Strawberry Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing – perfect for a weekend breakfast or brunch. Delicious sweet rolls with scrumptious strawberry jam and rich cream cheese icing.
Strawberry Rolls With Cream Cheese Icing
Is there anything that rings in the weekend better than a sweet, scrumptious breakfast loaded with fresh berries? I think not! These dreamy rolls are perfectly paired with a nice hot cup of coffee and and generous dose of sunshine. They are also so easy to whip together, just a handful of diced strawberries, some sweet jam, and tender dough are all you need. Seriously. So let’s get rollin!
Rolls – The Most Important Meal Of The Day
I’ve been wanting to make these strawberry rolls for a while now and today was the perfect day for them. I, for one, love cinnamon rolls but felt like something a little more summery. I’ve made cherry rolls before and I loved them but I have to say these strawberry rolls are totally my favorite.
There’s just something about strawberries, they’re so sweet and amazing, one of my favorite berries. For the dough I used the cinnabons recipe which I cut in half here and used margarine instead of butter because so many people asked me before if it would be any different with margarine vs butter. To tell you the truth, it tastes the same to me, they’re just as flaky with margarine as with the butter. Some people might not want to use margarine for health reasons so feel free to use butter instead.
Ingredients In Strawberry Rolls With Cream Cheese Icing
For detailed measurements and instructions, scroll to my printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
DOUGH
- Wet ingredients – Milk, butter/margarine, and egg.
- Dry ingredients – Flour, salt, and sugar.
- Yeast – I used active dry yeast, which needs to be activated. Instant yeast works as well, just keep in mind that it doesn’t need to be activated, just add it to your dry ingredients.
FILLING
- Berries – Fresh diced strawberries, make sure they’re nice and ripe!
- Jam – I used strawberry to make sure the flavor carried through but feel free to use whatever you’d like.
ICING
- Cream cheese – Room temperature, feel free to use fat reduced if you’d like to watch your calories. My favorite brand is Philadelphia cream cheese.
- Butter – Unsalted as we want to control our salt content.
- Vanilla – All your baked goods need that flavor booster that is vanilla.
- Sugar – Powdered sugar, no ifs ands or buts! We need that smooth texture to this icing that only powdered will give us.
How To Make Strawberry Rolls With Cheese Icing
For detailed measurements and instructions, scroll to my printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Prepare the dough: Warm up the milk in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the yeast to it, stir and let sit for 5 minutes until yeast dissolves. In the bowl of your mixer, add the sugar, egg, margarine, flour and pinch of salt. Mix using the paddle attachment until the dough resembles peas. Switch to the hook attachment. add the milk mixture and mix. Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size
- Get rolling: Roll the dough into a rectangle that’s about 18 inches x 12 inches. Spread the strawberry jam over the dough evenly. Evenly arrange the strawberries over the jelly. Start rolling the dough, starting from the far side towards you. When you reach the end make sure to pinch the sides together. Cut the roll into 8 equal pieces. Place in a greased baking pan and cover with wrap, allow the rolls to double in size somewhere warm.
- Prepare the icing: Place all the ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix until smooth. If you find the icing is too thick add 1 tbsp of milk, keep adding milk until the desired consistency.
- Finish the strawberry rolls: Bake the rolls at 350 F degrees for about 30 minutes. Let the rolls cool a bit before drizzling with icing. Serve warm and enjoy!
Tips For Making The Best Strawberry Rolls
- Make sure your milk isn’t too hot or else it could kill your yeast.
- Need a warm place for your dough to rise? Heat your oven to 200 F degrees, then turn it off and place your rolls in to double in size.
- Always check the expiration date of your yeast!
- Don’t put too much jam onto your dough otherwise the jelly will leak out the sides!
What Else Can I Use In My Rolls?
There’s lots of delicious sweet fillings that we can incorporate into our breakfast treats! Just be sure to pair with the same flavor jam.
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Cherries
- Huckleberries
INGREDIENTS
Dough
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup margarine or butter (unsalted)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
Filling
- 1 cup strawberries fresh and chopped
- 3/4 cup strawberry jam
Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 tbsp butter unsalted, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Warm up the milk in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add yeast to it, stir and let sit for 5 minutes until yeast dissolves.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the sugar, egg, margarine or butter, flour and pinch of salt. Mix using the paddle attachment until the dough resembles peas. Switch to the hook attachment. add the milk mixture and mix for about 3 to 5 minutes. Dough should be elastic and soft. Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size. I usually turn the oven on to 350 F for about 1 minute until it’s warm inside, turn off the oven and place the bowl with the dough in the oven and close the door. This speeds up the process and in about 45 min your dough should have doubled in size.
- Butter a 10 inch pie dish, or any baking dish you choose to use.
- Roll the dough into a rectangle that’s about 18 inches x 12 inches. Spread the strawberry jam over the dough evenly. If you use too much jelly it will come out when you slice into rolls. Evenly arrange the strawberries over the jelly.
- Start rolling the dough, starting from the far side towards you. When you reach the end make sure to pinch the sides together.
- Cut the roll into 8 equal rolls. To make this easier cut the roll in half first, then each half in half and so on, until you have 8 rolls. Use a serrated knife, I found it easier to cut the rolls.
- Place the rolls into the prepared baking dish and cover with plastic wrap. Let the rolls rest and rise until doubled in size. You can use the oven trick again to speed up the process. Just make sure to turn off the oven, you only want it to warm for about a minute so that the rolls stay in a warm environment.
- In the meantime you can prepare the cream cheese icing. Place all the ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix until smooth. If you find the icing is too thick add 1 tbsp of milk, keep adding milk until the desired consistency, but only add 1 tbsp at a time because it thins out quickly. You shouldn’t need more than 1 or 2 tbsp of milk, I didn’t use any at all. If the icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar and mix. Play with the ingredients, until you get your desired consistency. I like mine a bit thicker, but not too thick so that you can still drizzle over the rolls.
- Once the rolls have doubled in size, bake at 350 F degrees for about 30 minutes or until nice and golden. Let the rolls cool a bit, for about 10 minutes then drizzle with the cream cheese icing and serve.
RECIPE NOTES
You could use instant yeast. If using instant yeast, you do not need to dissolve it in milk, you could just add it to the dough.
Make sure your milk is not too hot or it could kill the yeast which will cause your dough not to rise at all. The ideal temperature for the milk should be between 105 F degrees and 110 F for proofing. While 95 F degrees is the best temperature for yeast to multiply, that’s not warm enough for proofing active dry yeast.
If after dissolving the yeast in the warm milk, the yeast didn’t start to froth up, do not continue with the rolls, your dough will not rise.
TIP: To speed up the dough rising process, heat your oven to 200 F degrees. Turn off the oven and place your dough in the oven with the door closed. This will ensure a warm environment for your dough and the dough will rise fairly quickly, assuming the yeast was good.
You could prepare this the day before up until step 7. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight. The rolls should continue to rise in the fridge but if by morning they have not doubled in size, turn your oven on to 200 F degrees until it warms up, then turn it off. Place the pan in the oven for about 30 to 45 minutes until the rolls double in size. Then you can bake them as instructed.
To freeze unbaked rolls, complete everything up to and including step 7, then wrap the pan in two layers of plastic wrap. Freeze for 8 hours up to 6 weeks. The night before you want to bake the rolls, thaw them out in the refrigerator, still wrapped. They will thaw overnight. Finish the rest of the steps to bake them.