Spiced Pumpkin Pecan Sticky Buns

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Fall mornings are sweeter with these spiced pumpkin pecan sticky buns! Homemade pumpkin sweet dough, swirled with a brown sugar pumpkin spice butter, and baked with a gooey spiced pecan caramel. YUM!

Why have basic cinnamon rolls when you can have pumpkiny, butter-y, gooey, nutty sticky buns? Between you and me, there is absolutely no comparison. And, if you love our rum pecan sticky buns, just WAIT until you try these. They’re tastier than you could even imagine and give our regular pumpkin cinnamon rolls a run for their money.

Every bite is warm, gooey, sticky, and SO. DARN. DELICIOUS.

These Pumpkin Pecan Sticky Buns Are:

• Rich and decadent
• Packed with warming pumpkin spice
• Baked in a sticky, brown sugar, caramel-y, buttery, spiced pecan topping
• The perfect make-ahead or overnight breakfast recipe, perfect for the holiday’s
• Can be started the night before (like our Gingerbread French Toast!)
• An extra special Thanksgiving breakfast or Christmas brunch

3 Parts To Pumpkin Pecan Sticky Buns

There are 3 parts to today’s recipe.

1. The dough.
2. The filling.
3. The spiced pecan topping.

While the full recipe is in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, we wanted to walk you through each part to ensure you have the perfect pumpkin pecan sticky buns!

The dough: The dough for these buns is same dough as our pumpkin cinnamon rolls, which is based on our classic sweet dough (which can be found in our classic cinnamon rolls, funfetti cinnamon rolls, and our apple pie rolls). It’s dependable, can be a make-ahead recipe, but doesn’t necessarily have to be, and it’s one of our most loved recipes.

There’s a reason we make this dough recipe again and again. The dough is fluffy, buttery, and pillowy, while having the perfect structure to hold in just about anything.

The filling: When at the store, be sure to grab brown sugar instead of granulated sugar this time! Why? Well, it’s intense flavor add so much more to these buns than just granulated. Combined with softened butter and pumpkin pie spice, the filling is one you’ll crave again and again.

The topping: Pumpkin spice + pecans + caramel. My fav combo! This is simply a classic sticky bun topping, but when it’s cooked with the pumpkin spice, I noticed a distinct caramel flavor that I hadn’t tasted before (though, we usually fill our sticky bun sauce with rum!). It pairs so well with the pumpkin that it makes these buns the perfect fall treat!

How To Make These Pumpkin Sticky Buns

The basics of making sticky buns:

1. Make the dough. The process for making the dough is actually super easy! You’ll essentially be combine everything in a stand mixer and kneading until smooth.
2. Let the dough rise (1st rise). Place in a greased, lidded container and let rise at room temperature until doubled, this usually takes about 1–2 hours.
3. Prep the filling. Mix everything together and set it aside for later.
4. Make the topping. Then pour it into a greased casserole and sprinkle with chopped pecans.
5. Roll out the dough. Once proved, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a 12-inch x 18-inch rectangle.
6. Spread filling onto the dough. We like to use an offset spatula.
7. Roll the dough & cut. Starting with the 18 inch side, tightly roll the dough into a log. Cut into 12 even rolls. Arrange them in the baking pan on top of the topping, being sure to leave space for the rolls to proof.
8. Let the rolls rise (2nd rise). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size (they should be nice and puffy!).
9. Bake. The rolls take roughly 40 minutes to bake. To keep from over browning, cover the pan with aluminum foil halfway through the bake time.
10. Flip & serve. Using oven mitts, invert the pan onto a large serving platter. This is crucial to do as soon as they come out of the oven! The warm topping will melt down through each crevice and down the sides!

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