Lightly sweet, these light and fluffy pumpkin dinner rolls are a beautiful and delicious addition to your Thanksgiving table or to serve with your favourite Fall soups.

honey pumpkin rolls in baking pans

One of my favourite parts of the Thanksgiving dinner is always the dinner rolls. These pretty and delicious pumpkin dinner rolls are perfect for Thanksgiving, as they make a large batch (24 rolls!) and the colour is so festive for the occasion.

The pumpkin in these rolls lends more in the way of colour, than in flavour, but it’s still a nice background flavour note. Enjoy these rolls warm with spread of salted butter and it’s a little bit of dinner roll heaven!

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Ingredients and substitutions

Yeast: You can use instant or dry active yeast here. For dry active yeast, proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water and reduce the milk to 1 cup.

Flour: I prefer unbleached all-purpose flour, but bleached flour is fine, as well.

Honey: Any mild tasting, liquid honey is fine here. If you have no honey, you can substitute maple syrup or brown sugar.

Pumpkin: You’ll want to use pure pumpkin puree, not pie filling.

Seeds: Use one kind or use an assortment. I used sesame seeds, poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds here.

How to make pumpkin dinner rolls

This is a summary of the steps to make these dinner rolls. Always refer to the Recipe Card below for the complete ingredient list and instructions.

Finished dough in mixer bowl.
1
Dough added to greased bowl to rise.
2
Dough in bowl after rising.
3
  1. Mix up the dough. The dough should clean the bowl of the mixer and be moist, but not sticky.
  2. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead briefly. Form into a ball and add to a greased bowl or large measuring cup.
  3. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
Weighing dough ball on a kitchen scale.
4
Weighing out the rolls on a scale.
5
Forming the dough pieces into balls.
6
  1. Deflate the dough ball and weigh the total weight of the dough. **NOTE! I am making a half-batch of rolls here. If you made the full batch, it would be double this weight or about 1500g total.
  2. Divide the total dough weight by the number of rolls you are making (24 for a full batch) and weigh out the individual rolls. They should be around 60g each.
  3. Form the dough pieces into rolls by stretching the dough smooth.
Pinching the dough balls together.
7
Dough balls added to greased baking pan.
8
Rolls after rising.
9
  1. Flip the rolls over and pinch the underside well to make a smooth, taught roll.
  2. Place the rolls into the greased baking pan with the seam side down. Cover with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
Brushing rolls with egg wash.
10
Seeds scatter on rolls before baking.
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Rolls after baking.
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  1. Before baking, brush the rolls with egg wash.
  2. Sprinkle the seeds on top of the rolls before baking.
  3. Bake the rolls then immediately remove to a cooling rack to cool.

Recipe tips!

  • I dressed the top of my rolls in a trio of toppings – sesame seeds, poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds. It makes for a lovely presentation for a Thanksgiving table, but you could certainly use just one or two or none of the toppings.
  • While grabbing a hot-from-the-oven roll is always a temptation, you’ll want to avoid that and let these rolls cool completely, to prevent gummy rolls. This works perfectly for making ahead. To re-warm, simply wrap the round of rolls in aluminum foil and place in a 350F. oven for 8-10 minutes.
  • These baked rolls freeze beautifully, so don’t hesitate to make a week or so ahead, wrap well and freeze. When you’re ready to thaw them, let them thaw on the counter in their freezer wrappings until fully thawed, them re-warm as above, if desired.
Honey Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Change it up!

Substitute any cooked and mashed squash for the pumpkin in this recipe. Butternut or acorn squash would both be great!

Top tip

When it comes to dinner rolls, one of the most important things is to make sure all your rolls are the same size. Not only does it ensure that the rolls bake evenly, they just looks a lot nicer. I’m a bit of a stickler about this, so I bust out my kitchen scale and weigh them.

I start by weighing the whole piece of dough, the divide by two to get two equal weight pieces. I then divide the weight of that piece by 12, to figure out how much each roll needs to be. I then weigh each one to the required weight. It doesn’t take a lot of time. Just a bit of math :)

Honey Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Making ahead, Storing and Freezing

These rolls can be made ahead and frozen up to 2 months. Once thoroughly cooled, wrap tightly (double wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil) and freeze. Thaw wrapped at room temperature.

