Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Chai Cream Cheese Frosting

Made with brioche dough, real pumpkin puree, and chai cream cheese frosting, these Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls are soft with a pull-apart texture.

Canned pumpkin is a surprisingly useful ingredient in these rolls, adding an earthy flavor and orange color to the buns. More than that, it adds moisture and doesn’t require as many eggs and butter as many enriched doughs do.

While pumpkin spice may be the obvious choice to include in the dough, cinnamon can actually hinder fermentation. So, I chose to add spices in other ways to balance out the flavors and add interest. The pillowy sourdough pumpkin rolls are rolled in a simple cinnamon sugar filling and then topped with an incredible chai cream cheese frosting.

This detailed recipe walks through every step of the process and gives lots of tips and photos so you can get the best results possible.

---

👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Canned pumpkin puree, like mashed sweet potatoes in these Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls, adds moisture, earthy flavor, and doesn’t require as many eggs and butter in the dough.
• Luscious cream cheese frosting made with chai spices, but it’s easy to substitute the spices with pumpkin pie spice or leave plain!
• Soft, pull-apart texture from sourdough brioche dough.
• Can make the cinnamon rolls ahead of time before frosting and let them rise overnight to bake in the morning.
• Store well before frosting so you can make them ahead of time and serve on Thanksgiving or other holidays.

---

👨‍🏫 Baker’s Percentage Chart

I include a baker’s percentage chart to scale a recipe up or down easily. With baker’s percentages, the total weight of all flour in the recipe is 100%.

I also include the prefermented flour from the levain in this flour weight. Finally, I note the ingredients proportionally to the total weight of flour.

Note that the hydration may initially seem low in this recipe, but there’s additional liquid in the starter/levain, pumpkin puree, egg, and butter.

If you want to learn more, the King Arthur website has a more detailed reference page on why and how baker’s percentages are calculated.

Dough Ingredients	Weight	Baker’s Percentage
Bread Flour	540 grams (includes 40g for levain*)	100%
Water	40g (for levain)	7.4%
Sourdough starter	40g (for levain)	7.4%
Canned pumpkin puree (I use Libby’s)	183 grams (about ¾ cup)	33.9%
Salt	10 grams	1.9%
Granulated sugar	50 grams (¼ cup)	9.3%
Egg	57 grams (large)	10.6%
Whole milk	120 grams (½ cup)	22.2%
Unsalted butter	56 grams (4 TBS)	10.4%

---

🛠 Tools Needed

See below for my tool recommendations for making these pumpkin cinnamon rolls, including various substitutes.

• Baking Scale
  • Measuring your ingredients by weight instead of volume is essential so you get a more consistent and accurate bake.
• Stand Mixer with dough hook attachment (highly recommended)
  • If you have a stand mixer, it’ll really help bring this brioche dough better. It’s a relatively sticky dough at first and the stand mixer will do a lot of the hard work for you to build the gluten development.
  • If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand.
• 9×13 Baking Pan
  • The recipe makes 12 cinnamon rolls for a crowd. However, you can use another pan or baking dish with a similar area, such as a 12-inch round cast-iron skillet, or by using a couple of 8 or 9-inch round cake pans.
  • To cut the dough in half, use one 8×8 square pan or one 9-inch round pan.
  • The USA pan linked above is made of aluminized steel and is non-stick!
• Rolling Pin
• Dental floss, optional but helpful
  • It sounds weird, but unwaxed and unscented dental floss will help cut your cinnamon rolls perfectly!
  • You can always use a serrated knife, but I find that it’s more likely to squish the rolls.
  • To use the dental floss, shimmy the floss underneath the rolls, cross over the top, and pull from both ends to slice the rolls.
• Optional: Brød and Taylor Folding Bread Proofer
  • This folding proofing box by Brød & Taylor is a game changer to keep your sourdough starter and doughs at the perfect temperature while proofing.
  • The proofer folds up easily, includes a humidity tray, is multifunctional, and can even be a slow cooker.

---

🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for more information, variations, and possible substitutes.

