Pumpkin Pie Kanelsnurrer (Scandinavian Cinnamon Rolls)

Bergen has exploded with color now that the leaves on the trees are changing, and my dog Alfie has been loving rolling through as many leaves as possible on our walks. So of course I had to celebrate autumn in my kitchen as well – this time with some pumpkin pie cinnamon rolls!

Scandinavians make the best kanelsnurrer, or cinnamon rolls. One of the most popular versions here in Norway is solksinnsboller, which are filled in the center with vanilla custard. But for autumn I decided to give these an American fall twist by filling them with pumpkin custard instead.

I based this pumpkin custard off of my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, so these are essentially cinnamon rolls with pumpkin pie filling in the center! They’re so delicious, and I think Scandinavian cinnamon rolls might make an even tastier shell for pumpkin filling than a traditional pie crust.

These kanelsnurrer are buttery and spiced with cardomom, and then they’re rolled with a mixture of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves. The pumpkin filling is also spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, so you’re entire home will smell like the holidays while baking these.

Tips

This dough has a lot of butter in it. And while usually it’s best to add butter to dough towards the end of kneading, in this case you should add in the melted (and cooled to room temperature) butter at the beginning.

Melt the butter into the milk in a saucepan and then remove it from the heat and pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Let it cool to lukewarm before adding the cardamom and yeast.

If you’re in a rush, you can heat half of the milk with the butter and sugar, and then add the rest of the milk after the butter has melted. This way the the milk mixture will cool a lot more quickly for you to add the yeast.

You can use ground cardamom for this recipe, but if you have a mortar and pestal I highly recommend grinding cardamom seeds instead, as freshly ground seeds are much more flavorful. If you only have ground cardamom, I would double the amount in the recipe.

You can knead the dough by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook. I knead it by hand for about ten minutes. The dough is quite easy to knead, so I really don’t think a mixer is necessary here, unless you have one you want to use. I usually just put on some music and enjoy the kneading!

While the dough is rising you can make the pumpkin custard for the center of the buns.

This pumpkin custard is nearly the same as pumpkin pie filling, except that you’ll be cooking it in a saucepan instead of in a pie shell.

It might seem intimidating, but it’s actually pretty easy to make. Just make sure that you keep whisking the custard the entire time you’re heating it so there aren’t any lumps.

Heat the milk, pumpkin, and granulated sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

While the pumpkin milk is heating up, in a separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour, corn starch, and spices. Add the egg yolks and whole egg and whisk it all together until it’s nice and smooth.

Once the pumpkin milk starts to bubble in the saucepan, pour about half of it into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking the entire time. Then return the saucepan to the heat and pour the egg and milk mixture from the bowl back into the saucepan, whisking the whole time.

Let the custard cook for two minutes, whisking the entire time. By the end it should be quite thick and harder to whisk.

Once the two minutes are up, remove the pumpkin filling from the heat and pour it into a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, placing it directly touching the top of the custard. Let the custard cool while the cinnamon roll dough finishes rising.

After you’ve made the pumpkin filling you can mix together the cinnamon filling for the cinnamon rolls.

Make sure the butter is nice and soft when mixing it with the cinnamon, cloves, and brown sugar, otherwise it will be hard to spread. If it isn’t soft you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.

When you spread the cinnamon sugar filling on the dough, make sure to keep a couple inches free on both the top and the bottom. I like to keep at least 2-3 inches free on the bottom. This will make it easier to make a well in the middle of the bun for the vanilla custard, as the dough in the center of the roll won’t be full of butter and sugar.

I like to slice the cinnamon rolls fairly thin (1-2 inches) so the edges get a bit crispy in the oven.

When making the wells in the center of the rolls for the pumpkin pie filling, make sure to press the dough down firmly, as the dough will puff up a bit again on the second rise. Also be sure the the bottom is in fact covered in dough – you don’t want to just make a hole through the whole roll, as then the custard will fall through.

Try to make the wells as wide as possible. The dough will rise in the oven, so don’t be afraid to make the wells in the center really big. This way you can fit lots of pumpkin filling!

I like to use a piping bag to add the pumpkin filling to the buns, but you can also use a spoon instead. You can let the pumpkin custard overfill the wells a bit, as the dough will rise around the pumpkin filling.

After filling the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise again for 30 minutes.

Then brush them with egg wash and bake them for about 10 minutes. Do not over bake these! One of the most common mistakes I see from new bakers is baking buns for too long, “just in case.” Adding an extra minute or two can really dry out the buns. These are done when the tops and bottoms are golden brown.

I simply drizzle the icing across the buns, using a small plastic bag with a tiny hole in the corner.

You can freeze these buns if you won’t be eating them immediately.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.