, allow them to rise, and bake when ready.
- You can bake the rolls in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Don't skip the pumpkin cream cheese frosting! Spread it over the warm rolls right after they come out of the oven for the best flavor.
Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls FAQs
Yes! You can use sourdough discard instead of active starter. Add the baking powder and baking soda to the dough, and you can bake the cinnamon rolls without an overnight fermentation.
Yes. For the long-fermented version, cover the shaped rolls and let them rise in a warm place overnight. In the morning, bake them according to the recipe. If you need to wait longer, refrigerate the rolls and let them finish rising before baking.
Absolutely! Homemade pumpkin puree works wonderfully in these cinnamon rolls. Just make sure the puree isn't overly watery, as extra moisture can make the dough sticky. You can also use canned pumpkin puree.
Pumpkin puree and liquid sweeteners such as maple syrup add extra moisture to the dough. If the dough is too sticky to work with, gradually add a little more flour until it is soft and workable without being overly sticky.
Yes. Shape the cinnamon rolls and cover them before refrigerating overnight. Let them finish rising at room temperature before baking. You can also freeze the shaped rolls and bake them later.
Yes. Freeze the shaped, unbaked cinnamon rolls before their final rise. When you're ready to bake them, thaw them in the refrigerator or at room temperature, allow them to rise, and then bake as directed.
Store leftover cinnamon rolls in an airtight container in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese frosting. They will keep for about a week. Warm them slightly before serving if desired.
Yes! You can make the dough by hand. Knead the dough until it comes together, then continue with stretch-and-folds or additional kneading every 15–30 minutes for a couple of hours to help develop the gluten.
The baking powder and baking soda are optional in this recipe. They are used when making the rolls with sourdough discard or when you want to bake the rolls right away without allowing them to rise overnight.
Other Delicious Cinnamon Rolls
If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21. I can’t wait to see what all you make!
Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer You can mix these rolls up by hand, but I usually use my favorite Bosch mixer and just mix up the dough while I’m cleaning up supper dishes in the evening. This makes the rolls fast and easy to make.
- 1 measuring cups and spoons
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Sharp knife or pizza cutter
- 1 Cast iron skillet or 9 x 13 baking pan
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients
- ½ cup water or milk
- ½ cup sugar, honey or maple syrup
- ½ cup sourdough starter
- ½ cup melted butter or beef tallow
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder optional
- 1 teaspoon baking soda optional
Filling Ingredients
- 1 cup 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 cup butter
- 1 ¾ cup brown sugar
- 3 Tbl. cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup cream cheese
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the first seven ingredients.
- If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If you use maple syrup as a sweetener, you may need to add a bit more flour just because the maple syrup is a liquid.
- If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball. Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple of hours. This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.
- The baking powder and baking soda are optional and only needed if you are making these with sourdough discard, or if you want to bake them right away without letting them rise first.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a large rectangle.
- Combine the filling ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Spread some of the filling on the bottom of your 12 inch cast-iron skillet or 9 x 13 baking pan.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, spread the last of the filling ingredients on the dough.
- Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 equal strips.
- Roll each piece of dough up into a roll.
- Place in the cast-iron skillet or baking dish.
- For the long fermented version:
- Cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place overnight. If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish rising a couple of hours before baking.
- You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point, and take them out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.
- For the quick version: proceed with baking.
Baking The Rolls
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the rolls are baking, mix up the pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
- Remove rolls from the oven and spread with the pumpkin cream cheese icing.
- Serve with a pumpkin spice latte or a hot cup of tea and enjoy.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.
- If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21
Notes
- To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long-fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight. This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
- If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add a little more flour to this recipe. I always mix them until the dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing up by hand.
- You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in these rolls. Then just roll them out, shape and allow to rise until double and then bake.
- You can use string or a sharp knife to cut the rolls if you’d like, but I like to cut the dough into 12 equal strips, and then roll them up individually.
- It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming on the eggs.
- You can make your own homemade pumpkin puree. I like to bake a homegrown sugar pie pumpkin from our garden at least once a week during fall and winter, and then make something with it like these pumpkin cinnamon rolls, or pumpkin focaccia. But you can also use store-bought pumpkin puree
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