In Canada, it’s Thanksgiving, a long weekend and I have been baking little Sugar Pumpkins for the famous and traditional pumpkin pies that I will be making this weekend for Thanksgiving dinner.

This afternoon, I thought that an afternoon Chai tea and a homemade cinnamon roll would be something wonderful! And since the sugar pumpkins were standing there – so beautifully, cooling off,  before going in to the pies, I thought, maybe pumpkin would taste really good in cinnamon rolls? And with Chai tea?

I had extra pumpkin, so what the heck. I gave it a try and 2 cups of blended deliciously baked and beautifully orange pumpkin went straight into my cinnamon dough.

These Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls will go in the recipe book – they were so tasty, moist and overly yummy. And they were awesome and perfect with the afternoon Chai tea.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

1 1/4 cup of milk

1 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast

1/2 cup melted butter

2 cups of baked and blended pumpkin

7 cups of flour + a bit more for rolling the dough out

1/2 cup of raw sugar

1 teaspoon of cardamom

1/2  teaspoon of salt

Gently heat the milk with the butter and let it cool slightly before you add the yeast. Dissolve the yeast in the milk/butter, add the sugar and the salt, add the pumpkin – add the flour – a little at a time while stirring – keep adding flour and stirring til you have a perfect dough, i.e., not too sticky – just so that is leaves your fingers when kneading.

Leave the dough under a wet dishtowel or similar to raise for about an hour.

Now make the filling

1 cup of  butter

1/2 cup of raw sugar

3 teaspoons of cinnamon

Soften the butter and add the sugar and the cinnamon – work it into an even paste to spread on to the dough when it has been rolled out.

When the dough have risen for about an hour, add some flour on a clean counter top and pour out the dough – mix with the extra flour until it doesn’t stick to your fingers.

Roll the dough out thinly

Spread the filling out evenly and thinly

and roll the dough lengthwise.

Cut the rolls about 2″-3″ thick) and place them on baking paper and a baking tray. Leave them to raise again for about 1/2 to 1 hr – bake in an 355 F hot oven for about 12-14 min.

Serve with tea – this afternoon, we had Chai tea. My favorite Chai tea in the whole wide world comes from Sky Tea.

Watch Jeni, one of the founders of Sky Tea make the perfect Chai, her award-winning Masala Chai.

Enjoy!

Wishing everyone happy Thanks Giving, where ever you are!