Spiced Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

The color of the rolls is affected by the color of the pumpkin puree. If you get a bright yellow squash you get a vibrant yellow. Incase you make the puree using the pale pumpkin,add ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder to the puree, to get a spot on color. 
Apart from the color, the spices added to the rolls take them to another level. you can actually need just a generous dab of melted butter to enjoy them. I inserted broken chocolate pieces into the cuts of the rolls and microwaved them for a 30 seconds. The melted chocolate,warm and spongy rolls complimented so well and it was one yumm treat.

Inspired from here
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 & ¾ Whole Wheat flour
1 tablespoon chiaseeds/flaxseeds meal (i used chia meal)
⅓ cup of warm milk
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon instant yeast
½ cup homemade pumpkin puree
¼ cup applepuree (or 1 egg)
3 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 pecans or almonds, sliced into 3 vertical sections


Spice powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon powdered dry ginger
2 pinches of cardamom powder
2 pinches of clove powder
a pinch of nutmeg powder

Method
How to make Pumpkin Puree

• Preheat the Oven to 200C. 
• Cut the Pumpkin into Big Chunks, Leave the skin and stringy fibers as it is, once it is baked, they come out very easily. Place the chunks on a Baking tray. 
• Bake for 50-60 minutes. To check the done-ness, insert a knife/Fork into the baked pumpkin, if it goes in smoothly, it is done.
• Remove the Stringy Fibers and Seeds. The seeds can be toasted and used in Bakes later.
• Scoop out the flesh using a Big Spoon. Take it to a blender and blend smooth. The puree can be freezed for about 5-6 months.
• Baking and Blending gets a good textured and thick puree than boiling/Steaming method. As the later makes the puree little loose because of water content. 

To Make the Dinner rolls

• I used my food processor to knead the dough, it can also be kneaded by hand, as usual i chose the easy way. Take together both the flours, honey, yeast, and the spice powders into the processor bowl. Run it twice to mix them well.
• Now to this add the pumpkin puree,apple sauce, warm milk and butter and start kneading a smooth dough. Knead until u get a smooth and elastic dough, that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. 
• Remove the dough onto a floured surface, knead by hand for a minute. Shape it in a ball and place it in a well greased bowl. Let it sit covered for an hour or until doubled in volume. 
• After the first rise, remove the risen dough onto a kneading surface. Punch out the excess air. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal-sized portion. Shape each portion into a ball, by rolling on the flat-surface with the dough cupped in your palms. 

• Once rolled into a ball, using a sharp scissors make 4 - 5 cuts on the sides of the ball, from the edge of the ball towards the center but leaving the it uncut – like a flower.
• Place the flowers on a Greased baking tray. Cover it loosely and let it rise for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C. 

• Use your fore finger or a round end of the wooden spoon and poke a deep hole in the centre of each flower. Brush the rolls with milk and butter. Bake the rolls for around 15- 20 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Take them out of the oven, brush the rolls again with some melted butter. insert a pecan/almond stem in the middle of the rolls. Serve it warm with a generous drizzle of butter or with a spicy dip or curry. 

• We loved it with butter and kids enjoyed it with some chocolate drizzle. 

Notes

• The Chia/Flaxseed meal improves the texture of the bread. Since i have used Wheat flour more in the bread, it tends to be a little dense. Whereas adding flaxseed/chia meal keeps it soft and fluffy. 

This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2015 

 An InLinkz Link-up