Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Are you in a baking mood? Man, I am. It must be the cooler days teasing us - fall is here, even though in California it is a mild change, those of us that live her definitely feel the subtleties in the weather. So I have this Sweet Yeast Bread Dough recipe from a cookbook by Bryanna Clark Grogan (who is by the way an amazing culinary genius) and I decide to whip up a batch of her FAT FREE Cinnamon roll dough.

What's that you say? FAT FREE Cinnamon roll dough? Sounds disgusting?
Well, my friend it is indeed not. But you be the judge.
I dare you to try it.

So the first day I made the rolls for the kids
with earth balance, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

They ate. They yummed. I watched.

It wasn't fair.

So here comes day #2. I decide to stop sitting on the sidelines and make some I can enjoy as well. But what could I put inside them that would be moist, flavorful, yet not sickeningly sweet (as sometimes happens when you don't use fat in baking)

TADAA!!!
My hero. Pumpkin Butter. You have been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks now, patiently being spread on toasted Ezekiel bread. It's not glamorous - but it was a divine thing we shared everyday at 3pm. I loved you even then - in your simpler days - but now your day in the hot sun has come at last!

After making the dough, follow the directions for rising in the fridge overnight. Don't skip this part - the dough does need to be cold to work with.


Next, divide the dough into 2 equal parts. And roll out about yay big.

Next spread on luscious topping of choice. (Enter Pumpkin Butter stage left)
I also sprinkled a little brown sugar and cinnamon. But wouldn't a bit of pecans or walnuts be good? mmm...

Or, for the kids, hubby (or you) the traditional: butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. I used Earth Balance for the butter.

Next, roll up and cut into pretty generous rolls. Mine were almost 2 inches. I got 11 rolls per roll of dough - making 22 rolls total.

Carefully place them on a baking sheet about this close together. You want them to be kissing each other by the time they get out of the oven. The cozier the better.

The ones in the front look better because they aren't slippery with the pumpkin butter. But they still turned out rockin' and rollin'.

When they came out of the oven, I drizzled more pumpkin butter on the tops (of mine) and made a simple icing (EB, powdered sugar, vanilla & rice milk) for the kids'.

Here they are. Little bundles of gooey sweetness. They were awesome, and I loved the savory/ sweet combo the pumpkin added - it was a nice balance.

So, really, come on, can you believe this little fellow is actually harmless? Neither could I (or my neighbor or friends for that matter) It isn't right that more people don't know that you can have your Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and eat 'em too!