An alternative to cinnamon buns
Lemon Rolls. Lemon Rolls with lemon cream cheese frosting! If you like the flavour of lemon, this recipe is a must for you.
I was having a relaxing Sunday morning, watching the Food Network, when this recipe appeared. The recipe is compliments of Kardea Brown. I immediately searched the internet to see if, by chance, this recipe would be available and sure enough, the Food Network had it. I printed it and made plans to make it.
How to make Lemon rolls with lemon cream cheese frosting
I followed the recipe pretty much as written. I used my Ankarsrum stand mixer so the process was slightly different when it came to making the dough than what was written out.
With an Ankarsrum mixer, you add your liquid ingredients first, then the dry ingredients. That said, I used the same volume of ingredients as written.
Also, for those of us that purchase our active dry yeast in jars and not individual packages, a one 1/4 ounce package is 7 grams.
The only thing I changed was I did not use poppy seeds in the lemon cream cheese frosting. I didn’t have any in the house and did not feel like going out to get any. I’ve actually never made anything with poppy seeds so it’s not something I keep around.
If you like citrus-flavoured enriched dough, you really should try these Orange Bowknots.
Photos to help you make these lemon rolls
Warm the milk and melt the butter with a bit of sugar in a small sauce pot. Once it’s melted, add it to the bowl of your stand mixer. Check the temperature of the mixture before you add your yeast. You want it to be around 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sprinkle the active yeast and leave for approximately 10 minutes to proof. You want to make sure your yeast is active before you continue. In the second photo, you can see the foam from the yeast. We are ready!
Once your yeast is proofed, add the rest of the ingredients, including the eggs, sugar, flour and salt. Use the mixer to knead the dough until it is smooth and not sticky. You can do this by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer.
Lightly oil a bowl and add your lemon roll dough. Cover and place somewhere warm to rise until double in size. For me, this took almost 1 1/2 hours since it is winter here in Canada.
You can prepare the filling while the dough is rising. It is a simple, but delicious, filling. Lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar. So good in these rolls.
Once your dough has doubled in size, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a 20 x 12 rectangle. Spread your softened butter all over the dough. I was really battling to keep the butter warm enough to spread but not melted. I ended up using my hands to try to spread the butter hoping the heat from my hands would help. It worked pretty well.
Add your delicious lemon filling on top of the butter.
You need a 9 x 13 baking pan for this recipe. I used my Lodge Cast Iron baking pan and made sure to butter it well. I love baking with cast iron as I find the heat is very even and my baked goods turn out perfect.
Starting at the long side facing you, tightly roll the dough up into a log. Now, the recipe said you want to cut the slices into 1 1-2 inch wide slices and that you should get 15 slices. If the length of the rectangle is 20 inches, the slices would need to be 1.33 inches in order to get 15. All that said, I ended up with 13 slices and next time I make these, I will slice the log evenly to get 12 slices. That, I think, would work best for fitting in the baking pan.
Arrange the slices in your baking pan, with the cut side up. You’ll notice my 1 odd roll. I’ll skip that one next time and make sure I have 12 slices.
Cover the tray and let rise in a warm spot for a second time until double in size again.
Off to the oven.
Let’s make the lemon cream cheese frosting
Using my Ankarsrum mixer to make the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting was so easy. I love the open top and how easy it is to add ingredients.
Lemon Rolls fresh from the oven
Look at those delicious rolls fresh from the oven! The smell in my house was amazing!!
Let the rolls cool just slightly before you remove them. Don’t let them cool completely in your tray or you will end up with rolls stuck to the pan. The sugar in the rolls will harden as it cools.
I transferred the rolls onto a piece of parchment paper on one of my sealable cake trays. Once they were on the tray, I added the frosting. I knew we would eat a couple of these so the ones that were hanging over the edge wouldn’t be in the way when it came time to cover the rolls.
Do you want more lemon? Try this lemon raspberry zucchini bread. No yeast is required.
The result of Lemon Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
These are worth your time and effort. The rolls are soft and fluffy. The frosting is not too sweet but has a wonderful lemon flavour. It was difficult to not eat the entire tray that day.
If you are interested in making these rolls, you can find the recipe on the Food Network here.