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These soft, fluffy sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls are made with pumpkin puree and a touch of thyme for a warm, subtle flavor that’s perfect for cozy fall dinners or holiday gatherings. You can use active starter or sourdough discard for this recipe to keep the process simple. The holidays are already stressful, but your baking doesn’t have to be.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There are few things I love more than warm, pumpkin flavored recipes during the fall. My Pumpkin Cinnamon Sourdough Bread, Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough, and Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are a few pumpkin recipes I love from the blog. I know you’ll love these simple sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls because:
It’s a very flexible recipe. I wanted this recipe to accommodate everyone’s timeframe which is why you can use active starter as the leavening agent or you can use discard and add a little bit of instant yeast for a quicker rise if you’re short on time.
It’s super easy to make. The best recipes to make during the busy holiday season are ones that require you to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and throw it in the oven. These sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls are no exception. They come together so quickly and the flavor is so subtle and delicious.
Tips for Making the Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
- Use yeast for a quicker rise: Adding yeast to your dough means you’ll only have to wait about an hour before the rolls are ready to bake, not the entire day.
- Use your favorite spices: A lot of people love using sage with pumpkin flavored recipes because they pair so well together. I included thyme because it gives the rolls a warm, savory flavor, but feel free to swap out for any spices you like.
- Adjust hydration if needed: Since pumpkin puree varies in moisture, add flour gradually if your dough is a bit wet, or gradually add milk if your dough is dry and not coming together.
Tools You May Need
Stand Mixer
Food scale: I really recommend measuring out ingredients for any bread recipe for accuracy. This will also be helpful in making sure all of the dinner rolls are the same size.
One large bowl
Whisk
Cutting board
Tea towel: To cover the rolls during proofing
Silicon brush: to brush melted butter before baking.
Ingredients
These sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls are made with simple ingredients and you probably already have them in your pantry or fridge. Here’s everything you’ll need:
Dry Ingredients
(450g) All-Purpose Flour
(50g) Granulated sugar
(10g) Salt
(5g) Yeast: If you’re using sourdough discard
(1 tablespoon each) Pumpkin Spice & Thyme
Wet Ingredients
(37g) Melted butter: (let the butter cool to room temp so you don’t kill your active starter.) This amount of butter will go in the dough.
(100g) – Active starter or discard
(110g) – Pumpkin puree
(150g) – Milk
2 Eggs
(60g) Melted butter: This will be brushed on top before baking
Substitutions
All-Purpose Flour: You can make these sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls gluten free by using a really good 1-1 gluten free flour and a sourdough starter that has ONLY been fed gluten-free flour. I recommend the King Arthur gluten-free flour.
Sourdough Starter: Sourdough starter is required for this recipe. However, it can be made gluten-free if you have a starter that has exclusively been fed gluten-free flour. If you have fed your starter regular flour of any kind, this recipe will not be able to be truly gluten-free.
Granulated sugar: If you want the flavors to be a bit warmer you can always swap granulated sugar for brown sugar. You can also use maple sugar to make it refined sugar free!
Butter: Any vegan butter can be used in place of regular butter.
Milk: You can replace with any plant milk you’d like. This almond milk is seed oil free!
Pumpkin Puree: Make sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
Eggs: You can always make a flax egg by mixing flax meal (ground flaxseed) and water and letting it sit for a bit to thicken. To make one flax egg, use 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal for every 3 tablespoons of water.
How to Make Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
Add your melted butter, active starter or discard, pumpkin puree, milk and eggs to your stand mixer. Mix all of the wet ingredients well.
Next, add your flour, sugar, salt, yeast, pumpkin spice, and thyme all to a bowl and mix well.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in your stand mixer until the dough starts to form. If the dough is dry, add milk until it starts to form. If it’s too wet, add flour.
Once the dough has formed, place your dough on top of a cutting board and start cutting 10 sections of dough with your bench scraper.
Weigh each dough section and make sure they weigh about 90g. Form the dough into a ball and place into the small baking pan.
