Pumpkin Dinner Rolls - Egg Free and Full of Pumpkin Flavor! (2024)

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls are egg free and filled with pumpkin spice flavor. This quick and easy pumpkin recipe makes the perfect bread for Thanksgiving dinner.

One of our most popular recipes are our buttery soft rolls, but today I’m sharing with you a pumpkin dinner rolls recipe that is giving that fluffy dinner roll a little competition!

Meet my favorite new recipe…Pumpkin Yeast Rolls that are egg free, soft, and have a lightly pumpkin spice flavor. If you’re hesitant to work with yeast, this is the recipe to start with. I promise they are easy!

Ingredients

A few notes about the ingredients:

• I use instant yeast, but active dry yeast will work as well. Either way, I activate the yeast in the warm milk before adding the other ingredients.
• Buy solid-pack pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling, which is already seasoned and sweetened. Or, you can use homemade pumpkin puree.
• I recommend bread flour for the pumpkin rolls. Bread flour gives the rolls more structure than all-purpose, which is important when they are no eggs in the recipe. All-purpose flour will work in a pinch.

Make the dough.

There are 3 ways to mix the dough.

• By hand:Mixing dough by hand is the most traditional method and allows you to develop a feel for the dough’s texture as it comes together.
• With a stand mixer. A stand mixer, equipped with a dough hook attachment, is a popular choice for mixing bread dough, as it requires less manual effort and can be more consistent.
• Bread machine on dough setting. By far the easiest method (which means it is my favorite 😉 ) is using the bread machine’s dough setting. Add the ingredients to the machine’s bread pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer, typically starting with the wet ingredients followed by the dry ingredients and topped with yeast. The press the “dough” button.

Although the bread machine is the method I use the most, the process I’m showing today is with using a stand mixer.

• Warm the milk in a bowl in the microwave for just about 1 minute until it is reaches 115ºF. Pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and allow it to activate for 3-4 minutes.
• Add in the sugar, pumpkin, softened butter, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla. Use the beater blade on low speed to mix this just until combined. About 30 seconds.
• Add in 2 cups of flour and the salt. Mix about 30 seconds until combined. Then add in the remaining 2 cups of flour. Mix just until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Allow the mixture to rest for 5 minutes.
• Remove the beater blade and place the dough hook on the stand mixer. Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes on low speed. Add more flour a tablespoon at a time as needed during kneading. The dough should still feel sticky and tacky to the touch, but it should not be so wet that it sticks all over your hands. As the dough turns in the stand mixer bowl, it will pull away from the sides, but may stick to the bottom slightly. This is ok and shows the dough is not too dry.

Let the dough rise.

If the dough is in a warm place, it should only take 30 minutes or so for the first rise until nearly double. Is your house cold? Try one our tips for getting dough to rise.

Shape the rolls.

Once the dough has risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut the dough into 12 dough balls of the same size.

Roll them into round balls and place them into a greased 9×13″ baking pan.

Final rise and bake.

Cover and rise in a warm place for 15-20 minutes while the oven is pre-heating to 375ºF. It’s ok if they don’t rise too much at this point. They’ll pop up during baking.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with butter when they come out of the oven. Even better yet? Brush with honey butter or cinnamon butter. 😋

How do you reheat dinner rolls?

To reheat dinner rolls, set the oven to 300ºF. Brush the top of the rolls with melted butter and place them on a baking sheet. Warm for 7-8 minutes or until the rolls are warm. The butter helps the tops from getting dried out.

Other Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes

• Grandma’s Stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Christmas Green Beans
• Corn Casserole