The BEST Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with cream cheese icing that can be frozen or overnight. Makes 12 soft, fluffy rolls. Perfect for fall baking! If you want to make them ahead, overnight, or freeze them before baking, you can find the instructions below!
If you've ever had my award winning Best Ever Orange Rolls Recipe, you know what a big deal these are! These are huge, delicious, bakery style cinnamon rolls with pumpkin filling and pumpkin in the dough, which make them SUPER soft and delicious.
I have a Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls and Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls recipe that I love that are also delicious, they're so soft! We bake them in the fall around Thanksgiving for weekend breakfast, and it's hard to decide between them or pumpkin cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.
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What To Expect
- Taste: Real pumpkin in the dough to make them SUPER soft, a buttery pumpkin filling, and a lovely cream cheese frosting to to drizzle over the top. All the flavors of a pumpkin pie cinnamon roll!
- Ease: Cinnamon rolls with pumpkin are relatively easy/medium level difficulty to make, they just take time, patience, and practice!
- Time: Pumpkin cinnamon rolls take about 3 hours to make from start to finish, which mostly involves the 2 hours of rising time for the first and second rise.
🛒 Key Ingredients
- Pumpkin Puree - make sure to get 100% pumpkin puree, NOT canned pumpkin pie filling, which has a lot of added sugar and spices. This recipe has its own blend!
- Sugar - brown sugar for the filling helps make a nice deeper flavor, and powdered sugar is in the cream cheese icing.
- Spices - a mix of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg are used for the pumpkin spice flavored filling.
- Egg - acts as a binder and enriches the dough to make a nice pillowy roll once they're baked!
- Yeast - I use active dry yeast, but instant yeast can be used as well!
- Milk - I use 2% or whole milk in this recipe.
- Butter - used in the dough to enrich it and make it soft and tender and the filling, to make it nice and gooey!
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- Cream Cheese - used in the icing and can be full fat, ⅓ fat, or fat free.
- Frosting - substitute out milk with maple syrup or add a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon for maple frosting or spiced cream cheese frosting.
- Milk - can be replaced with plant based milk or water.
- Spices - in place of the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg you can use pumpkin pie spice in the cinnamon roll filling. It would be equal to about 2 Tablespoons.
🧑🍳 Instructions
- Step 1. In a small bowl combine warm milk (between 100-110 F), brown sugar, and active dry yeast and let sit 5 minutes or until it's foamy. Temperature of the milk is important! If it's too hot it will kill the yeast, and too cold and it will have a hard time activating the yeast.
- Step 2 (above left). In a stand mixer (or large bowl if mixing by hand) combine pumpkin puree, salt, butter, egg, cinnamon, and 4 cups of flour. Pour foamy yeast mixture in and mix with dough hook on low speed for 5-8 minutes until smooth and elastic (if mixing without a mixer, simply mix with a wooden spoon until you can't mix anymore and then begin kneading by hand 8-10 minutes). Add another ½ to full cup of flour to make dough consistency thick and only slightly sticky. Dough should pull away from sides of bowl and not stick to fingers very much.
- Step 3 (above right). Oil a large bowl, place dough in it and cover with plastic wrap or dish towel. Let rise at room temperature for one hour or until doubled in size.
- Step 4 (above left image). In a medium bowl combine softened butter, pumpkin puree, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves and mix until smooth and creamy (above right image). Set aside.
- Step 5 (above left). On a floured work surface, roll dough into roughly a 24 inch by 10-12 inch rectangle. I stop occasionally and shape it with my hands to keep a rectangular shape.
- Step 6 (above right). Spread the pumpkin filling onto the dough to coat the entire rectangle.
- Step 7. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the filling.
- Step 8. Carefully roll the dough up lengthwise into a long roll, keeping the filling inside. It should be about 24 inches (61cm) long.
- Step 9. Use a piece of clean string or dental floss and slide the string underneath the roll. Pick up both ends of the string, cross them, and pull tight to cut the dough into 12 equal pieces, about 2 inches (5cm) wide each.
- Step 10. Place rolls cut side down into an oiled 9x13 inch (or 11x18 in) pan, being careful not to crowd the rolls so they have room to rise. Cover with a dish towel, and let rise for 45 minutes to one hour until almost doubled in size.
- Step 11. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine softened cream cheese and butter and mix until most of the lumps are gone. I microwave them for 10-20 seconds to soften them enough to mix. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, one Tablespoon at a time until smooth. I like my icing thicker like frosting. Add 2-3 more tablespoons milk if you prefer a thinner glaze.
- Step 12 (above left). Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until light golden brown on top. Using a glass or dark pan may take more or less time. Cool 20 minutes before icing.
- Step 13 (above right). Generously spoon icing over rolls to coat evenly. Serve warm for maximum deliciousness.
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
- Use 2% or whole fat milk instead of water in the dough and icing. Always. It tastes better and enriches the dough along with eggs and butter for soft and tender cinnamon rolls.
- Allow enough time for both rises. The rolls will be fluffier and less dense, and the longer the yeast grows and ferments the more flavorful the dough will be.
- Add maple syrup to the glaze instead of milk for a maple frosting!
❓Frequently Asked Questions
1. Follow recipe to make dough, fill, roll, and cut dough into 12 rolls and place cut side down onto a baking sheet or 9x13 inch pan.
2. Cover with plastic wrap. Do not let rise first or they will deflate in the refrigerator. Cooling the dough simply slows yeast growth, it does not kill it.
