How To Make Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Pumpkin Buns
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and these Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Pumpkin Buns are the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving dinner. They are absolutely adorable, and taste even better than they look!
Every holiday needs a good, melt in your mouth bun and when it’s sourdough, even better! While buns are great as they are, I wanted to make them a fun part of your holiday dinner. With just a few simple steps, you can turn a sourdough bun into the cutest little mini pumpkin.
These Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Buns start with a simple, soft and buttery bun dough. It then gets fresh garlic and rosemary mixed through. You then tie the buns with some butchers twine, bake them up and you have the perfect Thanksgiving bun that tastes and looks incredible!
If you want to get organized ahead of time you can make these buns and store them in the freezer until you are ready to serve. Simply, remove the stems, heat the buns in the oven then place the stems back in before serving. You can make these with the rosemary and garlic as I do, or omit the add ins and keep them plain. I promise they will be scrumptious either way.
Tips for Making Sourdough pumpkin Buns
- Use an active and fed sourdough starter that has reached its peak. This will give you light, soft and fluffy buns. I recommend feeding your starter 8-10 hours before using it.
- When shaping and tying the buns, loosely wrap the string around the buns. If you tie them too tight, the strings will be harder to take off after baking and can lead to ripping your buns apart.
- Allow the buns to rise at least a couple hours before baking. You want to give them a god amount of time to get a nice, fluffy rise before baking.
- After the buns have baked, and cooled slightly, very gently remove the strings. Depending on how tight you tied the buns, they made be a bit more tricky to get off. The strings may have to be ripped through the edges of the buns to be pulled out and that it absolutely fine, just be gentle.
Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Pumpkin Buns Ingredients
Sourdough Starter- You and nice and active fed sourdough starter for this recipe.
Milk- Whole milk or 2% are best for the most flavour and tenderness.
Flour– Unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour will work. Whichever you usually use for your sourdough.
Butter– You can use salted or unsalted butter. I always use salted.
Egg– Room temperature is best so the melted butter doesn’t clump.
Sugar– Just a touch of sugar is added to this dough. You can sub with honey if you like.
Salt– Any kind of fine salt will do.
Garlic– Use fresh chopped garlic for the best flavour.
Rosemary– Fresh rosemary gives the perfect flavour for the holidays.
The Steps
Make the Dough
- Start by whisking together the sourdough starter, milk, egg, sugar and butter in a bowl for a stand mixer.
- Once mixed, add in the flour and salt. Mix with an electric mixer with the dough attachment.
- When everything is combined, continue to mix for 7 minutes, until nice and smooth. Then, add in the chopped garlic and rosemary and continue to mix for another 2 minutes.( If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do all of this by hand. Knead the dough for about 8 minutes).
- Once you have a nice soft, and smooth dough, form it into a ball then place back in the bowl and cover with a tea towel.
- Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Shape the Buns
- After the dough has rested, remove it from the bowl and cut into 10-12 even sized pieces. Form each piece of dough into a nice smooth ball.
- Then, cut a piece of butchers twine for each bun, about 1.5 ft long. Take a piece of the string and lay it across the top of a bun. Wrap it underneath the bun, then cross the strings and pull them back up over the bun in the opposite direction. Cross the strings over the top and repeat this two more times, spreading the strings evenly around the pumpkin to make the grooves.
- After you have 8 strands going around each pumpkin bun, tie the string in a knot on top and cut the string ends.
- Place the tied buns on a baking sheet, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours.
Bake the Buns
- A couple hours before you would like to bake the buns, remove them from the fridge and let them rise at room temperature in a warm spot for 2 hours.
- Once the buns are nice a poofy, preheat your oven to 350F. Gently brush the top of the buns with extra melted butter, then bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
- Pull the buns out of the oven and brush with one more layer of melted butter.
- Finally, allow the buns to cool for 5-10 minutes, the cut the knot of the string and genlty unwrap all of the string from the buns.
- Cut the rosemary stems that you kept into small pieces (about 1/2 inch ) Then push one into the center top of each bun. Serve warm and enjoy!
If you give these buns a try, leave a comment or a review below!
Looking for more Fall sourdough recipes?
https://cmbarndominium.com/how-to-make-perfect-cinnamon-sugar-pumpkin-sourdough-bread/
https://cmbarndominium.com/fall-pumpkin-sourdough-coffee-cake/
https://cmbarndominium.com/salted-caramel-apple-pie-sourdough-focaccia-bread/
The most soft and buttery sourdough dinner buns full of fresh garlic and rosemary, shaped like mini pumpkins. Perfect for any entertaining during Fall or Thanksgiving. *If you want to skip the rosemary and garlic, these buns are just as delicious without. *Tying the buns into mini pumpkins is fun but if you don't have the patience, you just bake the buns round in a 9x13 baking dish. *To make these buns ahead of time, bake them fully, remove the strings, add the stems and allow them to cool, Once cool, place them in large ziplocs, remove most of the air and freeze. A couple hours before you want to serve them, remove them from the freezer then warm them in the oven. 
Rosemary Garlic Sourdough Pumpkin Buns
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
