Strawberry Sweet Rolls with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze is soft, sweet, fluffy rolls filled with strawberry jam and topped with a sweet and tangy cream cheese glaze are my idea of a great morning. The rolls are soft, buttery, tender and can be made as an overnight/make-ahead option so all you have to do in the morning is bake them, pour a cup of coffee, and get ready to enjoy sweet, ooey-gooey, fresh rolls.
I had been wanting to make a fruit-based sweet roll for awhile and so I went for it.
They were my Mother’s Day present to myself.
Sweet rolls, filled with jam, and topped with a vanilla cream cheese glaze is my idea of a happy Sunday morning. Especially since I started them the night before and built in a make-ahead/overnight option for anyone who doesn’t relish getting up at 5am to start baking.
I’ve had my eye on the Food and Wine Raspberry Swirl Sweet Rolls, but it makes a huge batch. Nice as it sounds, we don’t want or need a sheet-pan full of jelly rolls for our little family of three. So I came up with these.
Like I did in the recent Soft and Chewy Coconut Milk Bread, I used coconut milk in this dough. I had a partially open can and thought it would be a nice complement with the fruity filling.
However, I couldn’t taste any hint of coconut in the finished rolls. Bummer for me since I was hoping I would, but a blessing for anyone who’s not into coconut. I’m going to try buttermilk next time.
I used oil rather than butter because I’ve found that oil tends to produce softer bread than butter, which I find creates crustier bread. Case in point is this Challah. It’s so soft and tender that it’s croissant-like and was made with oil.
But don’t worry, after the initial two hour rise and I rolled out the dough, I added a nice smear of butter before rolling it up. Oil in the dough, butter on the dough. A win-win.
After buttering it, I generously spread about one cup strawberry preserves over the top. In the rolling process, lots of jam escaped and it seemed like more jam was on my pastry slab than inside the cylinder, so I recommend going with about 3/4 cup. It won’t all stay in but lots does.
Jelly rolls are messy to make and eat, and that’s the fun of it.
After rolling up the cylinder, starting with a long side, I sliced it into 9 pieces, but you could make 8 to 10, depending on your preference.
Put them in a baking dish and allow them to rise for about an hour before baking.
Or, if you’re treating this as a make-ahead recipe, you can refrigerate the pan. The next day, allow the rolls to rise for about an hour before baking.
The vanilla cream cheese glaze turned out ridiculously good and took 30 seconds to whip together. I recommend making extra because it makes a wonderful fruit dip.
I used granulated sugar, and although I normally use confectioners’ sugar in frosting and glazes, I wanted to avoid that crunchy phenomenon that happens after powdered sugar glazes are exposed to air. I was so happy when this glaze stayed softer and didn’t crust over. It’s the little things.
If you’re a fan of jelly rolls, cream cheese danish, or any combination of jelly, dough, and cream cheese, you’re going to really enjoy these. The dough is easy to work with and the rolls are soft, tender, and buttery.
They’re loaded with sweet strawberry jam, which adds flavor, sweetness, and moistness. And stickiness.
The scent of bread and strawberry jam wafting through your house while they bake is irresistibly wonderful.
I made them as an overnight option on Saturday night and it was such a treat to wake up and just pop them in the oven for Sunday morning brunch.
We had lots of members of the Clean Plate Club that morning.
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Strawberry Sweet Rolls with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
- For the Dough
Dough
- 1 large egg
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus up to 1/4 cup additional, to be added only if necessary
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce packet, I use Red Star Platinum
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- ½ cup milk, I used Trader Joe’s Light Coconut Milk in a can; try buttermilk, cow, goat, almond, soy
- For the Filling
Filling
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft – let it sit out while dough rises
- about 3/4 cup strawberry preserves or jam, or try another flavor; blueberry, raspberry, peach, apricot
- For the Cream Cheese Glaze
Cream Cheese Glaze
- about 3 ounces, about 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- For the Dough – To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or make and knead by hand using a large mixing bowl; plan to knead for about 10 minutes), combine all ingredients other than milk; set aside. For now, use 2 1/4 cups flour. Note – Use all-purpose flour, or bread flour as a substitute. Do not use whole-wheat, white-whole wheat or any ‘wheaty’ flours. When people have issues with dough not rising, it’s usually because they used whole wheat flour. This recipe was not tested or developed for whole wheat flour.
