Sourdough Pumpkin Rolls
Sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls are soft, warmly spiced, and shaped like mini pumpkins for the cutest addition to your fall dinner table.
These sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls are soft, warmly spiced, and shaped like adorable little pumpkins. And because merely looking like pumpkins apparently wasn’t enough, there’s real pumpkin in the dough, too.
There’re such a fun bread to serve throughout the fall, whether you’re making a pot of chili on a cold weekend or planning a gathering feast. Add a little butter, apple butter, jam, or honey, and you’ve got a basket of tiny bread pumpkins that are almost too cute to eat. Almost!
Despite their fancy appearance, they’re really not that much harder to make than regular sourdough dinners rolls. The pumpkin shape comes from wrapping ordinary dough balls with kitchen string before baking. As the dough expands in the oven, the string creates those distinctive pumpkin ridges.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Pumpkin shaped AND pumpkin flavored: With real pumpkin and pumpkin spice, in the dough, because if we are making tiny bread pumpkins we might as well commit.
- Simple shaping: A little kitchen string does most of the work!
- Perfect for fall dinners: serve with stews, chilis, and soups, or any meal that could benefit from a warm roll on the side.
Got more pumpkin puree hanging around? Try sourdough pumpkin cinnamon rolls for a sweet fall baking project, or make cinnamon swirl pumpkin bread for a delicious treat.
How to make these dinner rolls
Here is a brief overview of the steps so you know what to expect when you walk into the kitchen. For the full set of written directions, please scroll down to the recipe card below.
Step One: Make the dough
In a large mixing bowl, combine the dough ingredients and mix until combined and a shaggy dough forms.
Cover the bowl and all the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
Step Two: Stretch and folds
With slightly damp hands, grab one side of the dough and gently stretch it upward without tearing it. Fold it over the center of the dough. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Continue until you have stretched and folded all four sides of the bowl.
Repeat this process three more times, resting the dough for about an hour in between each round, for a total of four sets of stretch and folds.
Step Three: Bulk fermentation
After the final stretch and fold, cover the bowl and allow to ferment at room temperature for about 8-12 hours. You want the dough to be noticeably increased in volume, with a puffy and aerated appearance. The surface of the dough should appear smoother, and you may see bubbles along the sides or bottom of the bowl.
Step Four: Divide and Shape
Turn the fermented dough out onto a lightly floured counter, and divide into 8 equal pieces, approximately 135 grams each.
Shape each piece into round ball by gently pulling the edges underneath to create some tension on the surface.
Cut a long piece of food safe, unflavored kitchen string and lay in across the center of one dough ball. Turn the dough and repeat, continuing until the string divides theory into 9 sections. Tie the string securely and trim away the excess.
**Important note: don’t pull the string too tight around the dough. It needs room to expand during proofing and baking.
Step Five: Final proof
Arrange the shaped rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet lightly dusted with flour. Loosely cover them and allow them to proof at room temperature until they look noticeably puffier and feel soft and airy. This can take about 1 to 3 hours.
The rolls won’t dramatically double in size. If you gently press on them with your fingertip, the indentation should slowly spring back.
Step Six: Bake
Preheat the oven to 350 F with a baking sheet on the lower rack.
Transfer the baking sheet (remove the cover first!) into the preheated oven. Carefully add 1 cup of ice cubes to the hot mental pan and immediately close the door to trap the steam.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the rolls are baked through. If you check with an instant read thermometer, the temperature should reach about 190-195 F in the center.
Allow the rolls to cool enough to handle before snipping off the kitchen string with scissors, gently pulling the string away from the rolls.
You can cut small pieces of a wooden skewer and place them in the center of each roll to look like a stem, but remember that these parts are not edible.
Baker’s Schedule
These rolls use a long overnight fermentation, so most of the time involved is completely hands off.
Day One:
- Feed sourdough starter – allow to rise until active and bubbly.
- Mix the dough and rest – 40 minutes
- Stretch and folds – 3 hours
- Bulk fermentation at room tempartire – 8 to 12 hours
Day Two:
- Divide and shape the rolls – 30 minutes
- Final proof – 1-3 hours, until noticeably puffy
- Bake – 20 to 25 minutes
- Cool – 45 minutes.
Remember to watch the dough and not the clock while making this recipe. The above timing is merely a guide, but the temperature and humidity of your house can affect the timing of this recipe.
Sourdough is better when shared
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Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Method
- Feed sourdough starter and let it become active and bubbly
- In a large glass bowl, combine the flour, water, active sourdough starter, pumpkin puree, salt and pumpkin spice.
- Mix them until they are well incorporated and the dough comes together.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel.
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Perform four sets of stretch and folds, spaced 1 hour apart.
- Wet your hands to prevent sticking.
- Grab the edge of the dough farthest from you, stretch it upwards, and fold it over itself.
- Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until you’ve done this four times.
- Cover the dough between each set.
- After the last stretch and fold, cover the dough with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 8-12 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Alternatively: Let the dough rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours, then refrigerate overnight (8-12 hours) for a slower fermentation.
- If refrigerated, remove the dough 1-2 hours before shaping to warm up slightly.
- Gently transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.
- Divide it into 8 even pieces (approximately 135g each).
- Shape each piece into a round ball by folding the edges underneath.
- Place the string across the center of the dough ball
- Turn the dough over so the string is underneath.
- Bring both ends of the string up and cross them over each other like you’re wrapping a present.
- Turn the dough over again and repeat the wrapping process, making sure the string is not pulled too tightly.
- Continue wrapping until the dough has eight distinct sections.
- Tie a double knot at the end of the string and cut off any extra string.
- Follow the same steps for the remaining dough balls.
- Place the tied dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet dusted with rice flour.
- Allow the rolls to do a final proof for 1-3 hours, until puffy and light and having increased in size but not quite doubling.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F with a baking stone or inverted baking sheet inside.
- Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven.
- Quickly add 1 cup of ice cubes to a preheated metal pan at the bottom of the oven for steam.
- Close the oven door immediately.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature that’s between 190°F and 195°F
- Remove the rolls from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Once completely cool, carefully snip away the strings with kitchen scissors.
- Enjoy your homemade sourdough pumpkin rolls!
