Easy Pumpkin Dinner Rolls — 🎃🙌🧡 Big, soft pumpkin bread rolls brushed with honey butter are the best! Everyone loves them and they disappear so fast!
Table of Contents
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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Soft & Fluffy Sweet Dinner Rolls — Lightly sweetened from the honey in the dough and brushed with honey-butter prior to baking!! These dinner rolls are made from scratch and are baked to golden brown perfection!
No-Knead Rolls with Honey Butter — These soft, light, fluffy yeast dinner rolls are so easy to make! They’re practically work-free because there’s no-kneading involved.
Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls — These 100% whole wheat dinner rolls are soft, light, fluffy, and so easy. They’re practically work-free because there’s no kneading.
Parker House Rolls – The BEST homemade dinner rolls because they’re so light, airy, fluffy and practically melt in your mouth!
Woweeeeee! Man, do these look amazing! Pinning!
These would be a fabulous addition to the Thanksgiving table this year :)
Thank you for the step by step pics! I totally agree they can be a pain ;) Those look delish and I absolutely LOVE anything with pumpkin! I will totally be trying these rolls at my next dinner!! Mmmm….
Glad you like the pics (yes, total pain…ha!) but glad they worked and you want to make these. LMK how it goes!
Omg, pumpkin rolls! I might have to go make these right now! Your recipes always come out perfectly. Thanks so much for sharing and inspiring me!
Thanks for the great compliment, Rachel, and so glad you have luck with my recipes!
You are SO right – a warm roll and cookies – can’t live without them. These…these are amazing. I love your step by step photos, and I appreciate what a pain they are!
Girl. I hate them. I don’t know how Pioneer Woman does them. She does like 20+! Then again, she may not exactly personally be doing them. But any blogger who routinely does them – my hat is off!
Thanks for pinning these!
Oh Averie…these look so so amazing! Honey butter is absolutely amazing, and on pumpkin rolls?! Mm..drooling just thinking about it! These sound like the ultimate fall comfort food. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning, Rachel!
Ooh! I finally got a KA mixer (I call it the sexy beast), and initiated it with the ATK soft pretzel recipe, but am now bookmarking the heck out of recipes I can use it for. These look perfect.
I have a 1 hour soft pretzel recipe that I love too! Super easy! And congrats on your new sexy beast. You will put it through thousands of recipes, no doubt!
Your dinner roll recipes are my favorites–always easy and they never fail! I think bread making season has arrived and pumpkin is a great idea for rolls. They are a beautiful color and perfect for fall! These could go with something savory for my husband, and I love the honey butter idea–maybe with a little cinnamon too. Nut butter (or your white choc butterscotch SFSB )would be great on these for a quick snack….and I’m starting to think about having them with butternut squash soup or roasted root veggies too!
Like I just told someone else, from a smear of butter to frosting to a sandwich base to dunked in soup. Wide open! I love the cinnamon idea or white choc butterscotch SFSB or PB would be amazing here :) But with soup or roasted root veggies – mmm, so good. I can see something balsamic-ey working well. Really cannot go wrong with fluffy warm carbs, right! And thanks for saying my dinner roll recipes are your faves. Nice to know!
The smell of homemade bread does me in every time. These look so light and fluffy. I love the pumpkin addition for Fall.
Oh Averie – these rolls are PERFECTION! Carbs and pumpkin goodness is just my weakness, I’m still trying to bake more breads at home but I just haven’t made it happen yet – even though I finally have the time now. I think some baking will have to be in order next week!
Thanks for your awesome compliments! Appreciate it! and of course, all your pins. I have been pinning your stuff but commenting less. Just trying to streamline. I want that soup of yours with one of these rolls!
My soup and your rolls?! Sounds amazing. We need to have a dinner party!
These look super yummy! Love that it is a smaller recipe :)
WOW, Averie, these look so soft and pillowy and amazing! Love it, and pinning it!
thanks for pinning!
I think I need some carbs in my life because every one of these recipes has me drooling :)
Good idea :)
These are perfect for my little family of two! I too cringe when I see recipes that call for 5, 6, 7 cups of flour! That’s way too much for me so I always have to cut it in half and hope it still turns out good.
I love these dinner rolls, Averie! I can see them getting eaten up pretty fast at my house. Dinner rolls are so darn good but add the pumpkin and complimenting spices and you have one delicious, amazing dinner roll!
So glad you enjoy the recipe and like you, I try to mentally halve big recipes but sometimes they call for…3 eggs! (cookie-baking) And with bread baking or any baking, sometimes halving just isn’t easy. Like it will be 3 eggs and 2 1/4 sticks of butter so while you can halve it, the mental math gets to be a bit much and then…I just move on and never attempt.
How perfect would these be with Thanksgiving dinner?! Yum!
My thoughts too! For TG dinner!
These rolls look wonderful! I’m so happy to see a recipe for a smaller yield too. It’s just the Hubby and me so this perfect. I too only use King Arthur flour; there truly is a difference. My go to yeast is SAF Instant Yeast. I do a lot of baking and I can buy the SAF by the pound and keep it in the freezer ready to go. I buy it at our grocery store or King Arthur Flour if I can’t find it locally.
Thanks for a great holiday recipe!
~Peggy
If you’ve never tried Platinum, I know ounce for ounce (or recipe for recipe), it’s going to be more expensive than what you’re doing now (SAF is really nice yeast) but you will be blown away by the Platinum. Try it as a ‘special treat’ to yourself and I bet you’re going to be so happy :) Glad to hear you like the yield and are a devoted KAF user, too!
Okay, you convinced me lol! I’ll definitely give it a try. I’m assuming I should just be able to find it at the local grocery store? I never really look for yeast in the stores since I usually buy it in bulk.
I just can’t wait to make these rolls :)
Yes they sell the yeast in the baking aisle right next to other brands of yeast, in a 3-pack strip. Enjoy!
What a fun green bowl that is! Love it. This flavor combination looks delicious and I love that it’s a small batch. This single girl over here can’t be eating 20 rolls at once! :)
And the thing with bread, is even if you do have a big family, bread is so much better same-day or next-day, that making just-enough is nice I think!