It’s almost Thanksgiving and the pumpkin craze is still in full swing here at P&R. We have an affinity for the Cinnamon Streusel Brioche Bread we whipped up several months ago. We’ve made this into cinnamon rolls, stuffed it with dried cranberries and pecans, and even rolled it up with apples! (We promise we’ll share these renditions with you).
This time we decided since it’s fall, and we’re doing all things pumpkin right now, we’d give this recipe a fresh pumpkin twist, thus these Pumpkin Cinnamon Brioche Rolls. For an early morning breakfast or mid-morning brunch for guests, this is a great way to serve up some wholesome goodness in style. It’s a bit more involved, but I assure you it’s worth every step.
The whole process starts with making your base brioche bread, it’s very similar to the streusel brioche bread recipe, however this time we’ll add some pumpkin pureé. We rolled out the dough between two pieces of wax paper (it really helps to keep the dough from sticking) and shaped it into a nice rectangle with the dough about 1/4 inch thick. We set the dough in the fridge to chill for 1/2 hour to firm up a bit, and then slathered it with our cinnamon, brown sugar and butter mixture and rolled it up into a log. Again back to the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then remove from the fridge and cut into 1 inch thick slices to make approximately 12 rolls.
We have a confession on this one, we only made six rolls and laid the remaining half of the log in a bread pan and made a nice brioche loaf (equally as delicious!). So here’s the yummy recipe!
Pumpkin Cinnamon Brioche Rolls
Ingredients:
For the Brioche:
1/2 cup Warm Water
3 tsp Fast Acting Yeast
1 1/2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
3-3 1/2 cups Flour
1/3 cup Pumpkin Purée
3 Extra Large Eggs
12 tablespoons Butter (melted)
For the Cinnamon Coating:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
For the Icing:
1 1/2 cups Confectioners Sugar
3-4 tbsp Heavy Cream
1/4 tsp Crumble Spice (or cinnamon)
1/4 cup Chopped Pecans
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar and allow to set until the yeast begins to foam and activate. Add lightly beaten eggs and melted butter (not too hot) and mix slightly and then add the salt, pumpkin purée and 3 cups of flour and mix until the dough comes together. Add up to an additional 1/2 cup flour if the dough is too slack, this varies by the moisture in the pumpkin purée. The dough should be slack and loose, but not so wet that it sticks to the side of the bowl, although it will somewhat stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl in your mixture, this is normal. Allow the dough to rest about 10 minutes.
Prepare the cinnamon coating by mixing the melted butter, vanilla and brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl, set aside so that the mixture firms up a bit during the next step.
Dump your rested dough out onto a sheet of wax paper, gently press the dough down into a rough rectangular shape and place another piece of wax paper over the top (this prevents the rolling out the dough process from getting messy). With a rolling pin, roll and press the dough into a rectangular shape about the size of a 1/4 sheet pan and dough is roughly a 1/4 inch thick. To achieve a nice rectangle, trim the edges with a pizza cutter and place scraps in the middle of the dough mixture to be further pressed and rolled in. Once the desired rectangle size has been achieved, place the dough on a sheet pan and set in the refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator, remove the top sheet of wax paper leaving the bottom sheet in place to keep the work space clean and ease creating the roll next. Smear the cinnamon coating evenly across the entire dough sheet leaving 1 inch exposed on both long ends of your rectangle to help the roll seal properly when rolled up. Next create your log by rolling up the dough along the long side of your rectangle. Using the wax paper to ease the roll up and around will make this very easy. Once complete, wrap the log in cling film and place in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the log from the refrigerator and slice into 12 equal pieces (each being roughly 1 inch wide), place your rolls out side ways so the cinnamon swirls are facing up in a 9 x13 greased baking dish leaving approximately 1/2 to 1 inch space between each roll. You can bake this off right away, or place cling film over the top of the baking dish and set in the refrigerator overnight to bake off in the morning.
To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, once preheated, bake for 45-55 minutes, tenting with foil after 15-20 minutes to prevent burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Then make the chop up the pecans, and make the icing by mixing together icing ingredients in a bowl until nice and smooth. You want to add just enough liquid to bring the icing together, but not be too runny. Drizzle the icing over the rolls and sprinkle the top with the chopped pecans.
Enjoy!
