Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Important Ingredients

• Sourdough Starter — Use a ripe & active sourdough starter to make a stiff sweet levain. This is what will leaven your pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls.
• Cinnamon Roll Dough — This sourdough pumpkin dough is based on my favorite sourdough cinnamon rolls. Use bread flour, whole milk, eggs, sugar and a stiff sweet levain.
• Canned Pumpkin — This recipe incorporates canned pumpkin in the dough for delicious fall flavor. Make sure you are using canned pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix.
• Unsalted Butter — I always bake with unsalted butter. It allows me to control the flavor in my baked goods — there is no standard for the amount of salt in salted butter, so you cannot predict how much salt has been added.
• Pumpkin Roll Filling — I use a filling of softened unsalted butter, brown sugar, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cornstarch, and salt.
• Brown Butter Icing — The real star of this show is the icing! This magical brown butter icing uses unsalted butter, cream cheese, milk, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and salt.

Mix the Levain

One of the reasons I advocate for making a levain instead of using straight sourdough starter is in cases like these pumpkin sourdough cinnamon rolls. Maintaining a sourdough starter at 100% hydration makes it easy for me to create a stiff sweet levain when I need it for an enriched dough. A stiff levain is a levain that mixes up to a firm consistency and is anywhere from 50%-65% hydration. It adds elasticity to dough and helps temper the acid in the sourdough, which gives all the benefit of sourdough fermentation without the tang. The sugar in the levain helps counteract the acidity and creates a more mild flavor. My sometimes picky kids are especially grateful for this!

To make a stiff sweet levain, add 10 grams of rip sourdough starter to 60 grams of all-purpose flour, 30 grams of water and 10 grams of sugar. Mix together. Note that a stiff levain will be a little more difficult to mix together, because it forms a dough ball instead of a batter. Knead the ball of dough a few times until smooth.

Place the stiff sweet levain in a liquid measuring cup and set in a warm (78-80ºF) spot for 10-12 hours. Stiff sweet levain is ready to use when it has doubled in size and has a rounded top. Using it right when it reaches its peak will help decrease the acidity in the dough.

Mixing & Bulk Fermentation

To the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, add all the dough ingredients, reserving just a little flour. Turn on the mixer and knead for a few minutes. The dough should feel tacky, not sticky. Add the rest of the flour as needed. Knead for a total of 8-10 minutes until the dough is smooth. If you don’t have a stand mixer, knead for 10-15 minutes by hand.

When your dough feels tacky and not overly sticky, put the dough in a container and cover. Set the dough in a warm, 78-80ºF place for 4 hours. During this time the dough will puff up a little and feel aerated.

Near the end of bulk fermentation, mix up the pumpkin roll filling. Add all ingredients to a small bowl, mix together with a spoon and set aside.

Shaping Dough

Prepare a 12 inch skillet or 9 by 13 inch pan. Once sourdough pumpkin dough has risen in a warm place for about 4 hours and feels puffed and aerated, roll the dough out into an approximate 18 by 12 inch rectangle. Spread the prepared pumpkin filling all over the dough, making sure to cover up to the edges of the cinnamon rolls. Starting with the dough closest to you, roll up the dough and pinch together the seam. Flip over, seam side down. Cut the log of dough into 12 pieces using a bench scraper or sharp knife, and place in pan. Cover the pan and set in a warm 80ºF place to rise.

Proofing and Optional Cold Refrigeration

Keep the dough in a warm place to rise for about 3-5 hours. Rolls will puff up, rise and almost double in size during this time. They will feel light and airy. Do not bake these rolls if they have not risen. Once the rolls have risen, place covered rolls in the refrigerator to bake the next morning. Rolls can also be baked right away with no refrigeration necessary if you don’t want to wait.

Bake the Rolls and Make Brown Butter Icing

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Take the rolls out of the refrigerator and bake immediately. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until baked all the way through and baked rolls reach 190ºF.

Brown the Butter: While the rolls bake, prepare the brown butter icing. Brown the unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. This takes about 5-10 minutes for the butter to turn golden brown. If it’s taking longer, increase the heat just a little bit. Stir constantly and watch for a buttery, nutty smell. As soon as the butter browns, remove it from the heat so it doesn’t burn—butter can burn very quickly!

Pour the butter into a small bowl, getting all those little brown bits out of the saucepan and into the bowl. Let the butter cool slightly before whisking in softened cream cheese, milk and vanilla. It may look a little curdled if the cream cheese is cold, don’t worry – it will come together. Whisk in the powdered sugar and a pinch of salt until creamy. Add a splash more milk to thin if needed. Top warm rolls with icing.

Substitutions

This dough is pretty perfect how it is, but sometimes we need to make some substitutions because we need cinnamon rolls NOW – and don’t have all the ingredients. I got you!

• Canned Pumpkin: This recipe was developed using canned pumpkin bought from the store. If you want to substitute your own pumpkin from scratch, it will have much more water content that the canned pumpkin. Make sure to drain it and adjust the flour content in the dough – adding more flour until the dough is soft and tacky – not sticky and wet.
• Stiff Levain: I like the added height and flavor the stiff levain brings to the dough, but if you want to substitute active sourdough starter, you can. Substitute equal weights of sourdough starter for stiff levain and increase the flour in the dough, adding a little at a time until the dough is soft and tacky.
• Bread Flour: All-purpose flour can be substituted for the bread flour in the dough. You may need to add a little extra flour if the dough feels wet or sticky.
• Whole Milk: Any milk will work in this recipe – 2% or a dairy-free milk will also work.

How to Store Leftovers

Leftover pumpkin cinnamon rolls can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a couple months. Re-heat individually as needed.

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