Sweet and spiced Pumpkin Rolls for Thanksgiving

So I got accepted to this wonderful baking group, very interestingly called ‘We Knead to Bake’ and the bread of the month was these pretty,sweet and spicy pumpkin rolls. They look like little pumpkins,have pumpkin in them, are a little sweet with the warmth of spices….cute little treats!

Here is Aparna’s recipe. And here is the recipe where Aparna adapted it from.
I just omitted the egg and increased the honey. Here is how I made them.

1 ¼ cups Maida/All purpose flour
½ tsp Instant yeast
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 Tbsp honey
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp dry ginger powder
A pinch of pepper powder
8 pistachios/pecans ( to make the ‘stalks’)
¼ cup warm milk ( add as needed to make a soft dough)

For making fresh pumpkin puree: Peel and boil, 250 grams of pumpkin with ¼ tsp turmeric powder. Then strain and puree it in the mixer-grinder.
Add yeast, salt, cinnamon, ginger power and pepper to the flour and mix well.
Add pumpkin puree, honey, butter and knead slowly adding milk as needed. Knead till you get a soft and stretchy dough. Stretch some dough between your fingers gently. If the show forms a translucent film without tearing easily, the kneading is perfect. ( Window pane test)

Cover and let rise till doubles. It took me an hour and a half.
Knock out the air gently and divide the dough into eight equal sized balls. Flatten each ball and make eight cuts on the edge of each ball at equal distance. Leave the centre uncut. It looks like a flower 😀 How pretty!

Lay the roll on a greased baking sheet and let rise for another 45 minutes or till they are all fluffed up nicely.
Poke a deep hole in the centre of the roll with a floured finger or the the round end of a wooden spoon.

Brush with cream/malai and bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C.
As soon you get them out brush them with some diluted honey! Put the pistachios inside the holes to create stems for your pumpkin. What fun ❤
Enjoy!