Little Vegan Pumpkin-Shaped Buns
I promised pumpkin recipes, so here they are! Today we’re starting off with these incredibly cute little pumpkin-shaped buns / bread rolls!
They’re made of a fluffy yeast dough, can be topped either sweet or savory and are definitely an eye-catcher for your halloween parties or next fall brunch, hehe!
I did share them last year in my halloween recipe video on YouTube already, but this fall I did some adjustments here and there and ended up improving my original recipe to make them hold their pretty pumpkin shape a bit better and to make the overall shaping-process a bit easier, too, yay!
and now here is the recipe for these:
little, vegan pumpkin-shaped buns
Ingredients:
250g light spelt flour*
75ml lukewarm water
1 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
100-120g pumpkin puree (depending on the consistency of your puree!)*
also:
some oven-safe kitchen string
a few pumpkin seeds
Instructions:
First you’ll want to dissolve the dry yeast in the lukewarm water together with the maple syrup and set it aside for a few minutes.
Then mix together dry ingredients, add the yeast-syrup-water mixture, as well as the pumpkin puree, and knead everything on a floured surface until it forms a soft but not-sticky dough.
Now cover up your dough with a clean but sightly damp kitchen towel and let it rise for 60-90mins in a warm space.
Divide your dough into little balls and use the kitchen string to form little pumpkins.*
Let them rise for another 30mins while preheating the oven to 200°C and then bake them for 20-30mins until golden brown and crispy on the outside.
After baking you can remove the kitchen string and use a pumpkin seed each to create the little stem of each pumpkin bun. Done!
Note: If you want an extra smooth and shiny outer crust, then you can also cook the buns for about 1-2mins in some simmering water before baking them. This will give them a somewhat polished look and a texture that’s almost bagel-like. On the picture above you' can see the difference in appearance; the bun on the left is baked only, while the right one was cooked before.
These little buns have my heart.
*Notes:
Most of the times I’m using light spelt flour for baking, but you can of course sub it for all-purpose or regular light wheat flour. You can also partly use whole wheat flour, just keep in mind that you may have to adjust the water or pumpkin puree ratio then, because whole wheat flour tends to soak up more liquid than lighter flours.
Depending on if you use store-bought pumpkin puree, homemade, cooked, baked, or maybe even frozen and defrosted puree, the consistency can be either thick and starchy or more creamy and thin. So if you’re using a rather starchy puree the dough may need the whole 120g, while 100g may be enough if you’re using a thinner, more liquid-y puree.
If you need help shaping the pumpkins with the kitchen garn, I’d highly suggest you check out my old halloween video at around minute 3:38! But in short, you basically want to tie the kitchen garn around the dough ball several times while turning it over again and again until you get to a little pumpkin shape. :))
Did you make this recipe?
leave a comment or tag me on Instagram @choartemi