ABC - Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls

I can't help but love Fall. The changing of the colors around us, brisk weather but not too cold (except for late last week where the temps dipped below freezing, brrr), and of course baking with apples, pumpkins and lots of spices. Last month's Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread was a big hit with the ABC bakers. This month we moved on to another Fall favorite: pumpkin. Although pumpkin played a big role in these dinner rolls, let's not underestimate the other side kicks: craisins (and for some of us, golden raisins too), and lots of warm spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves. I'm talking about this month's Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls. They're soooooo good! Thanks to a tip from my ABC buddy, Paula, I doubled the spices in the recipe, which transformed these dinner rolls into something even more fabulous.

They may look humble but these babies pack a big flavor punch!

This is making me feel a bit sentimental. All (well, most) King Arthur Flour recipes have been so good to us these past two years. But, as the song goes, "every new beginning comes from another beginning's end". I'm sure this won't be our last time baking KAF recipes in our kitchens. But for right now, I won't say goodbye yet. I'm very much looking forward to making next month's Chocolate Eclair recipe. Are you?

With that, I have an announcement to make. Starting in January 2015, we will be baking recipes from the wonderful blog, Scientifically Sweet, written by food scientist Christina Marsigliese. Her recipes are awesome, and I really dig her scientific approach to baking (yes, I'm a nerd, if you didn't know already).

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.


Now back to the delicious Cranberry Pumpkin Rolls. I made the dough in the bread machine (without the dried fruit which I added by hand - see link to video below). Of course, I had to make some changes, like using some WW flour and reducing the salt and yeast amount. You can find my entire list of changes (aka list of ingredients) at the end of this post.

I decided very quickly that I wanted smaller rolls, so I went with the 24 roll option. I figured I could fit 8 rolls in an 8" round pan, so I prepared 3 x 8" round cake pans.

I added the dried fruit to the dough by hand. There's a very nice and helpful video made by Levine and Freerk to show you how to easily add dried fruit to any dough.

Some of the dough went into the fridge which I baked the next day. Btw, the dough smelled soooo nice!

Ready for their second rise.

A little over an hour later, and look how nice they're snuggling together :o)

It looks more orange-y here than it is but that's what happens when you take pictures at night.

So light and soft!

These were baked the next day. Just as yummy!

Look at that soft texture and all that yummy fruit. Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby hasn't tried these yet. Will have to come back and update you later.
• I on the other hand, had two of these and loved them! One I ate warm from the oven, plain. Absolutely wonderful. The aroma of the spices puts you in a good mood before you even put a bite in your mouth. The second roll was reheated and enjoyed with some good EVOO.
• Needless to say, these rolls are going on my bake-again list.
• Leftover rolls have been packed and frozen to enjoy at a later date.
• The original recipe can be found HERE. My changes can be found at the end of this post.
• Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers's posts.
• I'm submitting this post to Yeast Spotting!

Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls

(adapted from King Arthur Flour website)

Ingredients:

• 5 oz traditional whole wheat flour.
• 15 oz unbleached all purpose flour.
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon.
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger.
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves.
• 1-3/4 oz brown sugar.
• 1 tsp salt.
• 2 tsp instant yeast.
• 6 oz pumpkin puree.
• 2 large eggs.
• 6 oz cold milk (use lukewarm, if not using a bread machine).
• 1 oz sour cream.
• 1 oz canola oil.
• 4 oz craisins.
• 2-1/2 oz golden raisins.
• Orange zest from one to two oranges.
• 3/4 oz non-fat dry milk powder.
• A couple pieces of uncrystallized ginger, finely chopped.

Use the Dough cycle of your bread machine, and follow the instructions here. I divided my dough 24 pieces of 2 oz each.

*Note: my dough was fairly sticky. Yet I didn't add any flour fearing that the rolls would become dense if I did. Just flour your work surface, and you'll be fine.

Baking the Rolls
The baking time was significantly less for my rolls. I preheated my oven to 375F (convection mode). Upon placing the rolls in the oven, I reduced the oven temperature to 325F (convection mode). After 15 minutes the rolls had reached an internal temperature of 192 F.