lemon rolls

Soft and fluffy lemon sweet rolls are filled with a lemon vanilla sugar and topped with homemade lemon cream cheese icing. They're sweet, citrusy, and tart.

Lemon Sweet Rolls

milk (3/4 cup),

butter, melted

egg,

all-purpose flour (3 cups)

instant yeast (1 + 1/2 teaspoons)

granulated sugar (2 tablespoons)

salt (1/2 teaspoon)

vegetable oil

butter (1/4 cup), softened to room temperature

granulated sugar (1/2 cup)

lemon

vanilla extract

cream cheese, softened

confectioners’ sugar

lemon juice

lemon zest (optional,

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk, butter and egg until smooth.

In another large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt until evenly combined.

Pour the wet mixture into flour mixture. Stir well with a spatula until no dry flour is visible. Make sure to scrape off any remaining flour on the sides of the bowl.

Transfer the dough mixture onto a clean and dry surface. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until it turns into a soft and smooth dough ball. Because of the high fat content (butter and milk) in this recipe, the dough is much easier to knead by hand and does not require a stand mixer.

Prepare the Dough:

Transfer the dough back into the mixing bowl, lightly grease the dough ball with a little vegetable oil and cover with a lid. Covering the dough with oil will help prevent the dough from losing moisture and drying out. Let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour (or overnight in the refrigerator) until it doubles in size. 

Proof the dough (first rise):

Pour the dough onto a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to a rectangle approximately 20x14-inches in size.

Gently spread softened butter evenly over the rolled dough. 

Whisk together sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon zest, and vanilla extract until evenly combined. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the butter.

Roll up the dough tightly into a log and pinch the end edges to seal.

Cut into 12 even pieces using a knife or bench scraper, each about 1.5-inches in width. Arrange the rolls into a greased 9x13-inch casserole pan.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap or seal it in a large Ziploc bag. Let it rise (second rise) at a warmer place for 1 hour or until the rolls double in size.

Shape the Lemon Rolls (second rise):

Evenly sprinkle the remaining lemon zest over the rolls, and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cover the pan halfway with aluminium foil if is browning too much. Let the rolls cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Bake the Lemon Rolls:

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the softened cream cheese on medium speed until smooth.

Add confectioners' sugar and lemon juice, and beat until creamy and smooth. You can also mix together using a whisk and spatula.

Spread the cream cheese icing over the rolls and serve hot. Sprinkle extra lemon zest on top, if desired.

Make the Cream Cheese Icing:

Sweet lemon-scented rolls with cream cheese frosting, these are like a cinnamon roll gone rogue!

Lemon Buns

whole milk (lukewarm)

Tbsp sugar

tsp active dry yeast

all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)

eggs (large, room temperature)

salt kosher salt)

unsalted butter (melted)

lemons (zested)

sugar

Tbsp unsalted butter (very soft)

oz cream cheese (block/brick style, room temperature)

Tbsp unsalted butter (softened)

sugar (icing sugar)

Mix the milk and sugar together in a small bowl, then sprinkle the yeast over the top and leave to sit for 5 minutes.

Put the flour, eggs, salt and melted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Give the yeast mixture a stir and tip into the bowl. Mix on low speed to combine everything for 2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and mix until smooth and glossy, about 6 minutes. The dough will be very soft, so don’t worry if it doesn’t pull away from the sides of the bowl easily.

Make the dough

Set your oven to dough proofing setting (or steam-only setting, if you don’t have dough proofing), 38ºC/100ºF. Put the uncovered bowl in the oven for 40 minutes, after which the dough should have doubled in size.

Do the first proof

While the dough proves, make the filling by rubbing the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips. Mix in the soft butter and set aside.

Make the filling

When the dough has finished the first prove, scrape it out of the bowl onto a floured bench. Gently press to knock out any large air bubbles, then roll it into a rectangle about 40cm/16 inches wide and 30cm/12 inches long.

Using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon, gently spread the butter and sugar mixture all over the dough, leaving a half inch of space on one of the long edges.

