Got a rainy and kind of boring fall day on your hands? Perfect! It’s a great day to make these pumpkin spice cinnamon buns. The main recipe is exactly the same as the Pumpkin Bread that I posted about a few days earlier. This time, you just roll it out, sprinkle on the spices, sugar, and butter; roll it up, and bake your way into some amazing deliciousness.
I’ve been pawning these off on my voice students and their parents and they’ve been a huge hit. Even my pickier-than-thou child will eat them, as long as there aren’t any decorative pecans or pumpkin seeds on the top.
If this is your first time baking cinnamon buns, I took a few more step-by-step photos of the process in this post.
After years of baking bread, I find that I have the most success baking on a day when it’s raining or the humidity is high. For some of you, depending on where you live, that will practically be any day. I live on the Canadian Prairies, and more often than not the air is really dry–especially in winter!!
I also find that my rising times for dough are usually a bit more than most recipes call for. When a recipe claims a rising time of an hour, I know I’ll probably need an hour and a half, if not two hours.
Related: How to make your own pumpkin puree
I also like recipes that fit in a stand mixer and can be made with a dough hook. This one will fit in a standard-sized Kitchen-Aid mixer. No mixer? Don’t worry, you can still mix this recipe by hand and still be successful.
One last note: in the recipe card below I can for light cream for the sauce. I find that 10% cream is the sweet spot for feeling decadent but not being too ridiculous. You can also use whipping cream (amazing!), 2% milk, or coconut milk (to keep things dairy free). All will work well, but the coconut milk mixture will not thicken up very much–if at all.
Related: St. Lucia Day Cinnamon Buns
So what are you waiting for? Try a batch of these cinnamon buns today. You won’t be disappointed.
PUMPKIN SPICE CINNAMON BUNS
A delicious fall twist on classic cinnamon buns.
Ingredients
- Dough
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp yeast
- 1tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 5 cups flour
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 Tsp salt
- Filling
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- Sauce
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup light cream
Instructions
- Set out one cup of warm water and dissolve honey. Add yeast and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add pumpkin puree, eggs and oil then stir. Add in salt and 2 cups flour, then mix with your dough hook. Keep adding in flour until your dough forms a ball. Usually 5 cups, but depending on the humidity it can take as little as 4 1/2 and as much as 6.
- Grease a clean bowl, put in dough, cover with a clean towel, and set to rise in a warm place. Once it has doubled (anywhere from an hour to 2 hours depending on the humidity that day), punch down and roll out into a rectangle of approximately 1/2 inch or 1 cm thickness.
- Spread the melted butter, brown sugar, and spices on the rectangle.
- Roll the rectangle and cut into evenly sized discs.
- Arrange buns evenly in a pie plate or casserole dish
- Cook sauce ingredients on medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved and all ingredients are combined. Pour sauce evenly over the cinnamon buns. Reserve a small portion of sauce for drizzling over freshly-baked cinnamon buns.
- Let rise for 30 minutes or until desired size.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
- Let cool (just a tiny bit!) and serve.
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