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 my overnight or freezing instructions below.
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos and a few more success tips.
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.
One reader, Sarah, commented: “I just made these today for the first time and they were DIVINE. So perfect. All my friends were raving about them. I wish I made 2 batches!!! The dough came out perfectly and the flavor was just out of this world. I’ve made Sally’s regular cinnamon rolls several times and they’re always a crowd favorite, but these are on another level!! ★★★★★“
Another reader, Ariana, commented: “By far the most outstanding cinnamon rolls, they’re perfect EVERY time. ★★★★★“
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 this giant 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. If you’re new to baking with yeasted doughs, or if you want a quick refresher, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial will be helpful with this step. The dough will be very soft. After kneading, 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 pumpkin for breakfast, you’ll definitely enjoy sinking your teeth into this pumpkin French toast casserole, a stack of pumpkin spice waffles, or a batch of mini cinnamon sugar pumpkin muffins. And don’t forget homemade pumpkin coffee creamer for your coffee! 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.
More Cinnamon Roll Varieties:
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Blueberry Sweet Rolls with Lemon Glaze
- Raspberry Sweet Rolls (my favorite!!)
- Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls
- Maple Pecan Sticky Buns
- Lemon Sweet Rolls
- Orange Sweet Rolls
- Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls
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 (28g) 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 (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for hands and work surface
Filling
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) 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 (113g) full-fat brick 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 silicone 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 switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- 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 baking dish, 9-inch 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: You can freeze cinnamon rolls for up to 3 months, and I recommend a few different methods for freezing cinnamon rolls. The first method is to freeze them after shaping, before they’ve had their 2nd rise (step 6). Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let rise for 1.5–2 hours at room temperature before baking. The second method is to par-bake the risen rolls for 10 minutes, let cool completely, then cover and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. Finish baking for 15–20 minutes. You can also freeze fully baked cinnamon rolls. See How to Freeze Cinnamon Rolls for more details about all of these methods.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl | Silicone Spatula or Wooden Spoon | Whisk | 9-inch Square Baking Dish, 9-inch Round Baking Dish, 9×13-inch Baking Dish or 11×7-inch Baking Dish | Rolling Pin | Cooling Rack | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Excellent!! I very much enjoyed these. They were pleasantly sweet, with a mild pumpkin flavor that was by no means overpowering nor to subtle. The texture, too, was delightful and I felt that these, over all, were extremely well balanced.
They deserve every star given and then some!
These have such a pretty color and a wonderful texture, the taste was excellent as well. I actually refrigerated the dough overnight after kneading it but before shaping it; I let it finish rising as much as I could out of the fridge the next day before shaping it (time constraints), then let the rolls rise before baking them and they turned out great.
These are so tasty!! The added makes the dough soft and less dry than some other cinnamon roll recipes. The pumpkin flavor was pretty mild, so they were loved by the whole family.
The pumpkin cinnamon rolls are so soft and fluffy! They didn’t have too strong of a pumpkin taste, which is a plus for me. The recipe was very easy to follow and the tip about windowpane was helpful! However, my frosting struggled. It was not thick and creamy like in Sally’s video; it was more liquidy that had to be scooped and poured over the rolls rather than spread over with a spatula. I’m not sure where it went wrong but the maple and cream cheese flavor was great.
These turned out really good. I garnished them with roasted salted pepitas, because I saw them and was like, yes!
Probably going to make another batch today with the leftover pumpkin!
This is the first cinnamon roll recipe I have made and it did not disappoint! It’s full of fall flavors and the instructions were easy to follow. I did have to adjust the cooking instructions a bit since I’m in a higher elevation but they came out amazing! Thank you for this recipe and for all the ones you have posted. I Have made so many of them and they never let me down!
The pumpkin cinnamon rolls with maple cream cheese frosting are full of fall flavor! The recipe is clear, I added some extra flour to the dough and it came together. They do take time but turned out great. I made them in a 13×9 and they had room to spread out. I would recommend them for a fall breakfast or breakfast for dinner!
These were very good. I was afraid it was not working out right, because the dough was still very sticky, but it did rise enough and baked up nice and soft. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice added a lot of flavor.
