Pull-apart soft buns with roasted pumpkin, warm spice mix and raisins

When October comes you kinda know that there’s gonna be everything pumpkin recipes all around. From pumpkin pies to pumpkin soups and risottos, and even pumpkin sourdough bread. And of course carved pumpkins everywhere around. And yes, I know the pumpkin madness is almost done. But here I am, putting this recipe up now, as I baked these soft buns several times before settling on the formula I enjoy the most to work with. So here it comes, one of those recipes I’d write in my ‘recipe notebook’ and get back to it every single time. It would probably be one of those very used, sticky pages.

Inspiration

It was a long time that I had my mind hooked on some cold proofed soft buns with chocolate from Cathrine Brandt. If you’re Danish or you speak Danish, I strongly recommend Cathrine’s blog and/or books for sourdough bread baking and other amazing bakes, including some Danish classics.

So, back to the soft chocolate buns that inspired me. One day I realized that I have a hand full of dark chocolate drops that were getting close to the expiration date. Of course I couldn’t let any chocolate go to waste. That would be a sacrilege. But I also had some Hokkaido pumpkin at home, and I had already made pumpkin soup, before that. And I’m not a big fan of pumpkin in many other variations. So I thought I might just as well bake it, purée it and integrate in the dough. At least the colour would be yellow, just as I love it. And so I did.

Got an incredibly wet and sticky dough the first time, it was a bit challenging to work with, but it was worth it. It smelled amazing in the kitchen. And the colour was awesome. The pumpkin taste was not that strong, just for my taste, and I felt I needed to adjust the spice mix a bit next time, besides working on the right proportion of ingredients.

‘Rosinboller’ – fall edition

Then Halloween was coming. And since this year going trick or treat was cancelled due to corona craziness, my boyfriend and I decided to host a small one at home, for the two toddlers in our close circle of friends. That way I could bake some kid friendly goodies for them. Besides the honey spiced biscuits I had planned to bake for that day, I also knew that kids here love ‘rosinboller’. That’s the name of the soft buns with raisins that you can find in most of the Danish bakeries and are very popular among children. They’re made of an enriched yeasted dough (brioche like), often with a touch of cardamon and as the name says, with raisins.

So I decided to give another shot at those cold raised soft buns, this time with kids’ favourite add-on – raisins. I’ll just call them fall edition, since they have this amazing yellow colour, matching autumn’s beautiful foliage. And the smell and taste of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom mix is just so soothing on a dark rainy day. Plus they’re not too sweet, and kids love them.

I’ve been baking them several times already, upon request for one of the families that tasted them. They find them perfect during their weekly play date with the junior’s best friend 🙂

So here comes my perfected recipe for soft buns with roasted pumpkin, warm spice mix and raisins. Give it a try and get your own piece of sunshine!

Ingredients (for 15pcs)

• 1/2 – 1 Hokkaido pumpkin -> 200g pumpkin purée
• 180g whole milk
• 10g fresh yeast
• 30g sugar
• 500g white bread flour (all purpose will work as well)
• optional: 1-2tbsp sourdough discard*
• 1 egg
• 10g salt
• 1tsp pumpkin spice mix**
• 50g softened butter (I use salted)
• 80g raisins***
• 1 egg yolk/whole egg to egg wash

Notes

*If you have some sourdough discard, throw it in the dough, it will give an extra punch to the taste.

**I just make a mix on the spot, consisting of warm spice as 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp cardamon and 1/4tsp nutmeg. Feel free to mix and match your favourites, with the proportion you prefer.

***I use plain raisins when I make these for small kids. If it’s for adults only, I either use dark chocolate drops or soak the raisins in some good rum or cognac.

Tools

• stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• kitchen scale
• dough scraper
• rectangular baking tray (mine is 23x33cm)
• brush for egg washing the buns

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C. Cut the pumpkin open, clean and slice. You will need to get 200g pumpkin purée out of it. Keep in mind that you lose about 50% of the weight when you roast it, so I would suggest you roast 400g pumpkin (sometimes it can be a small Hokkaido pumpkin, sometimes only half of a larger one). Place on a tray lined with parchment paper. I like to bake it plain, but you can already sprinkle with some spice. Roast for about 30min. I always test it with a toothpick or fork, if it feels tender, it’s done. Let cool for half an hour. Remove the flesh from the skin and in a small bowl mash with a fork. If you prefer it smoother, you can also purée it with a blender. I don’t mind if there are some small bits here and there. Set aside.

2. When the pumpkin purée has chilled, you can start working on the dough. In the mixing bowl add the milk, fresh yeast, sourdough discard (if using) and sugar. Mix with a whisk to dissolve the yeast and sugar. Then add the flour, salt, egg, pumpkin purée and spice mix. Start mixing on low until all the flour becomes wet. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and make sure there’s no dry flour left. You’ll get a quite sticky dough, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Increase the speed of the mixer to medium and knead for about 5min.

3. Add the softened butter and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes, until the butter incorporates. The dough will split at first, that is normal. Scrape down the butter from the sides of the bowl and mix some more. Increase to medium speed and mix for about 5-7 minutes, or until the dough looks developed and stretchy, and you can do the windowpane test. Remember to use wet fingers when doing the windowpane test, this dough will be quite sticky. That is when you can add the raisins (or chocolate). Then mix on medium-low speed for another minute, until the add-on is incorporated.

4. Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled container/clean bowl. Or simply use the mixing bowl and cover with plastic film. Proof in a warm place for 1 – 1 1/2h, or until it has doubled in size. If you want to bake the same day, jump directly to step 6.

5. Place the dough in the fridge for a cold rise overnight. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 20 hours. Make sure there is enough space for the dough to rise more, as it will increase in volume even more. Next day take out of the fridge and let rest on the counter for about half an hour before starting to work with it.

6. Line your baking tray with baking paper. Turn the dough onto a lightly oiled surface. Keep a small bowl with a splash of oil at hand, that will help working with the dough without having it sticking to your hands and scale. Form 15 round balls of around 70-73g each. If you want to calculate on the spot the weight of the individual roll, just weigh the dough and divide by 15. Place the dough balls in the tray (5×3) with equal distance in between. Then cover with a tea towel and let proof in a warm place, for about 2h (even 3 hours if the dough has been proofing in the fridge).

7. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Meanwhile egg wash the buns with slightly beaten egg. I usually have pasteurized egg yolks at home, so sometimes I just use that with a little bit of water. Bake at 200C no fan for around 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top. I like them well caramelized on top, but you can add or reduce with 2 minutes, depending if you prefer them lighter or darker. Take out of the oven and let chill on a cooling rack.

Enjoy warm with some salted butter next to a cup of tea.

Tip

These soft buns will hold for a few days on the counter. I usually wrap them in the baking paper they’ve been baked on, and cover well with a tea towel. When I have them after they’ve been laying on the counter for a couple of days, I like to cut them open and toast before enjoying with a nice amount of salted butter. They’ll just get nice and soft inside again. Plus it will smell of spice in the kitchen again. Another tip would be to give them 5 minutes in the oven at 170C, to soften.

You can also save some of these soft buns in the freezer, for gloomy days. You can easily throw them in the oven at the same temperature as above, but give them 8-10 minutes. Maybe even consider baking them a tiny bit lighter if you know you’re going to save some to freeze and have reheated at a later point.

Yum