Made with pumpkin in the dough and filled with a gooey pumpkin spice cinnamon swirl, these pumpkin cinnamon rolls hit the spot on chilly fall mornings. They’re topped with maple cinnamon cream cheese icing and you can choose other frosting options if desired! (See right above the recipe for details.) If you’d like to get started ahead of time, use our overnight or freezing instructions below.
These aren’t just classic homemade cinnamon rolls with pumpkin spice in the filling. Rather, these are pumpkin cinnamon rolls with real pumpkin IN the dough. Unraveling each soft and flaky pumpkin coil and tasting the melty pumpkin spices inside is the definition of fall breakfast bliss! Pumpkin pie lovers, meet your new favorite breakfast.
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Soft and fluffy
- Real pumpkin in the yeasted dough
- Filled with warm and cozy fall spices
- Topped with maple cream cheese icing
- Perfect for crisp fall mornings
- Total comfort food
- You can use homemade pumpkin pie spice in the filling
Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Dough
This is a rich dough, which means that it’s prepared with fat like milk, butter, and an egg. Rich doughs make soft breads such as monkey bread, homemade cinnamon rolls, and cinnamon roll cake. Lean doughs, on the other hand, are made without much fat and produce crusty bread such as artisan bread, homemade bagels, and pizza dough.
You need 9 ingredients for pumpkin cinnamon roll dough:
- Milk: Liquid activates the yeast. Nondairy or low fat milks are fine, but whole milk produces phenomenal flavor and texture.
- Butter: Butter promises a flavorful dough.
- Pumpkin: Pumpkin puree adds real pumpkin flavor and lots of moisture for incredibly soft rolls. It’s also a very heavy ingredient which weighs down the dough, so we go light on the butter (which can also weigh down dough).
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough. I used to make these rolls with brown sugar in the dough, but regular white sugar doesn’t weigh down the dough as much. (I find the rolls are a bit fluffier using white granulated sugar.) We still use brown sugar in the filling, though.
- Nutmeg: A pinch of ground nutmeg enhances the pumpkin flavor and adds a little something extra to these pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
- Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
- Egg: 1 egg provides structure and flavor.
- Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. I recommend Red Star Platinum Superior Baking Yeast, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the structure of the dough.
Notice That There is No Cinnamon IN the Dough
Did you know that cinnamon can inhibit yeast activity in dough? This spice can limit dough’s ability to rise, but you’d have to use quite a lot of cinnamon in order for that to happen. Still, with pumpkin being such a heavy ingredient that also weighs down the dough, we skip the cinnamon simply because we don’t want another ingredient holding down the dough’s rise. Nutmeg adds wonderful wonderful flavor to the dough and don’t worry, there’s PLENTY of cinnamon in the filling!
Overview: How to Make Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Make & knead the dough. The dough will be very soft. Place the dough into a greased bowl and turn the dough around in the bowl so all sides of the dough are coated.
- 1st rise. Cover the dough and let it rise.
- Make the pumpkin spice filling. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and spices.
- Add the filling & slice into rolls. Roll the dough out into a 10×14 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter and sprinkle brown sugar filling evenly on top. Roll it up tightly and use a sharp knife to cut into 10-12 pieces. Arrange rolls into your greased pan.
- 2nd rise. Let the shaped rolls rise. This rise is shorter than the 1st.
- Bake. Cover them with aluminum foil after 15 minutes to prevent over-browning.
- Make the icing and spread onto warm cinnamon rolls.
By the way, if you love all of these flavors together, you’ll definitely enjoy sinking your teeth into this pumpkin French toast casserole. And if you are craving cinnamon rolls right now, and just can’t wait for dough to rise, try these no yeast cinnamon rolls.
Toppings for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
I love topping these cinnamon rolls with maple cinnamon cream cheese icing—just 5 ingredients: cream cheese, maple syrup, milk, sifted confectioners’ sugar, and cinnamon. So simple yet so good! Feel free to skip the cinnamon in the icing if desired. You could also try plain cream cheese icing from these regular homemade cinnamon rolls, salted caramel frosting, the maple icing from maple cinnamon rolls, the caramel icing from apple cinnamon rolls, or this vanilla icing.
Print
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 rolls
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft pumpkin cinnamon rolls filled with a gooey cinnamon swirl and topped with maple cream cheese icing.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Dough
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk*
- 2 Tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (115g) canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) instant or active dry yeast (1 standard packet, see note)
- 2 and 2/3 cups (335g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled), plus more as needed for hands and work surface
Filling
- 6 Tablespoons (86g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Maple Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 ounces (112g) full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) pure maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoons (15ml) whole milk
- 2/3 cup (80g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- optional: 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the dough: Warm the milk and butter together over the stove or in the microwave. Warm the two together until the butter is *just* melted. You want the mixture lukewarm (105°F (41°C)-115°F (46°C)), not scorching hot. Set aside. Whisk the pumpkin puree, sugar, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk in the warmed milk/butter, egg, and yeast until combined. Using the dough hook or paddle attachment on low speed or mixing by hand using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix in 1 cup of flour. Mix for 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add 1 and 2/3 cups more flour and beat for 1 more minute.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat on low speed for an additional 3 minutes or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 3 minutes.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or use nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter and it takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square or round baking dish, 9×13 inch baking dish, or 11×7 inch baking dish. This recipe yields 10-12 rolls and they can fit into any of those size pans.
