Pumpkin Breakfast Rolls
A warm cinnamon roll is undeniably magnificent – but one that’s made with pillowy soft pumpkin brioche, layered with more pumpkin, warm spices, caramel, toffee and pecan and topped off with a generous drizzle of maple-cinnamon cream cheese glaze is on an entirely different level. I know I’ve been hinting at these rolls over my last couple of posts – my apologies for the tease, but we really did need to get our ducks in a row as the saying goes. Now that we have our dough and the foundation for our filling, we can finally make these delectable rolls.
I think I’ve been making these rolls, or some variation of them, about as long as I’ve been making the pumpkin brioche dough – so nearly 15 years. Early on, I tried a more traditional cinnamon roll filling – soft butter, plenty of brown sugar and a hefty shake of cinnamon. Later, I took a sticky bun approach, pouring a brown sugar-maple syrup into the bottom of the baking dish and scattering some coarsely chopped glazed pecans over the top before laying the rolls in the pan.
There was nothing precisely wrong with those versions but the pumpkin in the dough is subtle, and the cinnamon-heavy filling or the bold maple topping kept stealing the flavor spotlight. I really wanted these rolls to be pumpkin forward. And, at the time, my younger son was aggressively anti-nut so all those clearly visible pecans in the sticky bun variation made him want to steer clear.
Back to the drawing board – I needed to amp up the pumpkin and hide away the pecans. Typically any time I have pumpkin puree in the house I also have homemade pumpkin butter, so I figured – why not replace the butter with pumpkin butter? That definitely punched up the pumpkin flavor, as well as adding a bit more spice (more reminiscent of pumpkin pie than just cinnamon).
However, I found that this variation lacked a bit in the buttery richness department and I still hadn’t found a better way to handle the pecans. Then I had a eureka moment. What if I used an adaptation of the streusel from my Caramel Toffee Apple Pie in the filling for these rolls? That brought back the butter, added more caramel notes with the caramel sugar and toffee, added oats for a bit more textural variation and gave me the perfect place to tuck away the offending pecans.
The final touch was a dreamy glaze for the top. My kids had been exposed to Cinnabon by this point so of course, a glaze or frosting was de rigueur. I wanted to tie back in a touch of the maple from the sticky bun iteration but also wanted something tangy to help balance the sweetness of the glaze and complement the pumpkin. A maple cream cheese glaze with just a hint of cinnamon was the perfect choice.
There you have it – the winning combination. These rolls tick every flavor, structure and texture box, and my family looks forward to them every time they appear on the table. They do require a bit of advance planning, but I’m certain that you’ll love them as much as we do.
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare the
Pumpkin Brioche dough at least 1 day (up to 3 days) in advance through step 5 (overnight rise in the refrigerator).1 batch Pumpkin Brioche dough
- Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, caramel sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in the bowl of a small food processor. Pulse several times to break up the oats and evenly distribute the ingredients.30 g flour, 20 g oats, 28 g brown sugar, 25 g caramel sugar, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 tsp salt
- Add the butter in small chunks. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.35 g unsalted butter
- Use a fork to toss the toffee and pecans evenly through out the crumb mixture. Set aside.85 g crushed toffee, 42 g pecans
- Grease 2 9″x13″ baking dishes.
- Lightly flour a large work surface (I like to work on a large Silpat, but a clean, cool large section of counter will work)
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place in the center of your workspace.
- Roll out the dough, shifting and turning frequently to prevent sticking, into a rectangle approximately 24 inches by 12 inches.
- Working with one of the long edges toward you, spread the pumpkin butter over the surface covering all but about 1/2 inch at the top edge (the long edge furthest from you).113 g pumpkin butter
- Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the surface of the pumpkin butter.
- Use a pastry brush to moisten the 1/2 inch of exposed dough at the top edge using a little milk or well beaten egg.1 tbsp milk
- Roll the dough into a tight log starting with the long edge closest to you and rolling up toward the small strip of moistened dough at the top edge. Press the seam tightly to seal it.
- Cut the log into 24 – 1 inch rolls. Place each roll cut side down in the prepared baking dishes. One dozen rolls should fit in each dish with the edges of the rolls not quite touching.
- Cover the baking dishes with plastic wrap and set in a warm area of your kitchen to rise. The rolls should fill in all the gaps in the baking dishes, nearly doubling in size and have a soft, spongy, almost marshmallow like texture. This make take a couple hours.
- When the rolls are almost fully risen, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake the rolls about 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown and done in the middle (internal temperature of ~190°F).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt until fully combined and smooth.60 g cream cheese, 30 ml maple syrup, 5 ml vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 pinch salt
- Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, continuing to whisk until it is a thick but pourable consistency.225 g powdered sugar
- Serve the rolls warm and drizzled with a generous amount of the maple cinnamon cream cheese glaze.
Private Notes
Nutrition
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