- Add milk to a glass measuring cup and warm to temperature, about 45 seconds on high power in the microwave. (Based on the type of yeast used, milk temperatures will vary. Red Star Platinum yeast calls for warmer temperatures than most, 120 to 130F; other brands and yeast call for much lower temperatures, about 95 to 105F. Warm milk according to manufacturer’s recommendations on the packaging. Taking the temperature with a digital thermometer is highly recommended, but if you’re not, make sure the milk is warm, not hot. Err on the cooler rather than hotter side so you don’t kill the yeast.)
- Pour the milk over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and knead on low speed for about 7 minutes (10 minutes by hand).
- If after 5 minutes dough is very sticky and it seems more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl, but sticking to the bottom is okay. The dough is sticky and tacky, although not excessively so. Don’t be tempted to over-flour it. It’s supposed to be loose and moist; that’s normal. The more flour you add now, the less fluffy and more dense the rolls will be. Dough should clear the sides of the mixer while kneading but sticking to the bottom is fine. If you’re kneading by hand, you’ll likely need more flour than if kneading via stand mixer. With all bread-making, evaluate your dough and if you deem it necessary to add more flour than I called for given my dry San Diego climate, then do so.
- After kneading, turn the dough out into a large, greased bowl, cover with plasticwrap, and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Create a warm environment by preheating your oven for 1 to 2 minutes to 400F, then shutting it off. This creates a 90F-ish warm spot. Slide the bowl in and wait while the yeast works. Just make sure your oven is off.
- After the dough has doubled, punch it down, turn it out onto a floured surface or Silpat and knead it for about 3 minutes.
- For the Filling – Spray a 9 or 10-inch pie plate or similar sized baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.
- With a rolling pin, roll dough into approximately an 18-inch-by-12-inch rectangle, just eyeball it.
- Add the butter, and spread evenly over the surface.
- Add the jelly and spread evenly, leaving a small margin near edges.
- Starting with a long side, roll to form a tight cylinder.
- Slice the cylinder into 8 to 10 evenly sized pieces (I made 9 pieces, each about 2 inches wide) using a bench scraper, serrated knife, or plain unwaxed dental floss (works great to not squish and compact the log). Jelly will escape out; it’s to be expected. Push back in what you can but don’t worry about it.
- Arrange the rolls in the prepared baking pan. Cover with plasticwrap.
- At this point you can…Either – Allow the rolls to rise in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes and then bake. (I use the 400F oven trick for 1 minute again)
- Or – Refrigerate the rolls for up to 18 hours. This is the Make-Ahead/Overnight Option. Prior to baking, let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes. (I use the 400F oven trick for 1 minute again)
- Which ever option you choose, in the last minutes of rising, preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly golden on top and cooked through. If you notice your rolls are becoming darker before centers are cooking through, covering with foil in the second half of cooking will reduce over-browning, however I did not need to do this, but ovens and dough vary.
- While rolls bake, make the Cream Cheese Glaze by combing all ingredients in a small bowl and beating until smooth, either with a whisk or a mixer. Play with ratios of all ingredients to suit your taste
- After baking, generously drizzle glaze over the warm rolls. Serve immediately. Rolls are best eaten fresh, but will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Reheat leftover rolls for a few seconds in the microwave before serving. If you object to keeping cream cheese frosting at room temperature, then refrigerate the leftover rolls; I don’t. If you have extra unused glaze, it makes an amazing fruit dip; or it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I have been dying to make these rolls for a couple of months and finally took the time to make them today. I followed the recipe to a T (except used whole milk instead of coconut milk). I was very disappointed in the final product. The rolls were very dense (could it have been the 3 minutes of kneading after they rose?) and the preserves seemed to have disappeared. Finally, the glaze itself was not really a glaze but a frosting. I whipped it a long time but the sugar crystals did not dissolve completely (crunchy glaze). Ended up literally throwing the rolls in the trash after trying the first one. Hate that I wasted all that time and would love to know if anyone has any comments on how mine could have turned out so differently. I wouldn’t mind trying again because the ones in the pics are awesome!
