Sweet Pumpkin Buns Recipe — Food Photography Rhein-Main

Truth be told, I only started eating pumpkin some years ago when I moved to Germany. Growing up, autumn was for me all about my mom’s apple cake—that sweet, cinnamon scent filling the house. Pumpkin was never really on my radar. In fact, I’m pretty sure I never saw one in the supermarket, let alone at the farmers’ market in the small town where I grew up in Romania. 

Now, as an adult, I still wasn’t a huge fan of pumpkin. Mostly, because I had no idea how to cook it or bring out its best flavors.  There is one recipe that I kept seeing on Instagram over the years and that is, correct, you’ve guess it: these soft pumpkin buns. I’ve wanted to bake them for ages, but never quite find the time for them.

Finally, this year, I decided to give it a go. And I have to admit—I’m in love. These pumpkin buns turned out to be everything I never knew I needed from this humble fruit (yes, apparently it is a fruit from a botanical perspective). Slightly sweet, tender, and with just a hint of spice, they’re the perfect companion to a cup of coffee or tea on a crisp autumn morning. If you, like me, have been in a love-hate situation with pumpkin, these buns just might change your mind. Plus, they look adorable!

Ingredients for 10 buns

Active time: 1.5 h (mostly spend making the dough, cutting the strings, forming the buns and baking).

Total time: 12 h rise overnight + max. 3 h rise the next day + 1.5 hours (making the dough, forming and baking)

For the dough

• 21g fresh yeast

• 125 g ml lukewarm milk (37°C) 

• 50 g lukewarm water (37°C) 

• 125 g pumpkin purée

• 100 g butter (cubed)

• 80 g sugar

• 1 tsp pumpkin spice (cinnamon would also work)

• 7 g tsp salt

• 500 g bread flour (Manitoba)

For the syrup

Extra

• Cooking strings (you can usually find them in the kitchen utensils aisle in the supermarket)

• Cinnamon Sticks cut in thirds. (optional, for the looks)

Steps

1. For the pumpkin purée I cut a small Hokkaido Pumpkin in half, carved out the seeds and roasted it for about 40 min at 180 °C, until it was soft and water started to form on the surface. Leave it to cool and then scoop out the pulp and puree in a food processor for about 1 minute, until it had a smooth consistency. In the end I had 450 g of purée. For this recipe you will need only 125 g, with the rest you can get creative and make pumpkin spice latte or porridge, for example.