I decided to skip this weeks recipe for Malted Madeleines. I rarely eat madeleines, though the few times I have had them I really enjoyed them. But I don’t have the right pan for them, (though apparently you can use a mini muffin pan, who knew!). I also have company visiting this weekend, so I wanted to make something that we could have for breakfast. Which lead me this Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Recipe. Bonus, I knew that I could make them ahead of time and freeze them until I needed them. I’ve also had some frozen pumpkin puree sitting in my freezer, the remains of some thanksgiving decorations from months ago.
And wow these were amazing. And easy! I think that making cinnamon rolls are a lot easier than making a cake, and they’re a lot less fussy. It’s a basic yeast dough, with the addition of pumpkin and lots of cinnamon. Rolling out the dough is easy, though cutting the rolls can be a bit tricky without squishing them. I found that rubbing my knife with a bit of oil between each cut made it much easier. I think you can also use unflavored dental floss. It doesn’t really matter if your rolls are cut into perfect, clean circles, they will still be delicious. There’s not a lot of distinct pumpkin flavor to these, though they did come out very moist. I looooove cinnamon. (I even tried a cinnamon refried bean recipe once-which was terrible, as I expected, but I thought I would give it a chance.) I learned from my mom that most spiced recipes can be vastly improved by doubling or tripling the amount of cinnamon called for. I’ve been doing that for years with pumpkin pie and other cinnamon-y desserts, and it really makes a difference with these cinnamon rolls as well. I can’t even describe how good my house smelled while these were baking.
The only problem that I had with this recipe is that the dough didn’t rise at all. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen. My yeast is fine, I just made a great pizza dough a couple of weeks ago. And it foamed when I mixed it in with warm milk. A google search revealed another baker who had an identical problem with this recipe, and luckily hers baked up just fine, rising in the oven to look just like delicious cinnamon rolls. I know that cinnamon can inhibit yeast growth. Another theory is just that the pumpkin itself slowed down the rising process. Oh well, yeast can act in mysterious ways, and once baked they turned out beautifully.
I made a simple powdered sugar glaze to go on top, and I added some pecans to the cinnamon mix. They were a huge hit, I would highly recommend that everyone try them.