I wish they would sell cinnamon roll incense...

Last Friday, we decided to eat leftovers and pick around things in the fridge...basically lots of snacking.   I did still want to cook something though so I searched my recipes and decided on something sweet.  In the happy spirit of Fall, I decided to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  The process went like this:

all purpose flour

pumpkin puree

brown sugar

yeast

cinnamon

nutmeg

eggs

butter

ginger

sugar

warm milk

cream cheese

confectioners sugar

vanilla

To start, I browned butter in a small pot.  The butter was cooked until it started to bubble and then for a couple of minutes after that.  The butter will develop a brown color and will form some little bits on the bottom.  This gives it a nutty flavor which is delicious!

Once that was done, the milk and yeast were combined in a small bowl and allowed to sit for about 5 minutes.  Next, I started on the dough.  The dry ingredients were put in the bowl of an electric mixture with some of the brown butter.  Then the milk/yeast, pumpkin, and egg were added and mixed with the dry ingredients. Once it was combined, I switched to the dough hook and let it mix for about 5 minutes or so on low.  Every now and then, I would stop the mixture to scrape down the bowl. 

The dough was put into another bowl with veggie oil and covered with a warm towel.  I put it in the oven since it was kinda cold in the house and let it sit for about an hour.  Once the dough about doubled in size, I rolled it out and formed the rolls.  I made sure to generously flour the surface and the top of the dough.  Once the dough was to size, I brushed some brown butter on it and then covered it with a brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mixture.

I then rolled the dough and then cut it into cinnamon rolls and put them into a buttered pan.  I made half a recipe b/c I knew we wouldn't eat all of them and if we did, it would be no bueno.  These then sat again in the pan with a warm damp towel for about 45 min until they rose some more.

The rolls went into the oven and baked for about 25 minutes.  While these were cooking, I made the cream cheese frosting which was confectioners sugar, whipped cream cheese, and vanilla.

When the cinnamon rolls came out of the oven, I frosted them while they were still hot so the frosting would melt a little onto them.

These were so good!! They weren't as pumpkin-like as I thought they would be but that was ok.  They had such a good texture of being light and airy but still crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.  They were much less dense than cinnamon rolls usually are which I really liked.  Eric and I couldn't stop eating them.  We had one left 3 days later and even though it was almost stale, we ate it anyway.  They were surprisingly not too sweet and even better with a cup of milk.  This was a perfect cold, fall day snack.