Rolls can be re-heated wrapped in aluminum foil in a 350F oven for 10-15 minutes or until warmed through.

Left-overs can be stored tightly wrapped at room temperature for 2 days.

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honey pumpkin rolls in baking pans

Get the Recipe: Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Delicious, light and fluffy pumpkin dinner rolls, that are lightly sweet and beautifully coloured and moistened by the addition of a bit of pumpkin puree.
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Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Rising Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Yield: 24 rolls

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 teaspoons Active Dry or Instant yeast
  • 2 teaspoons fine salt, reduce to 1 3/4 teaspoons if using salted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled plus more, as needed
  • 1 1/4 cups milk, 2% or whole
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut in to 8 pieces
  • 1/2 cup runny honey, mild liquid honey
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree, not pie filling

Before baking:

  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • Assorted toppings: poppy seeds, sesame seeds and/or pumpkin seeds

Instructions
 

  • If using Active Dry Yeast: Don't add the yeast to the flour mixture, but rather add it to the lukewarm milk mixture in Step 2, ensuring that the mixture has cooled to 105F before adding the Active dry yeast.
  • In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddie attachment, stir together the Instant yeast, salt, nutmeg and 5 cups of the flour.
  • In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter and honey. Heat over medium heat, stirring, until the butter is melted and the milk mixture is about 110F. (If it gets too warm, simply stir for a bit until the temperature reduces to this range).
  • Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients in the mixer and mix at medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree and mix for another 2 minutes. Remove the paddle attachment and scrape any dough back into the bowl. Replace with the kneading hook. Begin adding the additional 1/2 cup additional flour a bit at a time, to start, kneading between additions until you have a moist, smooth but not sticky dough that cleans the bowl and wraps the kneading hook. Knead the dough with the mixer for 3 or 4 minutes. Remove the dough to a floured work surface and knead for about 1 minute, adding additional flour only if the dough is sticking to your hands or the work surface.
  • Place the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, about 60-90 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
  • Meanwhile, grease two 9-inch round cake pans and set aside.
  • *Note: I like to use a kitchen scale to ensure my rolls all come out the same size. It ensures even cooking and it looks nicer in the pan, as well. Simply weigh out the whole piece of dough. Divide that weight by 2 to determine the weight each half should be. To divide each half in to 12 equal pieces, divide the weight of the half by 12 and make all the rolls that weight. Typically, the total dough weight should be in the 1500g range and the individual rolls in the 60g range.
  • Once the dough has doubled, remove the dough to a floured surface and gently deflate. Divide dough into two equal parts, then divide each part into 12 equal-sized pieces, for a total of 24 pieces. Form each of the pieces of dough into a ball by stretching the dough smooth for the top, then flipping over and pinching the bottom well. Place the rolls into the prepared pans with the pinched side down, placing them with 9 rolls around the outside and 3 rolls in the middle. Cover with greased plastic wrap and set to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 375F (non-convection) about 15 minutes before rising is complete. Once the rolls have doubled in size, brush the tops and sides of the rolls with the beaten egg, then sprinkle the tops of the rolls with seeds, doing 4 rolls each of sesame seed, poppy seed and pumpkin seeds or using seeds of your choice.
  • Place the pans in the preheated oven and bake for 22-25 minutes or until cooked through and lightly golden brown. *Check at the 20-minute mark and loosely cover with aluminum foil if the rolls are browned enough at that point. Allow to cool in the pan briefly, then remove the rolls as one piece from the pans to cooling racks to cool completely. Avoid tearing off rolls before the rolls have almost completely cooled to prevent gummy dough.

Notes

These rolls freeze well, so can be made ahead. Wrap tightly and freeze. Thaw in the same wrapping. Re-heat in a 350F. oven wrapped in foil until warmed, about 8-10 minutes.
Be sure to read the notes above this recipe card, where I share more detailed  tips, variations and substitution suggestions for this recipe! You’ll also find step-by-step photos that you may find helpful.
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Bread
Author: Jennifer Maloney
Serving: 1roll, Calories: 182kcal, Carbohydrates: 31g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 17mg, Sodium: 237mg, Potassium: 86mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 1740IU, Vitamin C: 0.5mg, Calcium: 25mg, Iron: 1.7mg
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