Oh good heavens, I want it to be my last meal ever. Delicious in every inch. Saved recipe for the life. Thank you so much!!!
These are amazing!
Soo good! Looked so super pretty and would totally make these again!
Delicious! Turned out perfectly!
hi! in the recipe for the icing it says 4oz of cream cheese which is half of a standard block (they’re 8oz) but in the video you use a whole block. How much cream cheese should we be using? thank you
Hi Abby, use only 1/2 of a block of cream cheese. I’m not sure why the video shows the full block, but thank you for noticing that. I’ll see if we can adjust that.
SO Simple! They are simple, delicious, and beautiful. Definitely a go-to recipe when craving a sweet breakfast option.
Great cinnamon buns! The maple frosting in particular is amazing – it’s even better the second day.
These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are a delicious twist to the classic cinnamon roll! Definitely a new Fall favorite!
The rolls hardly browned, but they were very soft so the aluminum foil probably helped with that. I left put the icing since I didn’t have cream cheese on hand, but I should try it next time!
Delicious pumpkin spice flavour! I checked the rolls after 15 minutes in the oven, and they weren’t browning at all, so I skipped the aluminum foil tenting. By the end of the bake, they had started to brown and were slightly crisp in the corners. If you like your rolls very soft, the aluminum foil would be a good idea. This is the second “roll” recipe I’ve tried from the site and both were fantastic – looking forward to trying them all!
I made these and missed the part of tenting entirely until I saw your comment. They still came out fabulous and will remember to try tenting next time!
These were absolutely amazing!! So good I’m ready to make another batch.
Just wondering if using bread flour, like in some other cinnamon rolls recipes would change the texture much? Also, could this be scaled to make them slightly larger – these seemed a lot smaller.
Hi Jonetta, we’re so glad you enjoyed these! You can use the same amount of bread flour here instead.
These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are amazing! I really appreciate the step by step directions and tips to yield the best outcome. I find yeast dough daunting, but I feel more confident after this bake. The outcome was a tender pillows roll. And maple syrup in the frosting was genius! Thank you for the fantastic recipe.
I’m in the UK and we don’t have canned pumpkin here. Is there an alternative (e.g. baking a pumpkin and puréeing the pumpkin flesh? The recipe sounds delicious and I’d love to make it!
Hi Nikki, other readers have reported making fresh pumpkin puree this way: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pumpkin-puree-recipe-1922629
These were pretty easy to make. I did the overnight rest so we could have fresh rolls in the morning. The rolls are nice and soft. The maple cinnamon icing is a must.
Great flavor!! The frosting came out a bit lumpy but still delicious! Did it for the October challenge.
What’s the best way to store and reheat?
Hi Stephanie, 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. You can reheat individual rolls in the microwave, or you can cover the pan lightly with foil and warm in the oven.
Do you roll it up on the 10″ side or the 14″? Help!
Hi Mary! Roll it so you have a 14 inch roll to slice.
10/10 once again!! This recipe was so easy to make and of course, so delicious, too!! My boyfriend has already requested that I make TWO batches of these cinnamon rolls for his family when we’re over for Thanksgiving!
This recipe was a hit!!! They were so soft and delicious.
Am I able to cut them smaller so they’re around mini size, or would that affect the baking time, etc?
Hi Izzy, we haven’t tried making these into mini rolls but might start by shaping the dough into two 6×18 inch rectangles and try rolling them that way. You won’t get as much of the filling in each roll though!
I’m making these today. They rose beautifully and they are cooking right now. The icing is to die for. Thank you
Can I make the filling without the cinnamon and just the pumpkin spice?
You certainly can, but the flavor will change quite a bit without the cinnamon.
These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are delicious! They are so soft and flavorful–a great autumn recipe!
Yum! I used my bread machine on dough setting. Repeated the knead cycle to get the windowpane effect. I had to add about 2 more tablespoons of pumpkin puree because I live in the desert and the dough was dry. I formed the rolls and refrigerated overnight. It took about 1 & 3/4 hours on my oven’s proof setting to get the rise I was looking for. I doubled the icing because I could. Then sprinkled with toasted pecans. Man! These were delicious!