- Roll out the dough: Punch down the dough to release the air. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 10×14 inch rectangle. Make sure the dough is smooth and evenly thick. If the dough keeps shrinking as you roll it out, stop what you’re doing, cover it lightly, and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. When you return to the dough, it should stretch out much easier.
- Add the filling: Spread softened butter evenly on top of the rolled-out dough. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and spices into a small bowl. Sprinkle all over the top. Roll it up tightly. Using a very sharp knife, cut into 10-12 even rolls. Arrange rolls in the prepared pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover the rolls tightly and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (Or use the overnight option below.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake rolls for about 22-28 minutes or until they are lightly browned on top. After about 15 minutes, tent a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the pan to prevent the tops from browning too quickly and baking unevenly. Remove pan from the oven and place pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes as you make the icing.
- Make the icing: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the softened cream cheese in a medium bowl on medium speed until smooth. Add the maple syrup and milk and beat on high until smooth. Add the confectioners’ sugar (and cinnamon, if using) and beat on medium speed until creamy. Spread on warm cinnamon rolls.
- Cover leftover frosted or unfrosted rolls tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare the rolls through step 6. Instead of allowing the cut rolls to rise in a warm environment in step 7, place the pan in the refrigerator and allow the rolls to rest for up to 14 hours before baking. When it’s time to bake the next day, bring the rolls to room temperature and rise for 1 hour on the counter, or until almost doubled in size. Then bake as directed.
- Freezing Instructions: Baked rolls can be frozen up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm up before enjoying. You can also freeze the unbaked rolls and here’s how: bake the rolls in step 9 for only about 10 minutes. Cool completely, and then cover tightly and freeze. To serve, take the rolls out of the freezer and place in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Once thawed, finish baking them for about 15-20 minutes.
- Milk: For super soft rolls, I recommend whole milk. Nondairy or lower fat milks work too, but the rolls may not taste as rich and fluffy.
- Yeast: You can use active dry or instant yeast in this recipe. Follow all of the same instructions. If using active dry yeast, the rise times are usually *slightly* longer, but not much. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Spices in Filling: If needed, you can use 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice in the filling. The pumpkin pie spice replaces the nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves.
Keywords: pumpkin cinnamon rolls
Delicious, moist and fluffy. Can’t really taste the pumpkin but I figured that would be the case bc of all the spices. Made them with oatmilk and vegan butter and they came out perfect!
★★★★★
Why do some recipes skip proofing of the yeast? Just curious
Instant yeast doesn’t typically need to be proofed. However, I usually do it anyway just to be certain it’s alive and active. (And so it can dissolve a bit.) Only takes a few minutes.
Doubled the recipe. Beautiful dough. 1st rise perfect, 2nd rise, perfect. Baked off on a sheet pan- disaster! Needs high sides as they rise and fluff up so much! Oops!!
Live and learn! Very delicious though!
Is it possible to use bread machine for this?
Hi Loi, We haven’t tried this, but can’t see why not! Let us know how it goes!
Wanting to try this recipe and I’ve gotten used to using baked sweet potato instead of canned pumpkin in my spice breads etc,. Think I’ll be good?
Sounds delicious! Let us know if you give it a try 🙂
Baked sweet potato worked great in lieu of the canned pumpkin
★★★★★
I really love your round presentation! It’s such a nice centerpiece to put out. May I ask, what diameter dish you are using? It looks bigger than a traditional deep dish pie pan. Thank you!
Hi Tess! It’s a 9 inch dish. Hope you love these!
The freezing instructions after 10 minutes baking totally failed! It was so disappointing, since these were for a birthday! They never puffed up and stayed totally flat. They had seemed to rise ok, though it took longer to double in size than expected, but then there was no further rise at all after the second proof and they were like cinnamon roll pancakes. They tasted amazing, though a little too dense of course, but will not be trying to freeze the dough ever again.
★★★
Haven’t tried the recipe yet (I’m excited to!) but can you tell me where you got the pretty white dish you baked the cinnamon rolls in?
Thanks Tricia! It’s from Target actually– a few years ago.
Never making regular cinnamon rolls again! These are the ultimate! I didn’t let my overnight rolls come to room temperature before rising, so they could have definitely been puffier, but they were still delicious. I made these 2 years ago, moved to a different country, and hunted down the recipe again because they’re so good.
★★★★★
Can you use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Hi YC, buttermilk will be a bit too thick – it’s best to stick with milk (any kind will work)!
Could I double the recipe?
Hi Kelly, for best taste and texture, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling.
Is the canned pumpkin the regular 15 oz Libby can of pumpkin I also use in your baked pumpkin donuts?
\
Yes, that’s correct!
I made this for brunch last weekend when we had guests over and it received rave reviews. The balance of spices is perfect. My kids say they prefer this to the typical cinnamon tile!