Roll the dough up tightly from the other long side, so you have a 40cm/16 inch long spiral. Put the entire roll into the fridge for 40 minutes or the freezer for 20 minutes; this makes it much easier to slice into pretty buns.

Carefully cut the chilled dough into 12 even pieces with a serrated knife. Lightly grease your baking pan, or line with parchment paper, and arrange the rolls evenly into it.

Assemble the rolls

Set oven to dough proving setting (or steam only setting) again, 38ºC/100ºF. Put the uncovered dish in the oven for 30 minutes. The rolls should look puffy and be starting to fill out the baking dish.

Do the second proof

Set oven to 350ºF/180ºC, combi steam setting (if you have variable steam settings, use 30% – if you can’t vary your steam, just set to combi steam and let the oven take care of the humidity). Leave the pan in the oven while it heats up. Bake the rolls until deep golden brown and risen, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and spread the cream cheese frosting over the hot rolls – it will melt in slightly and form a glaze as they cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bake the buns

Mix this up while your lemon buns are baking. Put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low speed until smooth and creamy.

Cream cheese frosting

These are the best lemon rolls! They&#39;re soft and fluffy lemon rolls, with a gooey lemon sugar filling and lemon cream cheese frosting.

Lemon Rolls

(300 ml) whole milk

active dry yeast

granulated white sugar (to bloom the yeast)

(593 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

tsp salt

tbsp (25 g) granulated white sugar

eggs, whisked

(112 g) unsalted butter, very softened

vanilla

tbsp (20 g) lemon zest (about 2 lemons zested)

(110 g) brown sugar

(100 g) granulated white sugar

tbsp (30 ml) fresh lemon juice

(56 g) unsalted butter, softened

oz (113 g) cream cheese,

(97 g) powdered sugar

tbsp (5 g) lemon zest (about 1/2 lemon zested)

To start, bloom your yeast. Mix your active dry yeast, sugar, and warm milk together and let sit for 10 minutes.

Next, in a large bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix flour, salt and sugar together.

To the dry ingredients add the whisked eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and softened butter and mix.

Add in the yeast mixture and mix until everything is blended. Switch to a dough hook and knead on medium speed for 7-10 minutes until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl, forms a ball and springs back when pressed.

Form the dough into a ball. Place the dough in a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise, (outside or a cold oven with the light on works well for this), for 1- 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

For the Lemon Rolls

While the dough rises, make the filling by mixing butter, brown sugar, white sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt together in a small bowl.

For the Lemon Filling

Grease a 9x13&quot; casserole dish and set aside.

Once the dough has had a chance to rise, remove it from the bowl, punch the dough to release the air, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into about an 18 x 12 inch rectangle. It should be about 1/4 inch thick.

Next, spoon the prepared filling over the dough and spread it evenly with an offset spatula.

Roll up the dough tightly into a long log shape starting from the end closest to you. Cut of a bit off the ends to make the log even. Cut 12 rolls about 1 1/2 inches wide using unflavored floss or a very sharp knife.

Place the rolls in a greased 9x13&quot; casserole dish and pour room temperature heavy cream in between each roll. Cover them with plastic wrap and let them proof in a warm spot for about an hour, or until they have doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees about 15 minutes before the rolls are done proofing.

Once the rolls have proofed, bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a light golden color.

Assembling and Baking the Lemon Rolls

While they bake, make the cream cheese frosting by adding the softened butter to a medium bowl and mixing it on high speed with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.

Add in the cream cheese and mix until combined on medium speed.

Sift the powdered sugar into the mixture a little at a time and mix on low speed until all is combined.

Then add in the lemon zest and lemon juice and combine on low then high speed until the frosting is fluffy.

Let the rolls cool for 5 minutes, then cover the warm rolls with the cream cheese icing. Then serve! 

For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

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Lemon Sweet Rolls

Lemon Buns

Lemon Rolls

Top 3 lemon rolls recipes from across the web

The most viewed lemon rolls recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Lemon Sweet Rolls

Lemon Buns

Lemon Rolls

The most viewed lemon rolls recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine