Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Pumpkin-Shaped Dinner Rolls – Your Guests Will Blow Their Gourds

The holidays are almost here, which means “show-off” baking season is almost here, and these pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls are just the thing to impress your guests, and more importantly, drive your culinary rivals mad with envy. Sure these take about 20 minutes longer to make than your already perfectly fine dinner rolls, but that’s nothing when you consider all the compliments that will be coming your way.

This very Instagram-friendly roll is the perfect thing to bring to that holiday gathering, and can be made using your favorite dinner roll recipe. The key here is well-oiled string, and being careful not to tie it too tightly. If the string gets embedded too deeply into the dough, it will tear the roll when you try to remove it, and there’s nothing that stops something from being cute, quite like a jagged tear.

By the way, if you don’t feel like tying all those knots, you can try and do this with one long piece of string, winding it around the dough ball, as you turn it, but I find that method harder, and less successful. Faster yes, but not as visually appealing once baked.

If you do a video search for this type of roll, you’ll also see people simply cutting slashes around the outside, which sort of works, but it just doesn’t come out as adorable. But, regardless of which roll recipe, or shaping method you use, I really do hope you give these pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 12 “Pumpkin” Dinner Rolls:
(be sure to save a few tablespoons of dough for the stems)
1 cup warm milk
1 package dry active yeast
1 or 2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 cups flour, plus more for kneading
1 teaspoon fine salt
kitchen string
vegetable oil for strings
- Bake at 375 F. for 20-25 minutes
- Feel free to give these an egg wash before baking if you want a shinier look.
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9 comments:

Unknown said...

These are so cute! My son is allergic to honey, can I substitute sugar? Thanks Chef John!

Mark said...

Looks amazing. Any ideas on how to make most of this ahead of time? Maybe keep in the fridge for a slow last rise?

jagersvrouw said...

They look stunning but with so many knots to tie I'm not even going to try!

farah said...

just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!

Unknown said...

Can these be made a day in advance? If so, what's the best way to keep them fresh and soft?

Lisa said...

These are cool Chef!

Rat said...

Just finished mine (: https://imgur.com/dRDSLjG


I rolled the stems in cinnamon before baking and glazed them with your salted caramel sauce. They are very good. Thanks Chef John

Carla R. said...

Your recipe is perfect for this because of all the butter. When I go to my daughters house for T-giving I will be making 12 of these and a couple dozen more regular shaped rolls. I'm too lazy to do 3 dozen of the pumpkins and she has an abundance of offspring. Thanks for this and the many wonderful recipes you share with all of us.

IW said...

They tasted delish & looked great, but the thread left hairs behind on the bread and since I used blue ones the bread stained blue. I should've used the red one, because the blue does not look very appetising haha. Oh well