Lemon Sweet Rolls

Name: Lemon Sweet Rolls
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 155 min
Ingredients: 210 ml of buttermilk, full fat, room temperature; 2 large eggs; 600 grams of bread flour; 10 grams of instant yeast; 1 teaspoon of salt; 1/4 cup of granulated sugar; 14 tablespoons of butter, salted, room temperature, cubed; egg wash (1 egg with 1 tablespoon of whole milk); 14 tablespoons of butter, salted, room temperature; 1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon zest; a few drops of lemon extract; 2 cups of confectioners sugar; 2-3 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice

April 5, 2021

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I have always been a fan of cinnamon rolls and other similarly shaped desserts. I love unwinding them carefully, starting with the crisp outer edges and working my way down into the sweet, gooey center. It’s fun, right? Well, I decided that I wanted the cinnamon roll experience, but with a brighter more lemony flavor this weekend, so I made some lemon sweet rolls and they turned out quite fabulously I must say.

They are well balanced between the sweetness and tartness and the rolls are soft and tender inside with a great golden brown exterior that soaked up lots of lemon glaze right after I pulled them from the oven.

They are like the best spring time twist on the classic cinnamon roll and you are going to love them!

Let’s get them started…

Start by gathering 210ml of full fat buttermilk, 2 large eggs, 600 grams of bread flour, 10 grams of instant yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 14 tablespoons of salted butter. Let the buttermilk, eggs and butter come to room temperature before you start making the dough. Yeast shouldn’t be added to cold ingredients, so make sure everything has had some time to warm up before you bring it all together.

This dough is super easy! Measure everything out, combine everything in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment and let it do its thing. Simple doughs are the best doughs.

I always like to add my liquids first, so I start by pouring the buttermilk and eggs into the bottom of the bowl. Then I add the flour (all of it), put the sugar and salt on one side and the yeast on the other side (yeast and salt don’t get along at their full strength) and then add all of the butter on top of everything and turn your mixer to low.

Once the ingredients have combined, increase the speed to medium and let it knead for around 5 minutes. You are looking for the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl and all of the butter to be fully incorporated. Once this happens, turn your mixer off and gently form the dough into a smooth round ball.

Place the dough into a lightly floured bowl, cover it with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it relax in a warm place for an hour or so.

While the dough is resting, make your lemon sugar filling by combining 14 tablespoons of room temperature butter with 1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1 heaping tablespoon of fresh lemon zest and few drops of lemon extract in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using a paddle attachment, cream the ingredients together until they are smooth and everything is fully incorporated.

Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to a lightly flour surface.

Roll the dough out into a large rectangle. The dough should be less than a quarter of an inch thick throughout and as close to a rectangular shape as possible. Just do your best with this.

Once your dough is rolled out, evenly distribute all of the lemon sugar filling over the entire surface of the dough. Be sure to work it close to the edges, so the rolls cut from the ends have some of that fabulous filling too.

This filling smells so good!

Once it is all spread out evenly, roll the rectangle of dough as you would when making cinnamon rolls. You will do this by starting on the long side closest to you. Tightly roll the edge towards the middle, working left to right like an old fashioned typewriter. I always start on my right and working my way to the left side of the rectangle of dough. Once I get to the other side, I start there and work my way back towards the right side.

Once you have a tight little log of lemon filled sweet roll dough, cut it in half using a very sharp knife or by wrapping dental floss around the log, tying a single loop and tightening until it separates. Once the log is cut into half, cut each half in half, giving you four quarters. This recipe will give you 16 taller, thicker sweet rolls or 20 more standard sized ones. Pick which size you prefer and then divide the quarters into 4 or 5 equally sized portions.

Transfer the sweet rolls into greased muffin tins. If you went with the standard sized rolls, they fit perfectly into standard sized muffin tins (the ones with 12 muffin cups), but if you decided to cut out taller rolls, I suggest putting them into larger muffin tins, so they have more room to spread out.

Once they are in the tins, cover them lightly with a clean kitchen towel and let them rest for 45-60 minutes in a warm place. While they are resting, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Once they are puffy, brush the rolls with an egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon of whole milk) and place them onto the center rack of your 375 degree oven. Bake until they are fluffy and golden brown, which should take between 15-20 minutes.

While they are in the oven, whisk together 2 cups of confectioners sugar with enough fresh lemon juice to create a smooth pourable consistency. This should take 2-3 teaspoons. If you added too much and it looks too thin, just add a bit more confectioners sugar until you are happy with the consistency.

As soon as your lemon sweet rolls are golden brown, transfer them directly onto a cooling rack right away. If they cool inside the muffin tin, the warm filling will begin to set up glueing them in place… and nobody likes chiseling their sweet rolls from a muffin tin. I recommend placing some parchment paper, wax paper or paper towels under the cooling rack for easy clean up. Sometimes the warm filling will drip through and if you aren’t super careful with the lemon glaze, some of that drips through too.

Drizzle the lemon glaze over your sweet rolls while they are still warm. I sprinkle a little extra lemon zest over mine, because I really love lemons and think it looks pretty, but this is totally optional….

Aren’t they beautiful? The outside has a crisp, golden brown edge and the closer you get to the center, the softer and more gooey it becomes. The lemon sugar filling is sweet and tart and that lemon glaze over the top sets up after just a few minutes. When you bit into these lemon sweet rolls, you have the crispy glaze crackling, soft dough and warm, sweet filling… its bright, cheerful and comforting. The perfect spring sweet treat.

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