1 Hour Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
While I stick to my everyday avocado toast, I love a good muffin or cinnamon roll for a weekend brunch! Although Thanksgiving is officially over, pumpkin season is still going, and I knew I had to revisit these vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. I created this concept over a year ago, but I honestly wasn’t greatly impressed with the final result.
With vegan cinnamon rolls, I find results always vary. In creating the dough vegan eggs don’t pair really well and the list goes on with what can go wrong in working with yeast. The yeast can be too old, you add to much sugar or salt, or even use a plastic spatula, which can kill the yeast. Needless to say, working with yeast can be exhausting at times lol.
However, I figured out the trick to achieving the perfect texture and cutting your time in half, use 2 packets of yeast! The extra yeast creates a fluffier result and it rises so much faster. Thinking about it now, I’m not sure why you would ever just want to use 1 as there is a stark difference in the final result.
What I love about this recipe is, everything! It’s minimal ingredients, takes minimal time, your go to cinnamon roll recipe, which you can switch up components to cater to the season or your tastebuds, light, fluffy, have a gorgeous orange hue, perf for fall, can easily be made in bulk, and is hands down my favorite cinnamon roll!
If you’re love all things pumpkin or just crave the perfect cinnamon roll, you’ve met your match with these vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with cream cheese icing!
Why this recipe is great:
Quick
Easy
Aesthetically appealing
Pumpkin flavored
Crunchy pecans
Non vegan approved
Cream cheese icing
1 HR Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Total Time: 1 Hr
- Yield: 6 large or 12 small 1x
Ingredients
Rolls
- 4 1/4 cups all purpose flour (plus additional for rolling)
- 1/3 cup + 2 tsps sugar, divided
- 2 envelopes of rapid rising yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter
Filling
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons butter, very soft
Frosting
- 4 ounces vegan Follow Your Heart cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1–2 tablespoons almond milk, as needed
Instructions
- Combine the 2 packets yeast and warm water and a pinch (1-2 tsps) of sugar in a medium size bowl. Allow the yeast to activate for 5-7 minutes. (essentially you can skip this step if using rapid rise yeast and just mix the ingredients all together, but I always activate it anyways)
- Combine 4 1/4 cups flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt in a large bowl, stir until blended.
- Combine pumpkin and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH in 15 second increments until very warm but not hot to the touch (120° to 130°F. Butter won’t melt completely).
- Add the pumpkin mix and the yeast mix to the flour mixture and combine.
- Combine with your hands (or you can throw in a standing mixer with the hook) As you form the dough add additional flour to form into a ball only 1 tbsp at a time.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Once it hits 200, turn off.
- Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic and dough springs back when lightly pressed with 2 fingers, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cover with a towel and place the bowl in the oven. Allow to rise for 20 minute and slightly double in size.
- For the filling, combine coconut or brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. Roll dough into a 15 x 12-inch rectangle using a rolling pin.
- Spread 3 tablespoons butter over dough stopping at least 1/2-inch from the edges on the long sides. Sprinkle with sugar mixture. Beginning at the wide end slice strips with a pizza cutter to make the cinnamon rolls. Cut into 6-12 equal pieces. You can roll up the entire piece of dough which is what you commonly see, but I find this easier! Roll them up tightly. Pinch seams to seal. Place, the cleanest cut side face up in greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Cover with towel or aluminum foil and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 25minutes.
- Bake in preheated 350ºF oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. If the tops start to brown when baking, simply cover with aluminum foil and continue to bake. Cool on wire rack for at least 20 minutes.
- Combine all frosting ingredients in a large bowl and beat, adding just enough almond milk until frosting is creamy. Spread over rolls and sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
The first part of the recipe says to add sugar and yeast and water. Then step 2 says to combine flour, sugar…..
the recipe only calls for sugar once in the dough. How much does each step need?
Hi Steph! Thank you for catching that. You want to combine the yeast with a little sugar to activate it. The 1/3 cup would go into the mixture with the flour. Let me know how they turn out!
the recipe is not on here
Hi Christina, the recipe should be there now! Sorry about that. We’re switching hosting sites so there have been some glitches.
these were absolutely incredible, my whole family loved them, i just wish i used a bigger pan but other than that they were perfect