This sourdough pumpkin roll pairs fluffy, sweet, spiced sourdough cake with a delicious, cream cheese filling. Literally, the best fall treat.
I love pumpkin rolls and I think they are insanely delicious, but I wanted a long fermented option.
Creating sourdough recipes is one of my favorite things to do. It’s like adding a health benefit to ordinary foods.
Like, “Hey, Pumpkin Cake, lets make you healthier and more bioavailable with some fermentation. Thank you.” Then you top it with sweet, cream cheese filling.
All joking aside, this recipe hits the fall pumpkin spot. Everything you love about a fall recipe is right here.
The delicious pumpkin spice, the light tang of sourdough in a cake, all smothered with a naturally-sweetened, maple cream cheese filling and rolled up in a perfect spiral.
Plus, your house will smell amazing from baking the cake. Like a giant, spiced candle wafting through your home.
If you are new to sourdough, make sure to check out how to make a sourdough starter first.
Benefits Of Sourdough
Sourdough has many benefits. From better digestion to better nutrient absorption, it’s easy to see why it has regained popularity.
The fermentation process allows the natural yeasts in the starter to ferment the grain and break down the anti-nutrients. The anti-nutrient, phytic acid, breaks down and increases certain nutrients like folate, and helps other nutrients to be more bioavailable. (source)
Tips For Making Sourdough Pumpkin Rolls:
- To get the pumpkin roll to not crack when rolling, roll the cake up as soon as it comes out of the oven with the parchment paper and allow to cool in that position. Unroll, add icing, then roll back up.
- If you don’t have pumpkin spice, you can make your own by mixing together ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. You could also just use cinnamon.
- The cake has 1/2 cup of sugar to make it a bit sweeter, but if you want a less sweet cake, you can just leave it out.
- Use sucanat, rapadura, or even coconut sugar for a more naturally-sweetened recipe. But if you don’t have these, regular sugar will work just fine.
- You can use an active sourdough starter or even sourdough discard.
- Don’t want to ferment the recipe? That is totally fine. Just mix and bake.
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Tools you may need:
Large bowl
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Measuring cups and spoons
Grain mill (optional)
How To Make Sourdough Pumpkin Rolls With Cream Cheese Frosting
Make The Sourdough Pumpkin Cake
The night before, mix together flour, active sourdough starter, 1/2 cup pumpkin, and maple syrup. Cover and allow to ferment for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours.
The next day, add to the cake mixture the salt, eggs, vanilla, and sucanat. Mix until well incorporated. A stand mixer will make this much easier.
Sprinkle baking soda evenly and mix in.
Spread evenly on a 13 by 18 inch sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
Roll The Cake
Once done, pull from the oven and test that it has baked through with a toothpick.
In order to avoid the cake cracking later when you roll it up with the cream cheese, roll it in the parchment paper as soon as it comes out of the oven (be careful, because it’s hot). Allow it to cool while rolled.
Create Maple Cream Cheese Filling
While the cake is cooling, combine the cream cheese frosting ingredients with a mixer until incorporated and smooth.
Put Together The Sourdough Pumpkin Roll
Carefully unroll the cooled cake, spread on the cream cheese filling evenly, and roll it back up.
Slice and enjoy.
How To Store A Pumpkin Roll
Store the pumpkin roll in the refrigerator until ready to serve. It will last 3-5 days in the fridge.
You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze.
Thaw at least 18-24 hours before serving.
Find More Delicious Sourdough Recipes:
- Cinnamon Maple Sourdough Apple Pie
- Einkorn Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Brownies
- Easy Sourdough Banana Bread
- Sourdough Chocolate Rolls
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone
Sourdough Pumpkin Roll
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup puréed pumpkin
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter, or discard
- 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
Instructions
- The night before, mix together flour, active sourdough starter, 1/2 cup pumpkin and maple syrup. Cover and allow to ferment for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- The next day, add to the cake mixture the salt, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin spice and sucanat. Mix until well incorporated.
- Sprinkle baking soda evenly and mix in.
- Spread evenly on a 13×18 inch sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
- Once done, pull from the oven and test that it has baked through with a toothpick.
- Roll it in the parchment paper as soon as it comes out of the oven (be careful, because it's hot).
- Allow the cake to cool while rolled.
- While the cake is cooling, combine the cream cheese frosting ingredients with a mixer until incorporated and smooth.
