Easy Pumpkin Dinner Rolls — 🎃🙌🧡 Big, soft pumpkin bread rolls brushed with honey butter are the best! Everyone loves them and they disappear so fast!
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Easy Dinner Rolls … with Pumpkin!
These pumpkin bread rolls are easy to make and are ready from start to finish in under 2 hours. Not bad at all for a yeast roll recipe.
They’re soft, slightly chewy, and the pumpkin keeps them moist and adds just enough tooth-sinking density.
The scents of pumpkin, spices, honey, and bread baking that waft thorough the house are positively intoxicating. Sure beats lighting a pumpkin-scented candle!
This pumpkin dinner roll recipe has just over 2 cups and serves a family, not an army. Any extras freeze nicely.
They’re soft, fluffy, and just chewy enough.
I hope the recipe comes in handy for your fall baking, Thanksgiving dinner table, and holiday parties. Or for soft dinner rolls any old night of the week just because.
It’s my new go-to pumpkin dinner roll recipe after playing around with many others over the years. Enjoy.
Ingredients in Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
To make this easy dinner roll recipe, you’ll need:
- Milk
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Pumpkin puree
- All-purpose flour – I always use the King Arthur brand
- Instant dry yeast – I only bake with Red Star Platinum Yeast
- Granulated sugar
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Ground nutmeg
- Salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
- Combine the wet ingredients: Add milk and butter to a measuring cup. Zap it for about 45 seconds in the microwave and stir until the butter melts. Top it off with pumpkin puree, 1 egg, and whisk together. Set aside.
- Combine the dry ingredients: In another mixing bowl, add the flour, yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar (must-have, it’s the yeast’s food source), 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon nutmeg. (Sounds like a lot of spices, but it’s not.)
- Knead the dough for 5 to 8 minutes. I used my stand mixer, but you can do it by hand.
- Cover and let rise: Put it in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm, draft-free place until it nearly doubles in size. For me, this is the inside of my oven (powered off) and took 45 minutes.
- Shape and let rise again: I made 8 hearty rolls. Put them in a pan and wait until they’ve nearly doubled in size, likely about 30 to 45 minutes.
- Bake: Before baking, brush them with equal parts melted butter and honey.
Recipe FAQs
I’m sure you can double the recipe if you need more, although I haven’t tried. The entire batch fits on the plates shown below.
Yes! If you would like to use an overnight or make-ahead option, after you get the rolls into the pan and covered with foil, place the pan in the fridge. When ready to bake, pick up with the next step below, making sure to allow the dough to come to room temp and rise nicely; it could take longer than the 45 minutes indicated below since dough is coming right out of a cCold fridge.
The pumpkin flavor, while present, is not overly strong. If you know someone who’s on the fence about pumpkin or have a family where some people love it, but others are just so-so, these are the perfect compromise.
They give the pumpkin lovers a taste of their favorite orange-colored food group, while not alienating those who don’t love in-your-face pumpkin flavor. I’d like to call them ‘Honey Butter Gently-Flavored-With-Pumpkin Dinner Rolls’.
Most likely, but homemade pumpkin puree often contains more moisture than canned pumpkin puree. Try to drain off as much excess moisture as possible; you might also have to add more flour than the recipe calls for.
Definitely! Let them cool completely, then seal in a freezer bag for up to three months. When ready to enjoy, thaw them on your counter or gently reheat in the oven.
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Honey Butter Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- ⅓ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, *
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce packet, I use Red Star Platinum
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
Honey Butter
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons honey
Instructions
Dough:
- Add milk to a 2-cup microwave-safe measuring cup, or microwave-safe bowl.
- Add butter and heat on high power to melt butter, about 45 seconds. Stir until butter has melted smoothly into the milk.
- Add the egg, pumpkin puree, and whisk to combine.
- Return measuring cup to microwave and heat for about 15 seconds to warm mixture up. This will help to activate the yeast; set aside briefly.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook or large mixing bowl for hand kneading, add the remaining dough ingredients, thorough optional salt.
- Pour wet pumpkin-milk mixture over the dry ingredients.
- Turn mixer to low speed, and knead for 5 to 8 minutes, or until dough is smooth and has come together. This is not a sticky dough and if your dough is sticky, tacky, or gloppy, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough is no longer sticky. I doubt you will need to add any, because I could have made this recipe with 2 cups flour, but went up to 2 1/4. Don’t over-flour your dough because it creates rolls that are dense and heavy.
- Turn dough out into a mixing bowl that’s been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Flip dough over once so both sides are lightly greased, and cover bowl with plasticwrap.
- Place bowl in a warm, draft-free environment until dough has nearly doubled in bulk, about 45 to 60 minutes. Do not go by time elapsed on the clock. Wait until dough has nearly doubled in size, and if it takes longer than an hour, that’s fine.
- Punch dough down and turn it out onto a nonstick surface. I spray my counter with cooking spray and don’t even need to add flour.
- Divide dough into 8 to 12 equally-sized portions, rolling each portion into a ball. I made 8 rolls and they were very generously sized. I would aim for 9 to 10 rolls. They may look skimp now but don’t worry, they rise and swell very nicely.
- Place dough balls into a foil-lined and cooking sprayed 9-inch square pan. If you would like to use an overnight or make-ahead option, after you get the rolls into the pan and covered with foil, place pan in fridge. When ready to bake, pick up with the next step below, making sure to allow the dough to come to room temp and rise nicely; it could take longer than the 45 minutes indicated below since dough is coming right out of a cold fridge.