★★★★★
These were so good. OMG, I loved them so much. I want to make more. Yum!
These looked good and smelled delicious. Pumpkin stuff is my number one favorite thing about fall. I definitely recommend these delicious festive rolls! I am planning to check out your other recipes.
I made these cinnamon rolls yesterday and half of them were gone by last night They are soft and warm with spice and pumpkin. The best cinnamon rolls I’ve made. They were easy to make. It was just difficult to wait for them to bake so we could eat them. Thank you Sally.
★★★★★
The brown sugar melted out and pooled at the bottom and became chewy. How do I prevent this?
★★★★★
Hi Jay, Make sure to use softened (not melted) butter in the filling and roll the rolls up tightly. Thank you so much for giving these pumpkin cinnamon rolls a try!
Should the pumpkin be blotted before incorporating it into the dough?
You do not need to blot the pumpkin before using in this recipe.
These were so delicious! Worth the time commitment. That frosting is amazing with it, too. Everyone in the family loved them and we had to exercise some serious self-control not to eat too many all at once. 🙂
★★★★★
It was an easy recipe, but all in all it wasn’t worth it. After over 3 hours of anticipation, I was just left feeling meh. No one had any idea there was even pumpkin in it, and it just tasted like a regular cinnamon roll (a good cinnamon roll though, don’t get me wrong).
★★★
I love this recipe, but man, I strugggled to roll the dough. I’d never done it before, and I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I don’t know how you got the dough so perfect in the picture. My rolls ended up a little mismatched.
★★★★
Family loved them! I would have liked a stronger pumpkin flavor but will definitely make again.
★★★★★
I am fancying cinnamon rolls but then with autumn approaching also some pumpkin spice inspired food… glad I found this one, as I will surely try it out this weekend for a very Halloween-y breakfast! You’ve put canned pumpkin in the recipe, but is there a way I can use fresh pumpkin instead? Can I roast it and blend it? Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Elle! You can definitely try making your own homemade pumpkin puree instead. We haven’t ourselves, but there are many great resources and how-tos online. Hope you enjoy these pumpkin cinnamon rolls!
What a great recipe:) We will now have a new Thanksgiving Breakfast Tradition in our house. I had quite a bit of pumpkin left over (after using 1/2 cup from can). Is there another recipe on which I can use up the rest of my canned pumpkin? (Obviously, besides making more of these great cinnamon rolls.) Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Chris, We are so glad you loved these! Check out these recipes to use up your leftover pumpkin.
Thank you for the quick response, Michelle, what a great choice of recipes. The kids are requesting that we use the extra pumpkin for the Mini- Pumpkin Pies. Now when I make the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls for Thanksgiving breakfast, they can be “helping me out” with their own creations!!
This also makes a great dessert to take to Aunt Debbie’s for our “Dish to Pass” for “Leftover Saturday”.
★★★★★
I wanted to try plain cream cheese icing for this instead. When I checked your linked recipe the cream cheese amount is half of what the maple cinnamon cream cheese recipe calls for. The sugar, given the addition of the maple syrup, will probably even out. So should I increase the amount of cream cheese in the plain cream cheese recipe to get the same amount of coverage for these rolls?
I’m planning to make and freeze these before giving them to a friend to serve to out-of-town guests. I want the icing already made so she just has to spread it on after taking the rolls from the oven.
Hi Kashwana, you can use the cream cheese frosting from this recipe as written and have plenty to cover these rolls, or, feel free to double the entire recipe if you’d like to have more.
I used pie pumpkins that I roasted and puréed. The color isn’t as dark with fresh pumpkin, but it is still delightful.
I quadrupled the recipe, but only doubled the amount of rolls to insure that they would be large and tall! Then I doubled the frosting. They were amazing!
★★★★★
I’m Australia, canned pumpkin (and/or pumpkin pie filling from some of your other recipes) are both really hard to come by.
Is it possible to simply cook and puree some pumpkin instead? If so, to what sort of consistency? If it’s pumpkin pie filling, what is the difference?? I love the look of some of these recipes, but get stumped on this. Thanks.
Hi Sharlene, We haven’t tried it ourselves, but other readers have reported making fresh pumpkin puree this way: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pumpkin-puree-recipe-1922629. Pumpkin pie filling has sugars and other flavors added and is a different consistency.
Per overnight directions: let them come to room temp AND THEN have them rise for an hr or until doubled, right? So that could be 1.5 to 2 hrs total, maybe, right? I am mainly taking them out of the fridge and letting them sit on the counter until they are doubled in size, right? Looks very yummy! We love your recipes!
Hi Sarah! Yes, remove from the fridge and let rise until doubled in size. Enjoy!
Very good but next time I will cut into 8-10 pieces and use a 9″ square pan for taller rolls.
★★★★
Wow! The instructions are very clear and make everything make sense! I’ve never made any kind of dough from scratch before but felt very confident in making this because of how detailed and simple the instructions are. They turned out great thank you so much! (Will be coming to this website for future recipes)
★★★★★