Golden, tender, pull-apart Butternut Squash Dinner Rolls are flecked with rosemary and completely irresistible. Roasted squash cooked into the roll ensures that they are soft and flavorful with just a hint of sweetness.
Look closely at the present you are constructing, it should look like the future you are dreaming.
alice walker
These Butternut Squash Dinner Rolls are a simple mix of whole wheat flour, roasted butternut squash, and honey. Instant yeast makes these come together fast with only about 30 minutes of hands-on time. The entire process takes just under 3 hours. A perfect project when you are home and doing things around the house.
The butternut squash colors these rolls a lovely light golden and imparts a gloriously soft texture. You can use other varieties of winter squash here, even canned pumpkin puree, in a pinch.
Most any winter squash that bakes up soft and creamy will do. Delicata, kabocha, pumpkin and Kuri squash will give similar results to the butternut. Honey along with the squash flavor, give a subtle sweetness that is just right. Rosemary is, of course, optional but really balances out these rolls with an herbaceous freshness.
Soft Sourdough Rolls are another succulent roll that is a favorite of ours.
Table of Contents
Can These Be Made Ahead?
Yes! We also include instructions for refrigerating the dough overnight, making it easy to prep ahead and bake up your rolls hot and fresh for your meal!
Butternut Squash Dinner Rolls In Five Easy Steps
- Mix – using a stand mixer with a dough hook makes kneading almost effortless
- Proof – in about an hour the dough will rise and double in size
- Shape – form into balls
- Rest – 20 minutes
- Bake – in 30 minutes your kitchen will smell glorious and your fresh rolls are ready to serve!
Ingredients in Squash rolls
Ingredients Notes
- Honey – brings out the squash flavor, sugar is fine too.
- Butternut Squash Puree – or sub other winter squash puree, or canned pumpkin puree!
- Fresh Rosemary – can use sage or thyme if preferred.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How To Make Butternut Squash Rolls
STEP ONE- Whisk together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add warm water, honey, softened butter, butternut squash and rosemary.
STEP TWO- Mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook for 3 minutes on the third setting, scrape down the sides and bottom and mix 3-5 minutes more, scraping the bowl when needed.
STEP THREE- Dump onto a floured surface and knead by hand to get all the flour incorporated about 5-10 turns. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Use just enough flour on the surface to keep your hands from totally sticking and the dough becomes more smooth.
STEP FOUR- Place dough in an oiled bowl, turn it over, so both the top and bottom have a layer of oil. Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
STEP FIVE- Punch down and divide into 12 balls for large rolls or 15 balls for smaller rolls, and place in an oiled baking dish. Let rest 20 minutes.
STEP SIX- Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Internal temperature should be 190-200F when finished.
Tips
- If you prefer a crustier roll, bake on a sheet pan with a few inches in between.
- For extra browning, brush tops of rolls with egg wash.
- Refrigerate the dough after the first rise up to 3 days, then shape into rolls following the recipe instructions. Or refrigerate once rolls are shaped in the baking pan overnight, remove and let rest 1 1/2 then bake.
- To roast the squash: Cut in half and roast squash at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until a fork easily pierces through. Mash until smooth. Most any winter squash that bakes up soft and creamy will do. Delicata, kabocha, or kuri are all good substitutes for butternut squash.
FAQS
Most any winter squash that bakes up soft and creamy will do. Delicata, kabocha, sugar pie pumpkin, kuri squash, sweet potato or mashed potato.
From sweet spices to savory butternut squash lends itself to most any cuisine.
Adding too much flour or using all bread flour. Rolls also need adequate time to proof but do not over-proof.
More Recipes You May Enjoy
These rolls are a family favorite for holiday dinners. Hope you give them a try and let us know how you like them!
Love this recipe? Please let us know in the comments and leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below the recipe card.
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Butternut Squash Dinner Rolls
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 12– 15 rolls 1x
- Category: Baked, breads
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Golden, tender, pull-apart Butternut Squash Dinner Rolls are flecked with rosemary and completely irresistible. Roasted squash cooked into the roll ensures that they are soft and full of flavor with just a hint of sweetness.
Ingredients
- 3 cups AP flour + more if needed
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter, softened or olive oil
- 1 cup butternut squash puree (230 grams, see notes) or sub-pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
Instructions
- Whisk together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add warm water, honey, softened butter, butternut squash and rosemary.
- Mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook for 3 minutes on the third setting, scrape down the sides and bottom, and mix 3-5 minutes more, scraping the bowl when needed. Dump onto a floured surface and knead by hand to get all the flour incorporated about 5 turns. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Adding more flour if needed, little by little, just enough on the surface to keep your hands from totally sticking. Work dough until it becomes smooth but still soft, too much flour will yield dry heavy rolls.
- Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn it over so both the top and bottom have a layer of oil. Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
- Punch down and divide into 12 balls for large rolls or 15 for smaller rolls, place in an oiled baking dish, this will create pull-apart rolls. If you prefer a crustier roll, bake on a sheet pan with a few inches in between the rolls. Let rest for 20 minutes.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Internal temperature should be 190-200F when finished.
Notes
To roast squash: Cut in half and roast squash at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until a fork easily pierces through. Mash until smooth. Most any winter squash that bakes up soft and creamy will do. Delicata, kabocha, sugar pie pumpkin, kuri, canned pumpkin puree, or sweet potato are all good substitutes for butternut squash.
