These delightful Sweet Pumpkin Buns feature the comforting flavor of pumpkin along with warm spices and a hint of sweetness. A festive treat for the Fall holidays!
I’m definitely in pumpkin mode. Over the past week or so, I’ve made a zesty pumpkin and cauliflower soup, chocolate/pumpkin marble cake, and many pumpkin spice lattés. I also have plans to make my yearly pumpkin preserves next week. For today’s pumpkin indulgence, however, I wanted to try something I haven’t made before. I got the idea for these whimsical pumpkin buns from French bakers who sometimes use scissors to cut intricate designs into baguettes and other loaves of bread. Using a simplified method, I was able to make these petite buns look like mini pumpkins!
These buns are just sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but still not too sweet so as not to be overly cloying for something like breakfast. The segments peel away from each other easily and the crumb has a nice fluffy texture. I enjoy eating them as a snack with coffee or smeared with vegan butter and maple syrup or with cashew cream cheese. Eat them as soon as possible or otherwise store them in an airtight container for a day or two at most.
- ¾ cup nondairy milk
- ½ cup sugar (or sweetener of choice)
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- ¾ cup pumpkin purée
- ¼ cup oil (any neutral oil, I used a combination of coconut and sunflower)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon clove
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 3¼ cups flour
- 4 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the nondairy milk and the sugar to a simmer. You just want to dissolve the sugar, so once it dissolves, remove from heat. Remove ¼ cup of this mixture and set it aside in a small bowl for later. Add the greater amount of the mixture to a bowl of a mixer and let it cool down until it's just warm.
- When this milk mixture has cooled enough, add to it the yeast, pumpkin purée, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, vanilla and salt. Turn the mixer on low to incorporate the ingredients for around 1 minute. Now add the flour and mix until throughly combined. I like to use a dough hook attachment for this. Mix it on medium-high for around 3 minutes. The dough may appear a bit tacky, no worries though. Just oil your hands lightly and form it into a ball then oil the inside of the bowl before throwing it back in. Allow it to proof, covered and in a warm spot, for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, lightly flour your work surface and turn out the dough onto it. Use a knife to cut the dough into 8 equal-sized pieces (cut it like a pizza). Each of these pieces is then kneaded lightly, then rolled into a ball. Hold each ball in one hand while you use a pair of kitchen scissors in the other to cut 8 slits all around. Put each of the sliced balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and stick half of a cinnamon stick into the center of each one. Twist it slightly to secure it. Cover the trays of pumpkins with damp towels and let them rise again for 30 minutes in a warm location. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- When they have risen, use a pastry brush to gently brush the surfaces of each pumpkin with that ¼ cup of remaining milk and sugar mixture (from Step 1 above). Don't worry if you don't use all of this glaze. Bake them for 18-22 minutes or until they are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack thoroughly before eating (they will taste gummy if you eat them just out of the oven). Just remember not to eat the cinnamon stick... 🙂 Enjoy
-I like things a bit lighter in sweetness than some people, so if you have a crazy sweet tooth (I'm not judging 🙂 ), bump up the sugar by a couple Tablespoons to accommodate.
To make these healthier, I wonder if I could use coconut sugar and white whole wheat flour.
Hi Susan! Yes, you can use coconut sugar! I often use it in my cooking instead of evaporated cane juice/organic sugar. And also, yes, you can use white whole wheat flour but it may make for a denser bun. If you can find white whole wheat pastry flour, give that a try!
Thanks, Omar. I have ww pastry flour and white ww flour, but not white ww pastry flour. I did not even know there was such a thing.
You got me questioning now haha! I wish I still had the bag to go see what was written on it. I want to say it was Bob’s Red Mill brand but I can’t remember. I just checked their website and it says their whole wheat pastry flour is milled from “white” wheat. Maybe that’s where I was confused. If that’s the product I’ve used (and I’m almost positive it is), then I would definitely go with any ww pastry flour over the plain ww flour. I’ve used it for cakes with great results.
Yeah, I think you hallucinated that flour, LOL. I’ll go with the ww pastry flour.
HAHA Susan! 🙂 🙂
Do you have any good vegan recipes for pumpkin roll, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
Hmm… I’ll see what I can whip up!
Wondering if almond flour or coconut flour can be substituted for the wheat flour. I do not eat wheat. Also if so how much.
Hmm… because these buns have a bread-y texture, I don’t think either almond flour or coconut flour would work here. They both lack the structure to form the dough that you need. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with gluten-free flour blends (either homemade or storebought), but that would be my first choice when experimenting to make these gluten-free and wheat-free. With those, you’d want to do a 1 to 1 substitution for the wheat flour. If you do try it, I’d love to know how it turns out. 🙂
Looks fantastic! Would these keep alright if I make them the day before to save time?
Hi Sarah! Yes, if you need to make them the day before, I would keep them in an airtight container on the counter overnight. Then, the day of, just pop them into a hot oven (325 or 350) for just a few minutes before you’re ready to serve them. They will soften up like you just baked them and they’ll be warm! Good luck!
These look wonderful! You think it’s a good bun to have with thanksgiving dinner? Or is it more of a dessert?
I’m planing to make for the weekend!
Thanks JoAnna! As is, these have just a hint of sweetness. Not too too overwhelming. So I think they would go well with a Thanksgiving dinner, smeared with vegan butter or similar. If you are worried about sweetness, you can reduce the sugar in the recipe to 6 Tablespoons rather than the 1/2 cup (which is 8 Tablespoons) and maybe add just a dash more of salt. Enjoy!
Can I use regular milk in place of the non-dairy?
I’m sure you could, I’ve never used dairy milk but I bet it would be ok.
Just wondering if you could use fast action yeast and cut out the proving time? Their really tasty as is by the way! ?
Hi Teresa, yes I usually use rapid action yeast. You can probably reduce the first proofing to 30 minutes. But I wouldn’t cut it out completely because that time allows the dough to rest and relax. The second proofing is necessary, however, because it gives the pumpkin buns their plump shape and internal texture. Enjoy!
Thanks, that’s good to know. ?