Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Who doesn't love this time of year? I know I do. My favorite thing about fall is all the pumpkin goodies that get shared around my block. Of course we all battle to outdo each other and there are some pretty amazing dishes shared. This one I made for the first time about three years ago. I made it almost directly as written but after making them and eating them I realized that they needed a cream cheese frosting to take them over the top. All the comments from neighbors was they were good but really needed a cream cheese frosting. Well this year I decided to make these again and make the requested cream cheese frosting. I haven't heard back from the neighbors yet but based on the reactions my kids had the cream cheese frosting did make these truly delicious.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
adapted slightly from King Arthur Flour

1 cup canned pumpkin or squash
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup lukewarm water (adjust to your climate, wet needs less dry needs more)
1/4 cup soft butter
2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Mix to combine. Knead till smooth, sticky is okay, your looking for it to hold its shape.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or other container. Cover, and let rise for 1 1/2 hours, until it’s puffy, though not necessarily doubled in bulk.

Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Roll the dough into a 14” x 22” rectangle. It’ll be very thin. Don’t stress if you can’t make it exactly 14” x 22”.

3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Spread the melted butter over the rolled dough. Combine sugar and cinnamon and the sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough. Leave one edge clean. Starting with the end with filling, roll the dough into a log. Seal it closed. Next, you’re going to cut it into 9 rolls. It helps to use a ruler and measure the entire log, divide by 9, then actually make slight cuts, as a guide. A serrated knife is the easiest way to cut this dough. If things start getting too sticky, rinse the knife in hot water (don’t dry it), and continue. There you have it: 9 fat rolls.

Lay the rolls in a lightly greased 9” square pan; the pan needs to be at least 2” deep. Flatten them with your fingers, so they’re fairly tightly packed. Then cover, and let them rise for 1 hour, or until they look puffy – like this. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the rolls for 25 to 30 minutes, until they’re lightly browned and feel set.

Remove them from the oven, and set them on a rack. Turn them out of the pan, and allow them to cool for about 15 minutes. Towards the end of the cooling time, make the frosting.


Cream cheese frosting:
4 oz room temp cream cheese
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla
combine with mixer until smooth. spread over the top of warm rolls.

Rustic Dinner Rolls Second Place Winner

I entered one of my favorite roll recipes in the Davis County Fair this year. I ended up taking second place. These are a favorite roll of mine. They are simple in ingredients and relatively simple to make. They do require some time and a tiny bit of work but the effort is worth it. Tomorrow I'll be posting my first place cookie recipe.

Rustic Dinner Rolls
Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2008 issue

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water (12 1/2 ounces), room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
2 teaspoons honey
3 cups plus 1 tablespoon bread flour (16 1/2 ounces), plus extra for forming rolls
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour (about 1 ounce)
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

Instructions
1. Whisk water, yeast, and honey in bowl of stand mixer until well combined, making sure no honey sticks to bottom of bowl. Add flours and mix on low speed with dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature 30 minutes.

2. Remove plastic wrap and evenly sprinkle salt over dough. Knead on low speed (speed 2 on KitchenAid) 5 minutes. (If dough creeps up attachment, stop mixer and scrape down using well-floured hands or greased spatula.) Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing 1 minute. Lightly spray 2-quart bowl with nonstick cooking spray; transfer dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Fold dough over itself; rotate bowl quarter turn and fold again. Rotate bowl again and fold once more. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let dough rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

4. Transfer dough to floured work surface, sprinkle top with more flour. Using bench scraper, cut dough in half and gently stretch each half into 16-inch cylinders. Divide each cylinder into quarters, then each quarter into 2 pieces (you should have 16 pieces total), and dust top of each piece with more flour. With floured hands, gently pick up each piece and roll in palms to coat with flour, shaking off excess, and place in prepared cake pan. Arrange 8 dough pieces in each cake pan, placing one piece in middle and others around it, with long side of each piece running from center of pan to edge and making sure cut-side faces up. Loosely cover cake pans with plastic wrap and let rolls rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes (dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with finger). Thirty minutes before baking, adjust rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees.

5. Remove plastic wrap from cake pans, spray rolls lightly with water, and place in oven. Bake 10 minutes until tops of rolls are brown; remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees; using kitchen towels or oven mitts, invert rolls from both cake pans onto rimmed baking sheet. When rolls are cool enough to handle, turn right-side up, pull apart, and space evenly on baking sheet. Continue to bake until rolls develop deep golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 10 to 15 minutes; rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Transfer rolls to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Raspberry Honey Rolls

I came across this recipe via the Hive, a blog filled with Utah food bloggers. Kitty at Fahrenheit 350 posted about her blog so I headed on over to check her out. I noticed these rolls and thought they sounded so good. I had raspberries from the CSA pickup so I thought a perfect way to use those raspberries. I was right. These are so truly yummy rolls. They smelled delicious while cooking and it was really hard to wait a few minutes for them to cool enough to eat. They were sweet without being overly sweet. They were easy to make and I see myself using the dough recipe to try other fruit filled rolls.

Raspberry Honey Rolls
from Kitty at Fahrenheit 350

Dough:
Melt 8 oz sour cream & 2 tablespoons raspberry juice over low heat until warmed.
Add:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 package yeast (2 ½ teaspoons)
Stir into sour cream mixture until dissolved and smooth

Pour mixture into mixing bowl, add:
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 egg
Knead together until smooth

Add 1-2 cups additional flour until dough is slightly tacky

Filling:
1 cup raspberries + 2 tablespoons sugar
Let germinate for 1 hour, then add 2 tablespoons creamed honey
Stir to incorporate.


Roll dough out to ½ inch, spread filling over dough.
Roll dough up lengthwise, pinch ends together, cut into whirlpools and press into prepared pans.
Will make 12 rolls when using a standard sized muffin tin.
*I used a muffin tin greased with vegetable oil and butter.

Bake at 375°F, 15-20 minutes, release from pan.

Glaze:
1 tablespoon creamed honey
1 teaspoon whipping cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
Whisk together and smooth, drape over rolls while hot.

Easy Herb Dinner Rolls

I've been wanting to give something like this a try for awhile now. A little different then the rolls I usually make and they were a huge hit. There are two ways you could do this. One by using the frozen Rhodes rolls or the second being making your own rolls. Either way its a nice change for a simple dinner roll.

batch of roll dough or the frozen Rhodes rolls
4 tablespoons melted butter, separated into 2 tablespoon portions
Johnny's garlic and cheese seasoning

I used two tablespoons melted butter on the bottom of the pan I was cooking the rolls in. I then sprinkled about 1 tablespoon of the Johnny's seasoning on top of the butter. I placed the rolls in the pan and let rise according to the directions of the recipe/package.
When they were ready to bake I spread the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over the rolls and then sprinkled another tablespoon of Johnny's seasonings over the rolls. I baked according to package/recipe directions.

French Bread Rolls

So I found a new food blog, http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/, and she had a recipe for French bread rolls that called for simple ingredients. I have to say these rolls are delicious. They smell so good when cooking. I actually had a neighbor come and ask what I was cooking because it smelled so good. I usually try a recipe exactly the way it states the first time through but I ran out of white flour after 3 1/4 cups of flour so I added some of the amaranth flour that I had. These are a new go to roll recipe for this house.

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12-14 equal pieces, and form into round balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth (or greased saran wrap), and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake for 12-13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.