Pumpkin Dinner Rolls with Honey Ginger Butter

Moist, rich, and festive Pumpkin Dinner Rolls spiced with ginger, pepper, nutmeg and glazed with honey-ginger butter. Deliciously savory and gorgeous looking these rolls will be perfect to serve for Thanksgiving dinner! 

A side with pumpkin and spices is must on holiday dinner table. Don't you think? Plus these pumpkin dinner rolls are not heavy, and are also egg free. I even love serving some on side with stews, soups, or for breakfast with smear of salted butter. yummm! 

When I decided to work on this pumpkin dinner rolls recipe.. I wanted to keep it completely egg free. I think, holiday table should have sides that everyone on dinner table can enjoy. I'm talking about vegetarian guests. Since these rolls are completely egg free, even vegetarian guests can enjoy festive rich buttery bread. 

For these rolls, I decided to go with spiced savory flavors. I love pumpkin more as spiced and savory ingredient than sweet. These dinner rolls get spiced aroma from dry ginger, black pepper, hint of nutmeg, and sweetness from honey and dried cranberries. All work so well together.. I recommend please do not skip or use substitutes.

Homemade dinner rolls are my weakness. I love baking some fresh over the weekend. Half of which disappear pretty fast in dinner or lunch with soup. The other half mostly is our breakfast or second round of lunch-dinner. Homemade dinner rolls are free of preservatives, and refined flours. So these won't stay soft for a full week like store bought bread/rolls.

Here is what I do to make dinner rolls moist:

1) Make dough with milk or buttermilk. This is one error-proof method to get moist dinner rolls every time.
2) Add some fat - butter, olive oil or eggs. This make dinner rolls soft, not dense and hence keep'em moist long.

Few of my other favorite dinner roll recipes from blog: Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, Brioche Dinner Rolls, Parker House Rolls, Buttermilk Dinner Rolls.

In these pumpkin dinner rolls, there is another ingredient which help'em stay moist. i.e. Pumpkin Puree. Fresh or canned, both work for this recipe. For fresh puree, you can refer my recipe to roast and puree fresh pumpkin. If using canned, please use organic pumpkin puree for better flavor.   

Other than Pumpkin Puree which is staple in every home these days.. All ingredients for Pumpkin Dinner Rolls are pantry friendly. Chances are, you will have these in your pantry right now. If you are celebrating fall with lots of squash and pumpkin? These homemade gorgeous rolls are only 2.5 hours away. Don't wait for Thanksgiving, try'em today!

To make pumpkin dinner rolls, I mix flour, yeast with half of lukewarm milk to make a 15 minute sponge. Once sponge is ready, I mix in rest of the ingredients - remaining flour, sugar, spices, and milk to make smooth and elastic dough.

Dinner rolls dough should never be very loose but elastic and modest soft. If you use stand mixer with dough attachment, there is one sure way to tell if dough is perfect for dinner rolls. For just right softness, when kneading, add flour until dough stop climbing the hook. Only 1-2 tbsp at a time. At right point, dough will be elastic and stays in the bowl. Once I have the kneaded dough, I leave it for first rise of about 1 to 1.5 hours in a clean wide bowl. 

Once risen, I punch the dough and let it relax for 10 minutes. Then, roll and fill in a 11 inch dish or casserole sheet pan. The second rise is quick, about 30-40 minutes when dinner rolls dough rise and fill the dish fully. (picture above shows rolls dough after second rise.)

I used honey-ginger butter glaze for these rolls because I wanted to keep'em vegetarian and also wanted to give some sweetness to the crust. If you want more golden brown glazed rolls, you can also use egg wash.

I bake pumpkin rolls at 400 degrees Farnhiet for 20-22 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

One final step is to brush remaining honey-ginger butter mixture on warm just out of oven rolls for festive touch. The aroma of honey-ginger fills the kitchen with festivities.

The flavor of rolls is so so good, mild sweet and spiced.. With buttery crust, pumpkin and spice aroma, and super moist inside, these dinner rolls are simply addictive! Must try!!

This Thanksgiving serve something different for bread. I think, these aromatic sweet and spiced dinner rolls will be perfect. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Savita