Can you make a healthy cinnamon roll or is that an oxymoron?   My feeling is it's worth a try! 

As always I use only organic ingredients, which is a good start on my quest.  I wanted these cinnamon rolls to be moist and almost doughy in texture so I decided to combine and adapt a few pumpkin bread recipe to come up with this one.  Incorporating whole-wheat flour and soy milk helps with their health rating as does limiting the amount of butter in the dough.  These are cinnamon rolls after all so I wasn't about to omit the buttery, sugar, spicy goodness that is a cinnamon roll, I just didn't go overboard with the sugar. 

After baking, I drizzled a little confectioners sugar glaze on half for Wilson and kept the other half plain for myself.

Pumpkin butter was my preference of spread for these hot out of the oven rolls and it's a great way to uses up the remaining pumpkin in the can.  As delicious as pumpkin butter tastes, it's not very photogenic and I thought it best to post them "naked".

Instead of making 8-12 regular sized rolls, I made 22 smaller ones.  To get an idea of their size, the three in the photo are on a salad plate.  Smaller portion size gives you the added benefit of being able to eat more of them!  I counted the calories and based on 22 rolls, each plain roll would contain about 120 calories and the glazed rolls would have about an additional 20 calories per roll.  That's pretty respectable for this tasty made up recipe.

 

Pumpkin Spice Rolls

¾ cup soy milk

2 tablespoons molasses

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 ½  cups whole-wheat flour, divided

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cloves

2 tsp instant yeast (I use SAF Perfect Rise Yeast)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup canned pumpkin

Buttery Sugar Spice Filling

3 T melted butter

¼ cup brown sugar
2 T raw sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ginger

⅛ teaspoon clove

Combine the soy milk, molasses, brown sugar and butter in a small sauce pan over low heat until the butter is melted; let cool.  In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour (1 cup of each) with the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.  Add the cooled soy milk mixture to the flour and spices, stirring just to incorporate.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes to allow the flour to become hydrated. 

After 30 minutes, stir in the 2 tsp SAF Perfect Rise Yeast, salt and pumpkin. Use bread hooks on low and gradually incorporate an additional 1 cup flour (1/2 cup of each) over 5-6 minutes. Place dough on work surface and knead, incorporating about 1/4 to 1/2 of the remaining all-purpose flour (I only need 1/4 additional).  After you have a nice smooth dough, place in a buttered bowl, turning to coat the whole ball of dough, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove risen dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface.  Press the dough out into a rectangle.  Lightly dust a rolling pin with a little flour and roll out to about 11 X 16 (or what ever size you like).  Don't roll the dough too thin, a little thicker is better. Brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with the sugar mixture. Use a bread knife to cut into slices, any thickness you like (I made 22 that were about 1/2 inch thick).

Place in a buttered 16 X 11 sheet pan.  It's OK if they touch but you don't want them smushed together.  Cover with a cloth and let rise 45 - 60 minutes.

Baked in a 350 degree oven for 20- 25 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes and remove all in one piece to a cooling rack.  After they have cooled about 10 minutes, drizzle with confectioners sugar glaze pull/cut them apart and enjoy!