- Carefully unroll the cooled cake, spread on the cream cheese filling evenly, and roll it back up.
- Slice and serve or place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Notes
- To get the pumpkin rolls to not crack when rolling, roll the cake up as soon as it comes out of the oven with the parchment paper and allow to cool in that position. Unroll, add icing, then roll back up.
- You can use homemade or canned pumpkin.
- Don’t want to ferment the recipe? That is totally fine. Just mix and bake
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m not one to typically leave reviews but had to leave one for this gem! This is perfectly soft and sweet and so delicious! One of my fave desserts I’ve ever made. If you’re looking for a review to tell you that you need to make it, YOU NEED TO MAKE IT. This is your sign. You can thank me later 😆
Hahaha! How wonderful. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I was trying to read thru the comments and find the answer, but didn’t see one. Can you still use 1 cup einkorn on this recipe or increase it to about 1 1/4 cup?
Maybe, I have not personally tried it. I have this recipe for einkorn rolls: https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/einkorn-cinnamon-rolls but it is not sourdough
Hey Lisa. I have made this a few times and I roll it up right after taking it out of the oven but it always ends up cracking when I unroll to add the icing. Any advice?? Thanks for all your delicious recipes!
I find the pre-rolling and allowing it to cool rolled up prevents the cracking for me. Sorry. If it cracked while rolling it back up, I would probably just add more icing to cover it up.
I made this tonight and it is wonderful! It tastes fantastic and it’s my new pumpkin recipe! I will be making this often and with so much sourdough starter, I will make another one to share! T
So glad you love it! It’s so yummy for fall.
This is delicious and relatively easy.I like to transfer quickly, to a thin dish towel, gently remove the parchment and roll. Then when you unroll you have the “good side” out. And the towel seems to be better on the crust of the dessert.
Love the tip. Thanks for sharing.
Could it mean 1/4 cup syrup for the frosting instead of 1/2 cup? I had the same issue as other commenters, the frosting is just liquid. It will not spread in the roll. I used a tub of natural cream cheese (Nancy’s brand) instead of a block, does that make a difference?
Yes, that does make a difference! The tub is definitely more spreadable than a box of cream cheese.
I just made this and it’s the easiest and best tasking pumpkin roll ever! This is wonderful to say the least! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Just tried this today and it was amazing! Perfect fall dessert! My roll did split slightly because I was a little impatient with letting it cool rolled up, but the flavors were amazing! Thank you!
That’s the perfect way to kick off fall. Glad you enjoyed it.
I think the recipe instructions left out when to add the spice. I totally didn’t add it and I keep looking for it in the instructions. I am going to try adding it to the cream cheese icing and hopefully that does the trick.
Oops. Sorry about that. Fixed it.
I’m wondering if I overwhipped or underwhipped. There were curds, sort of. Little balls in the cream cheese mixture. The butter had partially melted as I left it near the stove along with the honey that had melted 1 hr prior. The cream cheese block was really cold. Anyone have an idea? I had it in the blendtec for likely 5 min then used a handheld immersion blender and didn’t seem to help so I stopped before it could get worse and looked up what happens if you overwhip cream cheese. My guess is I overwhipped it. Tasted it all with my finger and I’m waiting for cake to cool. We’ll still eat it. 🙂 Tips on whipping would be great! what tools, how long… How cold or warm should items be?
Cold cream cheese will mix up that way. It will be very hard to get it whipped. Try leaving the cream cheese to come to room temperature before moving up and that should help.
This is absolutely delicious! I love all your recipes that I have tried so far. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes. I love your blog/ website!
I had a terrible time with this recipe. I wrapped it as soon as it came out of the oven, and it still cracked
The frosting was too thin and oozed out. I tried to make a torte of sorts out of it I
see someone else had trouble with the filling and it was suggested to refrigerate it I will try again though!
Chris I had the same experience! Also it stuck to the parchment paper which worsened the cracking when I unrolled it 😓 I’m hoping some time in the fridge will make it edible. Right now it’s a big, goopy mess.
I had the same experience. As soon as I noticed the filling was not as thick as I expected I put it in the refrigerator for maybe an hr? But it still oozed out. Had the same cracking issue. It rolled beautiful just cracked on the unroll :/ Maybe it was too cool when I unrolled it to ice?