Easy Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls (No Yeast)

8 baked and iced cinnamon rolls in a baking paper lined cake tin with pumpkin spice in a small bowl in the background.

5 from 1 vote

Easy Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls (No Yeast)

Super easy pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls are the ultimate fall baking shortcut. They use a simple Greek yogurt and self-raising flour dough, so there's no need for yeast, no kneading, and no rising time. Add a beautifully spiced filling, caramelly brown butter ginger cream cheese frosting, and you'll have soft, gooey cinnamon rolls on the table in under an hour.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: baking

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cinnamon buns, cinnamon rolls, pumpkin spice buns

Servings: rolls

Calories: 398kcal

Author: Kate Phillips

Equipment

1 Cake pan or baking dish. I use a 20cm x 20cm round cake pan.

Ingredients

For the dough -

300 g self-raising flour (or use plain flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder) (2 cups)
280 g thick, Greek yogurt (1 cup + 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon salt

For the pumpkin spice filling -

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
50 g butter softened
60 g dark brown sugar or use regular brown sugar or white sugar

For the brown butter ginger cream cheese frosting -

60 g butter
100 g cream cheese at room temperature
75 g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 pieces of stem ginger in syrup finely chopped

Instructions

Make the dough.
Start by lining a small baking dish or cake pan with parchment paper, and heat your oven to 400°F/200°C fan.
Add 300g self-raising flour, 280g Greek yogurt, and 1 teaspoon of salt to a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until the mixture resembles large floury lumps. At this stage, get your hands in there and mix it into a rough, cohesive dough.
I like to kind of smash the mixture together to break up the lumps of yogurt and bring everything together. Pop it back in the bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel while you make the pumpkin spice filling and brown the butter.
Brown your butter.
Set a small saucepan over medium heat, then add the diced butter. Let the butter melt, then use a whisk or silicone spatula to stir it as it starts to foam up and smell lovely and caramelly. Under the foam, the butter should have little golden flecks. This will take a couple of minutes. At this point, remove the pan from the heat.
Transfer to a bowl and pop into the fridge - you want it to be semi-set (like softened butter) when you make the frosting.
Make the pumpkin spice filling.
Add 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon ground cardamom, 1 teaspoon allspice and ¼ teaspoon of salt into a large mixing bowl.
Add the softened butter and dark brown sugar, then mix with a wooden spoon or spatula into a thick paste.
Roll out the dough.
Dust a flat surface with a little flour to help stop the dough from sticking, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large rectangle, roughly 18"/45cm long and 12"/30cm wide. Don't worry if your edges are uneven, it'll be fine.
Smooth the pumpkin spice filling out all over the dough. I like to use a knife or the back of a spoon to do this.
Roll up the dough and bake.
Tightly roll up the dough along the long edge, so you're left with a long sausage shape. Slice the sausage into 8 roughly equal pieces. Place the cinnamon rolls into the lined dish or cake tin, with the filling side exposed. Transfer to the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

PRO TIP: Use a serrated or bread knife to cut the cinnamon rolls, and I like to lightly mark the 8 pieces on the dough before I start cutting, so it's easier to know where to cut to get roughly equal pieces.

Make the cream cheese frosting.
While the buns are baking, add 100g of cream cheese, 75g icing sugar and the semi-set brown butter into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric hand whisk (or a handheld whisk), whip the mix into a smooth, creamy icing.
Add the chopped stem ginger pieces and the vanilla extract, then whisk again until they're incorporated. Set aside.

PRO TIP: You can also do this in a food processor.

Frost the cinnamon rolls.
After 30 minutes, the rolls should look gorgeously golden, and the filling should be bubbling around the edges. At this point, take them out of the oven.
If you can wait, let them sit for about 10 minutes before smoothing the frosting all over the top of the buns (this will prevent the frosting from just melting away into the hot buns). Again, I like to use a knife or the back of a spoon to do this. You can finish with a little dusting of more pumpkin spice if you like, and eat while warm and gooey.

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES: Make sure you're using a thick Greek or Greek-style yogurt here - plain, natural yogurt tends to be too runny for this dough and you'll end up having to add lots more flour (which will result in dense cinnamon rolls). Fat-free Greek yogurt works really well, as does sour cream.

SUBSTITUTIONS: Use a store-bought pumpkin spice mix (2.5 tablespoons) if you like - and don't worry if you're missing some of the spices listed. They'll still taste gorgeous. Skip the stem ginger in the icing if you like.

STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS: The unfrosted rolls will keep for 3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Once they're frosted, keep them in the fridge. Just give them a quick 20-second blast in the microwave to freshen them up after the first day.

Nutrition