Brioche Dough

• Bread Flour
  • I use King Arthur Bread Flour at 12.7% protein, which gives these rolls a chewy texture and helps them rise tall. The higher amount of gluten is helpful in combination with the canned pumpkin to add structure, but you could use all-purpose flour too.
  • If you want to make the rolls even heartier, substitute a cup with about 120g with whole wheat flour.
• Salt
• Sourdough Starter
  • Use active sourdough starter and not sourdough discard for this bread.
  • Don’t have a sourdough starter? Learn How to Make a Sourdough Starter and make a stronger sourdough starter with my top sourdough starter tips and why I maintain a small sourdough starter.
• Canned Pumpkin Puree
  • I always use Libby’s canned pumpkin for consistency in my baking, but you can make your own pumpkin puree to use here too.
• Unsalted butter, room temperature
  • This is a brioche dough, so it’s vital that your butter is at room temperature so it will incorporate into the dough. If it’s too cold, it won’t mix well (or take forever to mix) and if it’s melted, it may make your dough too sticky.
• Egg
• Whole milk
  • I always bake with whole milk and full-fat dairy for richness and the best flavor, but you can substitute the whole milk with 2%, low-fat milk, or plant-based if needed (use unsweetened).
  • Scald the milk beforehand to denature the proteins, leading to a softer bread.
• Granulated sugar
  • The rolls have some natural sweetness from the pumpkin, but the sugar helps add a bit more sweetness and helps fermentation some.
  • You can substitute the sugar with ⅔ the amount of honey, maple syrup, agave, or another natural liquid sweetener. It’s a small amount, but you may need to reduce the milk slightly so your dough isn’t too sticky.

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

• Unsalted butter, softened
• Cinnamon
  • Could be substituted with pumpkin pie spice or other spices.
• Dark brown sugar
  • You can use light brown sugar if you need to, but dark brown sugar has more molasses, leading to a richer flavor.
• Flour
  • A small amount of starch (flour here) helps the cinnamon sugar filling from leaking as much. Some leaking is normal, though, with the long fermentation! You can use cornstarch or tapioca starch as well.

Chai Cream Cheese Frosting

Since this brioche dough doesn’t have any spices in it (cinnamon can hinder fermentation since it’s anti-fungal) and isn’t sweet, I opted for a chai cream cheese frosting.

It includes lots of warming spices (ala pumpkin spice) and the tangy frosting adds some needed sweetness to the treats.

• Cream cheese, softened
• Unsalted butter, softened
• Vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Chai Spices: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and clove.

While I think the chai cream cheese frosting pairs perfectly with the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, other frostings or glaze variations would also be fine!

Some options include the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting in my Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls recipe, maple cream cheese frosting, pumpkin pie spices instead of chai, a simple vanilla cream cheese frosting, a buttermilk glaze, or an easy heavy milk/powdered sugar glaze.

---

⏰ Sample Baking Schedule

This is just one baking schedule for making the cinnamon rolls for dinner time or to make ahead for breakfast. However, the steps are flexible, depending on your own schedule needs, environment (like temperature), and starter strength.

For example, you can extend the proofing time in the refrigerator by a couple of days or make the levain the night before.

Plus, the rolls store extremely well, so you can certainly make them ahead of time and reheat them before serving.

If making for a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, I’d personally plan to make them ahead of time like in the schedule below so you can just reheat them slightly!

Steps	Time
1. Make the Levain	9:00am
2. Mix the Dough	1:00-1:30pm
3. Bulk Fermentation	1:30-7:30pm (about 5-6 hours at 78ºF, but can vary depending on temperature)
4. Overnight Proof	7:30pm-next day (or up to 48 hours in fridge)
5. Shape and Filling	12:30pm
6. Final Proof	1:00pm-5:00pm (about 4 hours at 78ºF, but can vary depending on temperature and how long your first fermentation went)
7. Bake and Frost	5:00pm-5:25pm

To bake fresh in the morning for breakfast, fill and shape the rolls late in the evening and do the final proof in a cool location overnight or proof in the refrigerator if your house is warm.

---

🎃 How to Make Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Follow this visual step-by-step guide to help make these soft Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Chai Cream Cheese Frosting.

1. Make the Levain

Mix 40 grams of sourdough starter, 40 grams of bread flour, and 40 grams of room-temperature water in a clean jar.

Cover and set it in a warm location (between 75-80ºF) for about 4-5 hours until it’s bubbly and ripe. The levain should double in size during this time.

2. Mix the Dough

Scald the whole milk in a small saucepan. This will denature the proteins and lead to a softer dough. It’s an extra step that I do for my Sourdough English Muffins and makes a big difference (I tested without doing this)!

Pour the scalded milk into the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and let cool until warm (not hot, below 100ºF). Then, add the egg, pumpkin puree, and all of the levain (or starter). Mix the wet ingredients together.

Pour in the dry ingredients- the granulated sugar, bread flour, and salt- and mix to bring the dough together into a mass and hydrate the flour. Cover with a towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Continue mixing on medium speed for a couple of minutes and add a small slice of softened butter to the dough at a time while mixing. Wait until the butter is fully incorporated until you add the next piece.

Mix the pumpkin brioche dough for 10-15 minutes or until the dough smooths out, is tacky, slaps the sides of the bowl, and passes the windowpane test. To test, pull a piece of dough between your fingers. If you can stretch it into a thin membrane, like a windowpane, without it tearing, then it’s mixed enough. Otherwise, keep mixing for a few more minutes.

