A simple and easy recipe for soft, light, and fluffy pumpkin dinner rolls with homemade pumpkin purée. You’ll need just a handful of ingredients!
These golden rolls are delicately sweet and the perfect addition to your holiday gathering or any special occasion. Think Sunday brunch, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. They taste great on their own or served with your meal. I also love them for breakfast with salted butter.
For me, freshly baked dinner rolls are often times more intriguing than the main dish itself. Put a basket of these freshly baked pumpkin dinner rolls on the table and be sure that they are wiped out in no time.
With this recipe, you can make homemade dinner rolls for your next Sunday dinner or holiday gathering.
Golden rolls with pumpkin purée
Pumpkin purée is the secret to these soft and fluffy rolls. If you’re bored with plain rolls try these gorgeous orange-hued rolls instead. The pumpkin purée adds a touch of nuttiness and sweetness. That’s why I only add 1 tablespoon of sugar!
I’ll make the pumpkin purée on the stove-top, cooking the pumpkin with a bit of water in a saucepan until soft, for about 20 minutes. But if you want to take a shortcut, simply use plain canned pumpkin purée.
I do not add any pumpkin spices to the dough for a pure and subtle pumpkin flavor. I rather save the pumpkin spice-mix for pumpkin pie.
If you prefer dinner rolls without pumkin, try these dinner rolls with brown butter and sage. I love them too!
Recipe pumpkin dinner rolls
For the homemade pumpkin purée, cut the pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seeds and the stringy pulp. Peel and chop pumpkin into 1-1.5 inch (or 2-3 cm) pieces.
Add enough water to cover the bottom of a large saucepan by 1-inch (2-3 cm). Add chopped pumpkin into the saucepan and cook covered over low heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam the pumpkin until soft using a steamer basket.
Drain pumpkin and blend until smooth using a food processor or hand blender. Let cool slightly.
For the dough, combine 2 tablespoons (30 g) water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Briefly stir. Stir in 1 ¼ cups (300 g) pumpkin purée, salt, and melted butter.
Add half of the flour to the bowl and mix until combined, then add the rest of the flour. Mix and knead (knead by hand, or use a stand mixer with a dough hook) to make a soft and smooth dough that is slightly sticky, about 5-10 minutes.
Depending on the pumpkin purées water content, the dough consistency can vary. If the dough is too tacky and impossible to knead by hand, add a bit additional flour. When kneading the dough (by hand or machine) the dough should be forming a ball and clearing the sides of the bowl towards the end of the kneading time. It should be soft and elastic.
Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, and let it rise at warm room temperature until doubled (or almost doubled) in volume, about 1 hour.
In the meantime, butter a 10-inch (26 cm) springform pan or round cake pan or line with parchment paper. Alternatively, use a 9-inch square pan.
Transfer the dough to an unfloured or only slightly floured work surface and divide into 15 equal pieces (16 if using the square pan). Shape each piece into a smooth ball.
Space the rolls in the pan. Tip: For make-ahead option, put the pan in the fridge now, see note in recipe part below.
Cover the pan with a towel, and allow the rolls to rise at warm room temperature until puffy, about 1/2 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C).
For the egg-wash, mix egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and gently brush the rolls.
Bake them on the center rack until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Let cool slightly and enjoy!
More delicious bread recipes
Did you make this recipe? Let me know in the comments how it turned out and also leave me a star rating if you want :)
Fluffy Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 pound butternut squash (for canned pumpkin purée, see note)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (see note)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (7 g) instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 3/4 teaspoon (4 g) fine salt
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) melted butter
- 3 ¼ cups (420 g) bread flour (all-purpose flour works too)
Egg-wash:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
For the pumpkin purée:
- Cut the pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seeds and the stringy pulp. Peel and chop pumpkin into 1-1.5 inch (or 2-3 cm) pieces.
- Add enough water to cover the bottom of a large saucepan by 1-inch (2-3 cm). Add chopped pumpkin into the saucepan and cook covered over low heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam the pumpkin until soft using a steamer basket.
- Drain pumpkin and blend until smooth using a food processor or hand blender. Let cool slightly.
For the dough:
- Combine 2 tablespoons (30 g) water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Briefly stir.
- Stir in 1 ¼ cups (300 g) pumpkin purée, salt, and melted butter.
- Add half of the flour to the bowl and mix until combined, then add the rest of the flour. Mix and knead (knead by hand, or use a stand mixer with a dough hook) to make a soft and smooth dough that is slightly sticky, about 5-10 minutes. Depending on the pumpkin purées water content, the dough consistency can vary. If the dough is too tacky and impossible to knead by hand, add a bit additional flour. When kneading the dough (by hand or machine) the dough should be forming a ball and clearing the sides of the bowl towards the end of the kneading time. It should be soft and elastic.
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, and let it rise at warm room temperature until doubled (or almost doubled) in volume, about 1 hour.
- In the meantime, butter a 10-inch (26 cm) springform pan or round cake pan or line with parchment paper. Alternatively, use a 9-inch square pan.
- Transfer the dough to an unfloured or only slightly floured work surface and divide into 15 equal pieces (16 if using the square pan). Shape each piece into a smooth ball and space the rolls in the pan. [For make-ahead option, put in the fridge now, see note.]
- Cover the pan with a towel, and allow the rolls to rise at warm room temperature until puffy, about 1/2 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C).
- For the egg-wash, mix egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and gently brush the rolls. Bake them on the center rack until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly and enjoy!
