Freshly baked homemade pumpkin pie-spiced cinnamon rolls fill the house with such a fantastic holiday aroma.

Making fresh cinnamon rolls at home is easy. Your family will love them, glazed or simply plain with butter.

My siblings eat these rolls as a meal sometimes with hot tea, iced coffee, warm spiced cider or a favorite milk.

Whether you are having friends and family for a special holiday brunch, giving these rolls as a gift, or simply making them just because, these pumpkin pie cinnamon rolls are delicious any time of the day.

Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Roll

Dough

3½ cups of all-purpose flour

½ cup of Libby’s pumpkin puree

¾ of a cup of whole milk at room temperature

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons of instant SAF dry instant yeast, gold labeled

¼ cup of sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted (for brushing on rolls)

¾ cup of light brown sugar

2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice

In the bowl of your stand-up mixer, mix together all of your wet ingredients except for the 2 tablespoons of brushing butter.

Fold in your dry ingredients.

With the hook attachment, knead the dough for approximately 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. It is OK if your dough is sticky at this point.

Place dough into a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and set aside to rise. This rise may take about 1½ hours.

While the dough is rising, grab another smaller bowl, and mix together light brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. This will be the filling for the rolls. Set the mixture aside.

Scrape your dough onto a lightly floured clean, dry work surface. Roll dough out to a rectangle not too thin but easy to work with.

Brush dough with the 2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter, using all of it. Sprinkle the spice and sugar mixture and pat evenly. You want the sugar to stick.

Gently roll the dough toward you, not too tight nor loose. This dough will be slightly soft but easy to work with. Pinch the dough roll on the ends.

With a lacerated bread knife, cut your dough in half and then each half into 6 rolls.

Stand rolls up into a lightly buttered rectangular pan and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for about one hour or until doubled in size.

Toward the end of the rising hour, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or browned a bit on top.

Drizzle and spread your cream cheese icing over the hot pumpkin pie cinnamon rolls, while the rolls are in the pan.

Cream Cheese Icing

2 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature

1½ cups of powdered sugar

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons of either milk, half-and-half or heavy cream, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place all ingredients into a bowl and whisk together to combine, adding the milk or other until desired thickness of icing.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. Sarah is currently working as a Sous-Chef at Ateira’s on First and has her own blog simplysarah.online. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.