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pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls

Pumpkin Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls With Pumpkin Frosting

There's something about the cozy scent of cinnamon, pumpkin, and freshly baked sourdough bread filling your kitchen on a cool fall morning. These pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls bring together everything we love about the season. The soft, pillowy dough and the comforting warmth of pumpkin and spice in every bite make these perfect for a delicious breakfast, dessert, or fall-time gathering.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Serving Size 12 people

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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