Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
It’s slowly becoming the tradition to make these pumpkin shaped pumpkin dinner rolls in the Fall season. An additional 15 minutes to shape these buns goes a long way and what more when you can impress your guests with these homemade pumpkin dinner rolls!
Makes 10 mini buns
Ingredients:
320g bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
25g sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 egg
120ml kefir (I used pumpkin spice kefir from Lifeway)
30ml milk
70g pumpkin puree
35g unsalted butter, softened
some kitchen twines to tie the buns
Steps:
1. In a mixing bowl with a dough hook attachment, add in all of the dough ingredients except the butter. At the lowest speed, mix the ingredients until they roughly come together to form a dough. Increase the speed to medium level and continue kneading for about 10 minutes until the dough starts to look smooth.
2. Add in the softened butter and continue kneading for another 10 minutes, until it passes the window pane test*. If the dough looks too wet, add 1 tbsp of bread flour at a time. The well-kneaded dough should not stick to the mixing bowl.
3. Shape the dough into a round ball and place it in a bowl covered and let it proof at a slightly warm area (about 78F) until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. Once proofed, punch the doughs to release the air. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions and shape them into a round ball. Cover and let them rest for about 15 minutes.
5. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Cut 10 of 12-inch long kitchen twines. Make sure to soak the kitchen twines with some oil for easy removal from the buns once they are baked. For each dough ball, place it on the center of the kitchen twine. Loosely tie a knot and flip the dough over and loosely tie another knot on the opposite direction. Repeat this until you get 8 “portions” of string divided dough ball. The final knot should be underneath the dough. Repeat this for all of the 10 dough balls.
7. Place the dough balls on the lined baking sheets, about 3 inch apart. Cover them with a tea towel and place them in a warm area to proof for another 1 hour or doubled in size.
8: Preheat the oven to 350F. Once proofed, brush the buns with some egg wash (1 beaten egg) and bake them for about 20-22 mins or until golden brown.
9. Once baked, remove the pan from the oven let it cool on a cooling rack for about 10-15 minutes. Using a kitchen scissor, trim off all the kitchen twines and they are ready to serve! Enjoy them with some butter spread.
* Window pane test is very crucial in bread baking process because it helps determine whether the dough has built up enough gluten. To do this test, take a small piece of dough, stretch the dough out as wide as possible - if it doesn't break and able to create a very thin, almost transparent film, that's when it passes the window pane test.
Pro-tip: Store the rolls in an air tight container if not consumed within a day. If not eaten fresh, you can microwave the rolls for about 30s to warm and soften them and you will get a similar softness just like when they are freshly baked.