Pumpkin Butter Cinnamon Rolls

With the holidays coming up, there's still plenty of time to treat yourself and loved ones to baked goods inspired by fall flavors. Overnight guests always warrant something extra special for breakfast and in my opinion, there are few better ways to wake up in the morning than to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking. Let me tell you how much I would have preferred waking up to these cinnamon rolls instead of waking up to my boyfriend crawling into bed at 5 am after he'd been paged into the children's hospital sometime after midnight. Unfortunately for him, after just a few hours of sleep, he had to head back to the hospital for morning rounds. Though he didn't get to wake up to the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls either, he did get to come home to the two we saved him (and breakfast tacos)!

Now, here's a trick. You can make these as sticky buns by putting the topping in the bottom of the pan and flipping the rolls out of the pan after baking. Alternatively, you can make them extra beautiful and clean-eating by pouring the topping over the rolls before baking. You can even make them in muffin tins (or prep bowls like I did) for lovely muffin-like edges.

Objective
Make cinnamon rolls with cushaw squash butter as the filling based on my Apple Butter Sticky Buns.

Materials
(This recipe makes 8 rolls)
Dough:
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream, light works fine)
1 1/2-2 1/2 cups bread flour (depending on the amount of moisture in your dough)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch ginger

Filling:
1/2 cup pumpkin/winter squash butter (see Supplementary Materials)
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Topping:
1 1/4 tsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 pecan halves

Methods
1. To prepare the dough: Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (120º-130ºF) and let proof for 5 minutes. Stir in squash puree, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and sour cream. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, mixing well. If the dough is still very sticky (tacky is fine), add more flour (about 2 tbsp. at a time). You want the dough to be tacky, even a tiny bit sticky is ok. Knead it a few times to make a smooth ball. Move the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and rise to double (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Punch the dough down and rise to double again (about 1 hour). Pat the dough out to a 16" by 12" rectangle.

2. To prepare the topping: During the final rise, prepare the topping. Stir together the melted butter and the honey/syrup. Pour into an ungreased 8" cake pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Set aside.

3. To make the rolls: Spread the dough with apple butter (leaving a 2 inch border along one long edge). Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough, starting with the long apple buttery edge to the edge with the 2" border. Use a knife to mark where to cut for 8 rolls. Then, use dental floss to cut the rolls. Slide a long piece of dental floss (about 12" should work) under the roll at one of your division marks. Switch each end to the other hand to form a loop, and pull. You should have a nice clean edge. Place a pecan on the clean edge and place the roll pecan-side down in your pan (for sticky buns) or up for cinnamon rolls, spacing the 8 rolls evenly over the prepared topping. Cover the rolls and let rise 30 minutes (if you're planning to bake them right away) or put them in the fridge to rise overnight. If you're chilling over night, make sure to take the buns out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes prior to baking, but 60 minutes is better (you want to get the chill off and give the yeast a chance to increase its rate of metabolism).

4. To bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cake pan with risen rolls on a sheet pan to catch drips. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden on top. Take the pan out of the oven. If you made sticky buns, loosen the edge with a knife (you can skip this if you use a non-stick pan) and flip out onto a parchment paper-lined plate. If you made cinnamon rolls, they can cool in the pan. Cool 15-30 minutes before serving.

Results
The cinnamon rolls are golden brown and lightly sweet. The sticky buns are sweeter and (not surprisingly) sticky!


Discussion and Future Directions
Pumpkin butter has a unique flavor. It's similar to apple butter but has a hint of squash flavor. Consequently, these cinnamon rolls taste like cinnamon rolls with a hint of squash flavor with a strong pecan flavor. If you want to focus the flavor on pumpkin, leave the chopped pecans out of the filling. If you don't like pecans, other nuts could be substituted, maybe try walnuts or hazelnuts, but there's something special about a candied pecan baked into the top of these cinnamon rolls.

Supplementary Materials

Pumpkin/Winter Squash Butter
2 cups pureed winter squash
1/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. clove
Simmer all ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat and move it to a covered container. Store in the fridge. Lasts 3-4 weeks.