Potatoes Romanoff - This Didn't Stay in Vegas

The holidays are almost here, which means “show-off” baking season is almost here, and these pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls are just the thing to impress your guests, and more importantly, drive your culinary rivals mad with envy. Sure these take about 20 minutes longer to make than your already perfectly fine dinner rolls, but that’s nothing when you consider all the compliments that will be coming your way.

This very Instagram-friendly roll is the perfect thing to bring to that holiday gathering, and can be made using your favorite dinner roll recipe. The key here is well-oiled string, and being careful not to tie it too tightly. If the string gets embedded too deeply into the dough, it will tear the roll when you try to remove it, and there’s nothing that stops something from being cute, quite like a jagged tear.

By the way, if you don’t feel like tying all those knots, you can try and do this with one long piece of string, winding it around the dough ball, as you turn it, but I find that method harder, and less successful. Faster yes, but not as visually appealing once baked.

If you do a video search for this type of roll, you’ll also see people simply cutting slashes around the outside, which sort of works, but it just doesn’t come out as adorable. But, regardless of which roll recipe, or shaping method you use, I really do hope you give these pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 “Pumpkin” Dinner Rolls:
(be sure to save a few tablespoons of dough for the stems)

1 cup warm milk

1 package dry active yeast

1 or 2 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons melted butter

3 cups flour, plus more for kneading

1 teaspoon fine salt

kitchen string

vegetable oil for strings

- Bake at 375 F. for 20-25 minutes

- Feel free to give these an egg wash before baking if you want a shinier look.

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