- Cover pan with a sheet of foil, place pan in a warm, draft-free environment until dough has nearly doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. In the last minutes of rising, preheat oven to 375F.
Honey Butter:
- Melt butter in small microwave-safe bowl, about 45 seconds on high power.
- Add the honey and stir to combine.
- Before baking, generously brush dough with honey butter; reserve any extra and brush it on after baking.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until puffed, golden, domed, cooked through, and when tapped, the rolls should sound hollow.
- Allow rolls to cool in pan until they’re cool enough to handle before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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great
I made this recipe and for some reason it went all wrong and I’m not sure what I did. The dough stayed tacky, even after 4-5extra tablespoons of flour. They would up have a weird taste, probably because of the flour. I’m new to baking bread and am going to try this again today. Hopefully it will turn out better today. Any tips or suggestions?
Excessively sticky dough means you need more flour. Bread baking is not an exact science and it will really depend on your dough, climate, brands/types of ingredients used, etc.
I would say add sufficient flour so the dough is manageable and not too sticky. Use King Arthur brand flour, it’s the best, especially for new bakers, you will get far superior results. Change your brand of yeast too. I recommend Red Star but do something different than what you already did since that too could have been part of the problem.
Great receipt to use up pumpkin purée. I made them using the dough cycle on the bread machine and it worked great!
Glad to hear this recipe worked great in your bread machine!
HI, Averie! I am sooooo excited to make these because I want to get the nutritional benefits and love the taste of pumpkin, but sugars and desserts make me sick which makes me so sad during the holiday season. I cannot WAIT to try these! I want to make them this weekend and was wondering how far ahead you can make the dough? Would two days be much too long? Thank you for sharing your recipe! They look amazing.
I never have made the dough that far in advance so I really can’t say. Overnight is the longest I’ve tried.
I made these yesterday and they are amazing with butternut squash puree. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Has anyone tried freezing them before the second rise? Do they still turn out? It would help a lot for Thanksgiving if I could make serval batches to keep in the freezer
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad they turned out amazing with butternut squash puree! I haven’t tried freezing them before the second rise so can’t give you any advice there.
Personally…bread freezes quite well and if you’re just looking to batch cook in advance, I’d make them straight through and then let them come up to room temp and right before serving put warm them momentarily in the oven if you’re looking for warm rolls. However test this with one batch before the big day!
Ok, I’ll do that then. Thank you
I made these yesterday and they are amazing with butternut squash puree. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Has anyone tried freezing them before the second rise? Do they still turn out? It would help a lot for Thanksgiving if I could make serval batches to keep in the freezer
4 years running and I still make YOUR honey pumpkin yeast rolls EVERY year at the holidays!! At least 3-4 dozen for all of our Thansgiving gatherings because they are perfect unique and WONDERFUL in every way.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad that you make these every year!
4 years running and I still make YOUR honey pumpkin yeast rolls EVERY year at the holidays!! At least 3-4 dozen for all of our Thansgiving gatherings because they are perfect unique and WONDERFUL in every way.
Is this a recipe that you could make without a stand mixer? It sounds delicious, however, I don’t own one of those as of yet.
You could I suppose, it will just require a lot more elbow grease doing it by hand.
Use the “stretch and fold” method. It works just as well as kneading or a standing mixer … and much easier.
Very nice recipe!! I had cooked down about 10 free pie pumpkins,so I felt like Bubba and his shrimp, coming up with pureed pumpkin recipes!
Made for Thanksgiving but did a 4x between 2 mixers. Oven could’t keep up so some overproofed but the flavor is there for sure. Love that it’s not a sweet roll…a delicious bite while drinking sweeter apple cider sangria with the meal! literally making a single batch right now. Cold rainy day snack…. Thanks for sharing a new go- to for me!
Glad you loved the rolls and I agree, not too sweet, and glad you were able to make use of all your pureed pumpkin!
I have a stupid question – do you buy pumpkin puree? If not, do I just puree raw pumpkin or do I need to cook it first and then puree it? Thanks!!
Not stupid at all! I just use Libby‘s pumpkin purée and I can. Enjoy the rolls!
Lovely blog Averie, should I dare to make this with milk and butter substitutes for my allergic-to-dairy husband? Would you recommend against it?
I think you’d be able to use a soy, almond, or cashewmilk without much problem. Then there’s the butter…maybe Earth Balance would work? Andt then there’s the egg. That is something that I don’t know how you’d work around in this situation if you have to remove that too. LMK if you end up trying and how things go!
might I suggest coconut oil to replace butter for dairy allergies? Eggs are not dairy, they are only an issue for vegans.
I didn’t have pumpkin spice or nutmeg I added some cinnamon and mixed dried herbs it came out perfect.
thanks.
That’s great and glad they came out perfectly!
Curious about what dried herbs you used. I’m worried that the rolls will be to pie-like in taste due to the pumpkin pie seasoning. I was thinking about sage and/or thyme. Thoughts?
They’re not overly pumpkin-ey at all but if you want to mask any pumpkin flavor (but then what’s the point…) you could always add whatever other dried herbs you want. Sage/thyme are very overpowering and will mask just about anything IMO.
I think the sage and rosemary suggestions sounds amazing. Averie, I think you misunderstood the question: She did not want to mask the pumpkin flavor, but add some nice savory herbs rather than pumpkin pie spice, which would make me nervous as well.
I didn’t actually misunderstand – they are pumpkin dinner rolls which is why I use pumpkin pie spice.
The other herbs sound lovely but that’s not what I would call a pumpkin dinner roll at that point. It’s more of a ‘fall-flavored dinner roll’. Let me know if you try it.