Once all the dough is shaped, cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
While the dough is proofing, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and melt the rest of the butter.
After 20 minutes, brush the rolls with butter and top with salt. Bake the rolls at 375 for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!
Storage
These sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls can be stored in the fridge for about a week and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Food scale I really recommend measuring out ingredients for any bread recipe for accuracy. This will also be helpful in making sure all of the dinner rolls are the same size.
- One large bowl
- Whisk
- Cutting board
- Bench scraper
- Square baking dish
- Tea towel To cover the rolls during proofing
- Silicon brush To brush melted butter before baking.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 3¾ cups (450g) All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ cup (50g) Granulated sugar
- 1 tsp (10g) Salt
- 1½ tsp (5g) Yeast: If you're using sourdough discard
- 1 tbsp each Pumpkin Spice & Thyme
Wet Ingredients
- 3 tbsp (37g) Melted butter: (let the butter cool to room temp). This amount of butter will go in the dough.
- ½ cup (100g) Active starter or discard
- ½ cup (110g) Pumpkin puree
- ⅔ cups (150g) Milk
- 2 Eggs
- ¼ cup (60g) Melted butter: This will be brushed on top before baking
Instructions
- Add your melted butter, active starter or discard, pumpkin puree, milk and eggs to your stand mixer. Mix all of the wet ingredients well.
- Next, add your flour, sugar, salt, yeast, pumpkin spice, and thyme all to a bowl and mix well.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in your stand mixer until the dough starts to form. If the dough is dry, add milk until it starts to form. If it’s too wet, add flour.
- Once the dough has formed, place your dough on top of a cutting board and start cutting 10 sections of dough with your bench scraper.
- Weigh each dough section and make sure they weigh about 90g. Form the dough into a ball and place into the small baking pan.
- Once all the dough is shaped, cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
- While the dough is proofing, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and melt the rest of the butter.
- After 20 minutes, brush the rolls with butter and top with salt. Bake the rolls at 375 for 25 minutes.
Notes
- Use yeast for a quicker rise: Adding yeast to your dough means you’ll only have to wait about an hour before the rolls are ready to bake, not the entire day.
- Use your favorite spices: A lot of people love using sage with pumpkin flavored recipes because they pair so well together. I included thyme because it gives the rolls a warm, savory flavor, but feel free to swap out for any spices you like.
- Adjust hydration if needed: Since pumpkin puree varies in moisture, add flour gradually if your dough is a bit wet, or gradually add milk if your dough is dry and not coming together.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please come back and give this recipe 5 stars! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @goldenhourgrains.
Want More Pumpkin Sourdough Recipes?
Check these out!
Pumpkin-Shaped Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Pumpkin Cinnamon Sourdough Bread
Pin for Later:
These rolls turned out light and fluffy with lovely pale orange color. Gave it only 3 stars because there are some typos and/or errors in the recipe that need to be fixed. The most egregious error is the one that states 5 1/4 cups or 50 g sugar. Many readers may not have a gram scale. 50 g is about 1/4 cup sugar. Because I wanted a less sweet version, I used 1 tablespoon sugar. I also used 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and 1 teaspoon sage instead of 1 tablespoon of each. I divided the dough into 9 pieces to fit into a 9×9 square pan as shown in the photo, although the recipe says 10 pieces? They were really too large, and I think these would work well divided into 12 pieces and baked 4×3 in a 9×13 inch pan. One final comment on the rising time, although you certainly CAN shape immediately after mixing. The texture and flavor are much better with a 1 hour bulk rise in a greased bowl after mixing. After that, punch down and divide and shape as usual.
Hi Deborah! I do apologize for the typo. The sugar measurement has been fixed. Glad you were able to adjust the spice levels to your preferences. I was able to divide the dough into 10 pieces (extra roll not shown in the photo), but if the shape is too large for your preference you can certainly divide them into more pieces. Thank you for trying the recipe and for the kind comment:)