3. Bulk Fermentation

Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl and cover for bulk fermentation, which will take about 6 hours at 78ºF.

If your dough and environment are colder, bulk fermentation will take longer. Conversely, in warmer conditions, the dough will ferment faster.

Bulk fermentation is complete when this dough has doubled in size, is smoother, and domes in your bowl.

4. Overnight Proof

Transfer the dough to the refrigerator for a cold, overnight proof and up to 48 hours.

The dough will continue to ferment slowly in the refrigerator, which helps develop flavor and allows you to bake on your own schedule.

5. Fill, Shape, and Slice

Before shaping, butter or grease a 9×13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper with a couple of inches overhang on the sides for easy removal. Set aside.

Make the Cinnamon Sugar Filling

Mix the softened butter, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and a TBS of flour in a bowl with a spatula to make the cinnamon sugar filling. It should come together like wet sand.

Set aside the filling while you roll out the dough.

How to Shape Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Shaping cinnamon rolls can be intimidating, but it’s really quite easy! My biggest tips are to try to keep your cinnamon sugar filling evenly distributed when spreading and rolling up so you have equal-sized rolls, to keep your dough cool, and to use unwaxed and unflavored dental floss to cut perfect rolls!

The steps are labeled in the images below.

• Step 1: Punch down and turn out the cold dough onto a clean work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a large rectangular slab, about 12×18″. Only flour the dough lightly if it’s sticking.
• Step 2: Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling evenly over the dough, leaving about a ½-inch border.
• Step 3: Roll the dough into a relatively tight log from the long end. The middle of the log can tend to be thicker, so try to keep the roll even as you roll it up.
• Step 4: Trim the ends of the log and use a ruler, knife, or dental floss to make 12 slight indentations on top of the dough so you’ll know where to cut. To make this easier, I divide the log into thirds and then divide the thirds into quarters (to make 12 rolls).

How to Slice

To slice cinnamon rolls with dental floss, lift up one end of the dough and shimmy a string of dental floss under it to your first mark. Then, cross the two ends over on top over your mark and pull to slice the cinnamon rolls.

Alternatively, use a sharp serrated knife (like a bread knife) to cut the slices.

6. Final Proof

Place the 12 sliced cinnamon rolls in four rows of three in the parchment-lined baking pan.

Tent with aluminum foil for the final proof. At 78ºF, the final proof typically takes about 4 hours, but it depends on your environment and how much the dough proofed during the first bulk ferment.

To bake fresh in the morning, proof the cinnamon rolls in a cool location or keep in the refrigerator overnight.

At the end of the final proof, the dough should about double in size and rise in the pan, be poofy, touch each other, and feel full of air if you poke one with a floured finger.

7. Bake

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC).

Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until the filling just starts to bubble and the tops haven’t quite browned.

If checking the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer, it should read about 190-200ºF (88-93ºC).

Cool completely on a wire rack.

8. Frost

While the rolls bake or cool, make the chai cream cheese frosting.

Add the softened cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, pinch of salt, and chai spices (or other spices) to a mixing bowl.

Use a spatula to mix the frosting together until it’s thick and spreadable. Make sure the cream cheese and butter are fully softened or you’ll have chunks of cold butter in your frosting.

It’ll start off quite dry, but the sugar will draw out some moisture and it’ll become spreadable. Add a teaspoon of heavy cream or milk to the mixture if it’s still too dry. You can use an electric hand mixer here, but I find it more messy with flying powdered sugar!

Once the pumpkin cinnamon rolls have cooled (you don’t want the frosting to melt!), spoon and spread the chai cream cheese frosting on top.

Finally, serve straight from the pan or lift the rolls out with the parchment paper before pulling apart!

---

How to Store, Make Ahead, & Serve

These sourdough pumpkin cinnamon rolls store extremely well due to the added pumpkin puree, sourdough, and scalded milk, which help keep them soft and fluffy (similar to how mashed sweet potatoes keep these Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls and Sourdough Sweet Potato Biscuits soft).

The rolls keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days, but will lose some moisture over time. Reheat them slightly before serving. I heat for about 10-15 seconds in a microwave and they’re perfect!

To make ahead, you can freeze the unproofed sliced rolls in the baking pan in plastic wrap. Thaw at least overnight in the refrigerator and let them proof at room temperature.

Finally, you can freeze baked and unfrosted cinnamon rolls in a freezer-safe bag. Thaw them in the refrigerator overnight and reheat the rolls in a 300ºF (149ºC) toaster oven, toaster, or oven until warmed through. I suggest frosting the buns just before serving if possible.

These are a beautiful dessert for fall holiday dinners or as a festive breakfast treat, including Thanksgiving or Christmas.

---

❓FAQs:

---

Other Fall Recipes You May Enjoy: