Libby's Canned Pumpkin

     What's better in fall than the warm taste of pumpkin? Now, who had time to make their own pumpkin puree? Not me that's for sure. So I wanted to make some pumpkin buns for our (very early) Thanksgiving dinner. Figured what did I have to lose, it was only an $0.88 can of pumpkin. I was very surprised.

     5/5 Stars

     Ingredients: I was very surprised (and had to research a bit more) to find out that the label was right, 100% pure pumpkin.The reason I find this so shocking is because it was very very sweet. Almost like it was mixed with brown sugar already. But for only 40 calories on a half cup serving and 9 grams of carbs, it was perfect to help these buns become diabetic friendly. (Natural sugar is always a better choice)

Why I liked it: Mainly, it was super easy to work with and for the price I couldn't ask for a better product. Another reason I did like it was the punch of flavor it had. Sense it is nothing but pure pumpkin, it was nothing but flavor as well.

What  I didn't like: For me, it was possibly a tad too sweet for my personal taste. But natural sugars again and I will take those over processed stuff any day, so no other complaints.

Pumpkin Buns

1/3 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 large egg

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon of pumpkin puree

2+ cups of all purpose flour (Add extra a tablespoon at a time till dough stops sticking)

2 1/4 (or one packet) Active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar (optional but is used to bring the yeast back to life for puffier rolls.)

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

dash of salt to taste

Add milk and butter in a large microwave safe bowl, nuke for about 30-45 seconds until butter is melted into the milk. Add the sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 10 min or so. Once that starts getting good and foamy, add the egg and pumpkin to the wet mix, and stir to combine. Once that's all together add in all your dry ingredients. You can sift these if you want, but I am to lazy and had a full meal to make as well so I skipped it. However I would say it would add some good texture to the buns. Once dough is all together and not sticky (oh how I hate sticky on my hands!) grease the top by putting a bit of oil in the bowl and flip the dough to coat. Let that sit for about an hour until it doubles.

Split into rolls. I got about 9 fist size rolls out of this recipe but you could very well make it as a loaf too. Let them sit on the pan for another 30 min and double again in size.

Bake at 325 for about 15-20 min. You will know they are done when you tap the top, it will sound hollow. 

Let cool only for a moment, then serve.

Hope you enjoy!

~Skadia the writing pumpkin noming panther.