The Best Pumpkin Dinner Rolls Recipe | Perfect Thanksgiving Rolls (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to rolling a pumpkin roll? ›

Roll the cake while it's hot!

This is the secret to a perfectly-swirled roll cake. While the cake is still hot, use the parchment to transfer the cake from the baking pan onto a clean kitchen towel. Using the towel as a hot mitt, roll the cake into a tight spiral from the narrow side.

How to keep pumpkin roll from cracking: The biggest trick to preventing your cake roll from cracking is to roll the cake up in the parchment paper as soon as it comes out of the oven. The hot cake will be soft and pliable and should roll up without cracking.

Spray or grease the parchment paper too. We want an extremely nonstick surface for this cake roll. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together in a large bowl.

Make sure to measure your ingredients using the spoon-and-level method to avoid adding too much of any one ingredient! Why is my pumpkin roll wet or sticky? If your cake is sticky on the outside, this is likely from condensation that formed on the roll as it cooled.

1.5 rolls per person is the perfect amount. Like a few other Thanksgiving recipes, rolls are one that some people take, and others opt out. They make wonderful sandwiches for that leftover turkey! While 1 slice should be plenty per person: know your crowd.

The best bread for a Thanksgiving sandwich:

This sandwich isn't shy when it comes to the filling—you want to choose slices that won't fall apart when you try and pick it up for a bite. We went with slices of sourdough bread here, but feel free to use whatever you're feeling.

Rolls are typically proofed and baked closer together for a softer, “pull apart” result. This makes them great for dipping or eating alongside other food. On the other hand, buns are proofed with space between them, which makes them crustier.

Pumpkin Roll Ingredients

You likely have most of the ingredients you'll need on hand. If not, here's what to add to your grocery list: For the Cake: eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, all-purpose flour, and baking soda. For the Filling: cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, butter, and vanilla extract.

Homemade pie that has been left out for longer than two hours should be thrown away. If you left any pumpkin pie out for too long, don't be tempted to roll the dice.

Does pumpkin roll go bad? ›

Pumpkin rolls keep well in the refrigerator and freezer, so they're the perfect dessert to make ahead of time if you'd like. To store your pumpkin roll, wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap. Then you can either refrigerate it for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

If your dinner rolls aren't fluffy it could be because of one of two reasons. Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

Baking Pan: I prefer baking the rolls in a glass 9×13 inch baking pan because I find they brown a little too quickly in metal. As long as you bake the rolls on a lower oven rack and keep your eye on them, any pan is great.

My pumpkin rolls always crack; what am I doing wrong??

You also want to pull the cake from the oven as soon as it is done baking. An over-baked cake is much more likely to crack, even if rolled while it is hot from the oven.

There are a few reasons that the outside of your cake might be sticky or “wet” to the touch. Here's how to avoid that dilemma: Roll the cake while it is still warm from the oven. Letting the cake cool before you roll it the first time is one of the most common reasons for cracks or other issues.