If you prefer a crustier roll, bake on a sheet pan with a few inches in between.
For extra golden brown rolls, brush tops of rolls with egg wash just before baking.
Optional: Refrigerate the dough after the first rise for up to 3 days, then shape it into rolls following the recipe instructions. Or refrigerate once rolls are shaped in the baking pan let rest for 1 hour or until room temperature and lightly puffed then bake.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 roll
- Calories: 169
- Sugar: 2.7 g
- Sodium: 235.3 mg
- Fat: 2.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 31.9 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 4.6 g
- Cholesterol: 6.1 mg
would whole wheat pastry flour work?
Pastry flour may not have enough gluten? But I am not sure about this.
I made these once with rosemary and now have a batch rising with sage. My one question is about the metric amounts shown for the two types of flours. The US recipe and Metric recipes do not match, and the Metric version shows two different amounts. I used the lower numbers and it was clearly not enough. Once I added the larger amounts the dough was just right. It caused me some confusion.
Oh dear, ok I see the problem now. Recipe is adjusted. Thanks!
Good day. Can I substitute pumpkin purée for the squash? Thank you
Yes, that will work fine.
These have become my go-to dinner rolls in the Fall and Winter. I often use canned pumpkin, which substitutes beautifully. Just one note. I notice that your program for the whole wheat ingredient lists 120 gm in parenthesis for both the US and metric versions. Folks may end up with pretty wet dough if they don’t check and go with that 120 gm number rather than 180.
Oh gotcha, hum…I will try to make that accurate. Thanks Mary!
Hi Tonia – I’m glad to see that the metric amounts for flours were fixed. In looking at the revised ingredient list I happened to notice that the metric butternut squash weight now appears incorrect. A cup of butternut or pumpkin purée should weigh around 227 grams per my info and what I’ve always successfully used for this recipe.
Hi Mary- so I just added the grams based on pumpkin puree- I think that is close enough. Thanks for you help with this!
5 star!
awesome!
These are amazing! So fluffy and satisfying with the nuttiness of whole wheat.
Ran across this recipe quite by accident, but couldn’t resist when I realized that I had an uncooked butternut squash “neck” in my fridge along with half of a raw sweet potato. Both were on the verge of spoiling. I microwaved them (for expediency purposes) but then put the mashed squash in a cheesecloth and squeezed the extra moisture out (since roasting them properly would have dried them out a bit). The rolls baked up perfectly. 15 smaller rolls fit perfectly in a 10” round deep cake pan. They were a beautiful gold color, light in texture and quite tasty. Another triumph on your part!
PS – There’s an error in your gram equivalents for the instant yeast. 9 grams of yeast is 1 full tablespoon, NOT 2 1/4 tsp. I used the lesser 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast (6.75 grams) indicated by volume in your recipe , and it came out perfectly with the same rising times as the recipe.
Oh thanks- adjust the recipe! So glad they turned out for you!
This recipe also worked beautifully with some leftover canned pumpkin. I decreased the added water to 3/4 cup since canned pumpkin has a pretty high water content. Equally delicious!
Perfect!
I made these yesterday to accompany butternut squash soup. They are absolutely delicious – pillowy and light. I followed your recipe exactly as written. Glad you warned us about the stickiness of the dough. I had a cup of AP flour standing by and used most of it while kneading. Thanks for another winner.
So glad these worked out for you!
Do you think these would be possible to make with sourdough instead of yeast?
Yes but it would take some tinkering and a longer rise.
I so look forward to every email and have made so many spectacular dinners! But, this one was a disaster – but likely not the recipe but because i have to bake gluten free. I used Pamela’s gluten free flour and substituted buckwheat for the whole wheat. Do you have suggestions for which GF flours to use for the best results so rolls don’t come out like bricks? Thank you!
Darn, sorry these didn’t work out for you Kat. Buckwheat is pretty heavy and probably contributed to the texture. The gluten free flour mixes are generally best for quick bakes (I may be wrong here?), though with additional ingredients some people have made them work with yeasted recipes. We have not experimented with making this recipe gf, so not much help to offer you🫤. Let us know if you find something that works.
These turned out great!! I paired them with the homemade tomato soup recipe. So delicious! Thank you for another good one 🙂
Great to hear Angeli! Sounds nice with tomato soup.
Is it possible to make these rolls “plain” by just omitting the squash or will it throw off the recipe?
Hi Heidi, I think so, you may have to play with the flour ratio and add 1/2 cup (guessing here) more of liquid, like water or milk. You could also use mashed potato in stead of squash.
These sound delish! Do you think they’d work with Bob’s Redmill gf flour? If so, do you recommend substituting it for both the AP and whole wheat flours, or would you recommend substituting something else for the latter?
Shoot Laura, we haven’t experimented with gf flour on this recipe.
Looks excellent but wondering if these can be made gluten free? If so what flours or blend of flours would work. Thank you
Sorry Lori, we haven’t tried this. Maybe we need to do a gf version!
A question: I have white whole wheat, AP, spelt, and whole wheat pastry flours on hand. Can you suggest a quantity combination of any if those to achieve a comparable (or at least as tasty) result? Thanks so much! These look so perfect to bake up with a nice pot of soup on these upcoming shorter days. And my rosemary is still going strong outdoors here in the Northeast.
Hi Patricia, I would go with the white whole wheat and spelt. You could go all white but the spelt will add flavor and the pastry flour is better for quick bakes.