3. Place in fridge overnight.
4. Remove from refrigerator and let rise for 30-40 minutes in warm place before baking. I like to turn on the oven to 200 F for 2 minutes, then turn off the oven and set the rolls inside to rise with the door cracked open.
5. Bake at 350 F for 35-30 min. Glass pans will take a few more minutes to bake than dark pans.
Yes!
1. Follow directions to make dough, fill, roll, and cut dough into rolls and place into foil lined pan so edges are not touching, and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer immediately, do not let rise first or they will deflate in the freezer. 2.Once frozen, transfer to freezer bag or airtight freezer safe container.
3. Freeze until ready to use up to 3 months. Do NOT microwave dough to thaw. It will kill the yeast.
4. Regular rise method: Remove from freezer, thaw in warm place (covered) for 3-5 hours or until almost doubled in size.
Quicker rise method: Turn ON oven to 200 degrees for 2 minutes then turn OFF oven. Place rolls in oven and let thaw and rise 2-3 hours until almost doubled in size.
5. Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes. Glass pans will take a few more minutes to bake than dark pans.
Yes! I'd replace the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and and nutmeg with the pumpkin spice, it would equal about 2 Tablespoons of pumpkin spice.
Does it matter if I use bread flour vs all purpose flour?
I've used both and haven't noticed a large difference. Bread flour has a higher protein content, which helps in gluten development and makes bread light and chewy. I use it more for whole wheat breads or homemade soft pretzels.
Active dry yeast has a larger granule that needs to be activated by liquid such as water or milk before adding to other ingredients. I prefer to use this kind of yeast because the slightly longer process of fermentation makes more flavorful doughs.
Instant or rapid yeast has a smaller, finer granule can be mixed directly into ingredients. It is slightly more potent than active dry yeast however, and about 25% less is needed in any given recipe. ¾ teaspoon instant (rapid) yeast = 1 teaspoon active dry yeast.
Any baker worth their salt will also tell you to keep the instant yeast away from direct contact with the salt while mixing together though, because salt slows yeast growth.
🎃 More Delicious Pumpkin Recipes
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📝 Printable Recipe
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 cup warm milk - between 100-110 F 236 mL
- ¼ cup brown sugar 56 g
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast or instant
- ¾ cup 100 % pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling) 185 g
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons butter salted, 56 g
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 5 cups all purpose flour 580 g
For the filling:
- ½ cup (1 stick butter) room temperature 113 g
- ½ cup 100% pure pumpkin puree (not pie filling) 125 g
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ Tablespoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 4 Tablespoons flour 35
- 1 cup brown sugar 225 g
For the icing:
- 4 oz. cream cheese softened, 113 g
- 4 Tablespoons butter softened, 56 g
- 2 cups powdered sugar 242 g
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a small bowl combine warm milk (between 100-110 F), brown sugar, and active dry yeast and let sit 5 minutes or until foamy. If using instant yeast, simply combine all dough ingredients. Just keep the yeast away from direct contact with the salt when combining ingredients (salt slows yeast growth).
- In a stand mixer (or large bowl if mixing by hand) combine pumpkin puree, salt, butter, egg, cinnamon, and 4 cups of flour. Pour foamy yeast mixture in and mix with dough hook on low speed for 5-8 minutes until smooth and elastic (if mixing without a mixer, simply mix with a wooden spoon until you can't mix anymore and then begin kneading by hand 8-10 minutes). Add another ½ to full cup of flour to make dough consistency thick and only slightly sticky. Dough should pull away from sides of bowl and not stick to fingers very much.
- Oil a large bowl, place dough in it and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for one hour or until doubled in size.
For the filling:
- In a medium bowl combine everything except brown sugar: softened butter, pumpkin puree, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves and mix until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
- On a floured work surface, roll dough into roughly a 24 inch by 10-12 inch rectangle. I stop occasionally and shape it with my hands to keep a rectangular shape.
- Spread filling onto dough to coat entire rectangle, then sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the filling.
- Carefully roll dough lengthwise into a long roll. Use a piece of clean string or dental floss and slide the string underneath the roll. Pick up both ends of the string, cross them, and pull tight to cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. Place rolls cut side down into an oiled 9x13 inch pan, being careful not to crowd the rolls so they have room to rise. Cover with a dish towel, and let rise for 45 minutes to one hour until almost doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until light golden brown on top. Using a glass or ceramic needs more bake time, a dark pan needs less. Cool 20 minutes before icing.
For the icing:
- In a medium bowl combine cream cheese, butter and mix until most of the lumps are gone. I microwave them for 10-20 seconds to soften them enough to mix. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, one Tablespoon at a time until smooth. I like my icing thicker like frosting. Add 2-3 more tablespoons milk if you prefer a thinner glaze. Generously spoon icing over rolls to coat evenly. Serve warm for maximum deliciousness.
Rachel says
This is the most delicious recipe ever and i love using my garden pumpkin in it. I always get raving reviews! I made this with the base in the bread machine on the dough setting, then cut and rise .
Sheryl Harper says
Could you possibly add a touch of maple syrup to the frosting?
Sara says
I haven’t tested it but I’m sure you could substitute some of the liquid in the frosting with maple syrup.
Sounds delicious!
Hailey says
Is it just me or was there nearly not enough pie filling?
Annie Hartley says
These really were the best!!! The dough was so soft and easy to work with!! I will add nuts next time!!
Thank You!
Sara says
I add nuts sometimes too depending on my mood, I’m glad you guys enjoyed them, you’re very welcome! 😊
Rosa says
Made them and loved them. The filling was perfect and they didn't last very long! Saving this recipe for sure