Hi Denise – thanks for trying the recipe and for your honest feedback. A few things…the glaze, personal preference on that. If you didn’t like it, use a simple confectioners’ sugar glaze next time, whatever you know you like, use that. Filling – I didn’t have issues with it disappearing at all. You can see from the photos it’s literally exploding out of the tops. If you thought it was too skimpy, use more next time. The density of the dough – not sure why yours were as dense as you said they were and others have made them with positive reviews, but I will tell you from experience that my lightest, softest, fluffiest roll recipe is this one.
https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/02/overnight-buttermilk-soft-and-fluffy-cinnamon-rolls.html
People love them and truly they are the best cinnamon rolls, from the dough to the filling to the whole thing that I’ve ever had, and if you want to fill them with jam/preserves rather than cinn-sugar, go for it. The dough itself is awesome. Not at all dense, really, really good dough. Just trying to give you some alternatives and options if you want to do a mix-and-match remake of sorts. Please keep me posted!
Thanks, Averie! I will try the cinammon roll dough recipe. I’ve read that letting the gluten rest will give a better result, so overnight should be perfect. Will also take your advice on the glaze. Hope it won’t take me another couple of months to find the time. :)
Thanks for being open-minded to trying again and one secret to that dough and you’ll read about it in that post, is that I really caution people not to over-flour it, which is IMO the #1 culprit to dense rolls. I think you will love them. They’re lighter than these and everyone raves about them.
Oh My Goodness these look delicious!! I want to jump through the screen to eat them! I wish I could just close and open my eyes and they would be here. Thank you for sharing and your blog is lovely! Can’t wait to so more browsing!!! :)
I was curious if you have ever tried to freeze some of these rolls? If so, how long can they stay in the freezer for, and are there any special instructions for heating them up to defrost so they aren’t soggy?
I’m excited to try them, they look amazing!
Bread in general freezes pretty well. I have not frozen these particular rolls but I would just wrap them very well in foil, put that in a big ziplock bag, and freeze. Unthaw and enjoy. I don’t do anything ‘special’ to unthaw bread in general. I just let it warm up naturally at room temp and I never have any problems.
Thanks!! When I’m making bread or rolls, because they can be time consuming I like to do a double batch. I’m going to make them tomorrow.
Ok since you just said you’re going to do a double batch – if I am being totally honest here, I prefer these rolls over the Strawberry Rolls. They are incredibly good. The Strawberry Rolls are fine, don’t get me wrong, but when we’re talking double batch, I want to steer you right! You could even do half of the batch as cinn rolls and the other half as strawberry jelly-filled rolls. I just love this dough base. It’s dreamy :) Please LMK what you end up doing!
I made these with blueberry! The dough was harder than I expected but it was still delicious!
https://sugarscape.blogspot.com/2013/06/blueberry-swirl-rolls.html
I just commented on your blog post but thanks for making them and for LMK that you tried the recipe! I love that you used blueberry. They look positively inviting and so good! And yes, this dough was not quite as soft as the fluffy overnight cinnamon roll dough but the compromise was that I didn’t end up with a huge, huge batch of rolls. If I would have increased it to 2 eggs, it would be softer, but the batch size would start getting bigger. You could also add more liquid and extend the rising period and be prepared to deal with a loose dough; that will keep them softer, too. The less flour you add, the softer the finished rolls. However, yours look pretty darn wonderful :)
I am drooling, Averie. Like, actually drooling. Something tells me that the attendance in your clean plate club must routinely be quite high… ;)
Tried the recipe for the strawberry rolls. It is a good idea, but I am greatly disappointed in the dough, and the glaze. I will be using my own, family recipe for the dough next time, and go with my instincts about making a better glaze. Was not incredibly satisfied. The recipe results in bland, unpalatable bready parts, saved only by the strawberry preserves my mother made last October. This recipe certainly needs adjustment.
I’m sorry that you weren’t happy with the recipe.
It sounds like you have a better everything than I do – better family recipe for dough, better jam, and better recipe for a glaze. That’s awesome and if you have recipes you know are perfect for you and you’re 100% happy with them, then sticking with them is probably the way to go. Sort of sounds like anything wouldn’t measure up to your cherished recipes anyway. I know how it is when you have a favorite recipe; trying new things sometimes isn’t even necessary.
That said, my family and I enjoyed these rolls and we loved the glaze and had no issues with the dough. Thanks for trying to recipe anyway.
Just beautiful Averie! Featuring tonight!
Thanks and I look forward to it!
Darlin’ these sweet rolls look heavenly! I would happily join the clean plate club too :) I just pinned these. Mmmmm. Fabulous! Krista @ A Handful of Everything
Thanks for the pin!
And darlin’ <-- I love that :)
Need this in my face, right now! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!!