Hi,
I made the pumpkin dinner rolls with a long, cold bulk rise overnight. Shaped them the next morning, second rise, then baked them. Everybody loved them and they were literally gone in an hour! I will make them again for Christmas brunch with the family. Thanks for the great recipe. Anne
Hi Anne,
Happy to hear that everybody liked them. I know, they always go so quickly. A double batch is never wrong ;-) Thanks so much for your comment, really appreciate it! Ursula
Hi,
They turned out perfectly fluffy and I love the taste (not sweet). Thank you!
Hi Lori,
So happy that the dinner rolls turned out great! Thanks so much for trying the recipe and leaving a comment. Hope you’ll make them again some day :), Ursula
Really Helpful! Thanks for the blog!
These rolls were delicious! I made some Pumpkin Puree with my homegrown pumpkins. I added just a little Pumpkin Pie Spice, and what a treat that was, especially with some Honey Butter on those warm rolls.
Hi Tess,
Oh my. Your comment made me drool :) Honey butter on warm rolls – is there anything better? And pumpkin puree with homegrown pumpkins is the best what you can get. Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try and for leaving a comment and star-rating! Hope that you’ll make the rolls again some time!
Ursula
Has anyone tried to knead this dough by hand? I truly have no idea what I could be doing wrong because I’ve tried to make this 3x and i just cannot form any gluten. It keeps tearing. Full disclosure, I’m a novice baker . But I’ve tried making other types of yeasted bread since this and they all turned out pretty well. I used AP flour (you said we could) the 1st time and after 2hrs of kneading, the dough was still tearing. Bought some bread flour for the 2nd attempt, similar issue: could not develop gluten. I thought I was adding the remaining flour too late in the kneading so I mixed in most of it during the 3rd attempt. Still no success. The dough does rise during both proofing times. But the dough remains the same size when I put it in the oven and when I take it out 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️.
Hi Jo,
first of all: thanks so much for trying the recipe 3 times!!! No matter if you are a novice baker or not, the recipe has to work ;-) I’ve tried it with AP flour and bread flour and both versions came out well. You wrote “after 2 hours of kneading” – I hope you didn’t knead it for 2 hours lol. 5-10 minutes of kneading would be perfect. I add about half of the flour, mix it with the liquid ingredients and as soon as they come together, I’ll add the remaining flour. I simply do so to get a more even salt distribution. You could also add all the flour at once, so this is not the issue. At what step does it keep tearing? When you knead it? Usually, if the dough rised, and later during the 2nd rise the buns get puffy in the pan, the recipe works perfectly. They should also rise in the oven – at least a bit. So this, I really don’t understand. Maybe it is overproofed and at its maximum volume? If you have the patience to try it again (and I totally understand if you are not in the mood for this), I would put in the 2 batches of flour with 30 seconds time apart, knead it for 5-10 minutes, and do the 2nd rise only until the buns are puffed slightly but far away from doubled in volume. Not sure if this information will help you, but I really appreciate your perseverance:)
Ursula
Hi, Ursula;) Thanks for replying! The dough is fine to work with when kneading. But when I do the window pane test, it tears. It looked like it came close to finally being stretchy during my last attempt but the rolls still did not rise during baking. The tops barely developed any color either despite the egg wash. It was in the oven for 20-22 minutes. Very weird!
Hi Jo,
I really can’t make any sense of this. Particularly not, when the dough is rising well (bulk rise + 2nd rise of formed buns) and then just stops rising during baking. Did you use homemade pumpkin puree? Because usually, the store-bought kind is less watery – so maybe the dough is missing some water. The dough should be a bit sticky, not really awfully tacky but rather moist. You could try adding a splash more liquid, if that’s the case. If not: You could also try to start baking the rolls in an un-preheated oven. This way, the rolls heat slowly and have time to expand and rise. Otherwise, I am out of any useful ideas. So sorry that the last part – baking them – doesn’t really work out. And usually they come out pretty golden since they are orange-hued anyways and the egg-wash adds a nice browning too…..
Ursula
I’ve been using Libby’s canned pumpkin. I tried to make it again, a half batch. Similar issue with the dough not rising much in the oven in spite it rising during both proof times. Barely had color on top. Only a hint of browning even though it was in there close to 25 minutes. I did not add all of the bread flour this time. I had 65 grams left. I think my dough was closer to what you said it should be, at least: a little sticky but workable. It did not tear during the window pane test like it did before. Improved in some areas but still ultimately not coming out right. Truly stumped with this one! :)
Hi J,
It doesn’t make any sense to me that both proofings go fine and then the rolls don’t rise during baking. I’d probably add a different kind of yeast (instant if you have been using active dry) but I honestly can’t make any sense of this behavior.
Usually the oven spring (the rise in the beginning of baking) is best with high hydration doughs that contain a lot of liquid. So if the dough was not totally unbearable sticky to shape into rolls I’d even use less flour than what you have used the last time (or you add more pumpkin puree or add a bit of water/milk).
Another thing I can think of: How puffy were the rolls after the second rise? Because, if you have let the dough rise too much, it has barely anything left to rise when you bake it. As you can see in the photos, the rolls are puffy after the second rise but are far away from having doubled in volume. I’d guess they rose by 30-40% during the second proofing.
@Browning: Each and every oven is different. I’ve cooked in at least 20 kitchens and some ovens run hot, some cold, with some you don’t get a nice color…. I’d try putting the baking pan 1 rack up if you have heat from top and bottom. If you have an convection oven, this doesn’t make any difference.
I hope that you are not already tired from making these rolls…..
Ursula