Buttery, rich and full of pumpkin flavor – these are the best overnight pumpkin cinnamon rolls are the perfect recipe for fall! They have layers of delicious brown sugar pumpkin filling (with real pumpkin!) and glazed with a creamy maple cream cheese frosting.
😋 Taste and features
This easy overnight breakfast is the perfect combination of classic fall flavors in one delicious roll!
- Sticky, sweet and moist rolls that are easy to make
- Perfect to make the night before and bake in the morning!
- Pumpkin filling and pumpkin spice in every delicious layer
- Glazed with a smooth cream cheese maple icing
🛒 Ingredient notes
- Milk: Whole Milk or 2% to provide the best flavor!
- Active Dry Yeast: Note that this is not the same as active dry yeast.
- Unsalted Butter: Make sure this is room temperature for the best dough!
- Eggs: 1 egg will provide structure and the additional egg yolk will make the dough more rich.
- Sugar: A mix of brown sugar and white sugar for flavor!
- Bread flour: Creates the chewiest type of rolls – you can use all purpose flour but it wont be the same texture!
- Pumpkin Puree: I use canned pumpkin puree to keep it simple!
- Cream Cheese: For the frosting but you can omit if you’re not a fan!
🗒️ Instructions
This recipe uses an enriched dough, meaning, it gets its rise from the yeast and not with chemical leaveners. It also has a higher percentage of fat which softens the dough by coating and shortening the gluten strands.
Before you start: Heat oven to 350 F and grease 3 6″ inch spring form pans.
Step 1. Heat milk to 105F-115F and add in 1 tbsp of sugar (from the 1 cup in the recipe), then add in yeast and wait for it to bloom! Frothy milk is an indicator that the yeast is active.
Step 2. Mix together your room temperature butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Then mix in your yeast mixture to the bowl!
Step 3. Slowly add in your bread flour to the wet mixture until smooth at low speed (to prevent the flour from clumping + flying out of the mixing bowl)
Step 4. Once its uniform – increase the speed of your electric mixer to medium-low for 5-7 minutes until the dough is wrapped around the dough hook and slapping against the sides of the bowl.
Step 5. Take the dough and place it in a large greased bowl and let it rest for an hour and a half in a warm environment
Step 6. Roll out your dough into a large rectangle and spread your filling end to end to make sure every roll has a delicious pumpkin filling bite!
Step 7. Then tightly roll the largest width of the rectangle up and pinching it closed with the seam side down.
Step 8. Cut the roll in half (so there are 2 evenly cut pieces), and then divide it in half (so there are 4 evenly cut pieces) and then divide in half again (so there are 8 even ly cut pieces) and finally divide it into thirds so that there are 12 pieces in total. Place these 12 pieces in 4 rows of 3 rolls – don’t worry if it looks as though there’s a lot of empty space as the rolls will fluff up overnight and when you take them out before baking!
Step 9. Place the rolls in the fridge overnight and take them out in the morning an hour before you begin to bake them!
Step 10. Bake them for 20-25 minutes and wait for them to cool down completely before adding your maple frosting!
👩🍳 Top tips
- Use warm milk! I like to heat it to 115F but anywhere between the range of 105F and 115F should work. The best way to check is with a thermometer but you can also dip your finger in to make sure it is warm and not scalding! I also add in a tablespoon of sugar just to speed up with blooming process.
- Room temperature ingredients are key to making delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Room temperature butter will incorporate better with the dough.
- Use bread flour as it has a higher amount of protein so it will develop more gluten in the bread when you mix the dough and ensures chewy rolls!
- Give your dough ample time to rest in the fridge, ideally overnight to help develop flavor and help with the rise! Once you take it out of the fridge let it come to room temperature for the best bake!
🤔 Substitutions
- Not a fan of pumpkin? Swap pumpkin filling with Nutella.
- No bread flour? Swap it with all purpose flour! If you want to learn a little more about the differences in flour you can read this article.
🧺 Storage tips
- Room Temperature: Store at room temperature in an an airtight container for up to 2-3 days.
- Fridge: Cool pumpkin cinnamon rolls completely and store them in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: Cool rolls completely and then place them in an airtight container or freezer safe bag and put in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you plan on freezing them you should wait to make the frosting on the day of so it’s extra fresh! They will be good for up to 3 months but note the date of when it was baked on the container! Thaw cinnamon rolls at room temperature and then bake for 10 minutes at 350 F to warm them up!
🔎 Related recipes
Want more brunch inspired recipes? Here are a few of my favorites!
Banana Peanut Butter Streusel Muffins
📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- Oven
- Electric Stand Mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Whole Milk (240 Grams)
- 1 Package Active Dry Yeast (7 Grams)
- 8 tbsp Unsalted Butter (227 Grams / 1 Stick)
- 1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk (Grade A Large)
- 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar (50 Grams)
- 1/4 Cup White Granulated Sugar (50 Grams)
- 4 1/4 Cups Bread Flour (510 Grams)
Pumpkin Filling
- 3/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree (183 Grams)
- 6 tbsp Butter (85 Grams)
- 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar (150 Grams)
- 1 tbsp Pumpkin Spice
Maple Frosting
- 1/2 Cup Cream Cheese (4 oz / 120 Grams)
- 3 tbsp Maple Syrup (60 Grams)
- 1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar (50 Grams)
- 3 tbsp Butter (43 Grams)
Instructions
Pumpkin Rolls
- Pour milk in a measuring cup and microwave until 105F-115F. Pour in 1 tbsp of granulated sugar and package of yeast and let rest for 6 minutes. It should look slightly foamy – if not check to make sure your yeast is still fresh.
- Mix room temperature butter, egg, egg yolk, brown sugar and white granulated sugar until fully incoporated and then add in the yeast-milk mixture.
- Slowly add in bread flour into the wet ingredients on low until the ingredients are combined and then increase the speed to medium-low for 5-7 minutes. It seems like a long time but this is how gluten gets formed! The dough should be attached to the hook but not sticking to the sides of bowl.
- Take a large bowl thats been greased and cover it to let it rest for an hour and a half. It should expand a good amount so make sure your bowl is big enough!
- Make pumpkin filling by mixing all ingredients in a bowl.
- Lightly flour a work surface and start to roll out your dough into a rectangle 24" x 12" and spread your pumpkin filling with a spatula making sure to reach the ends. Then roll the 24" width up and then pinch the ends down and place the seam underneath.
- Cut the long log into 12 pieces by dividing it in half, then dividing those 2 pieces in half again so you're left with 4 pieces and then dividing the 4 pieces into 3 pieces each.
- Place the rolls into a greased 9" x 13" pan and cover it with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
- Take the rolls out an hour before baking so they can be brought to room temperature. Then place them in the oven for 350F and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Make sure your pumpkin cinnamon rolls have fully cooled down before putting your frosting on top!
Cream Cheese Maple Frosting
- Mix room temperature cream cheese, butter and maple syrup until combined.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and mix until everything is smooth!
Leave a Reply