Bursting with fresh strawberries in each pillow soft bite, these easy strawberry sweet rolls are perfect for a fancy breakfast or brunch!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love strawberry sweet rolls
- The recipe is super quick, with just 4 ingredients + homemade cream cheese frosting!
- No yeast, no stand mixer, and no waiting hours for the dough to rise.
- There’s just something about the vibrant pink color and impossibly fluffy texture of these hot-from-the-oven strawberry buns that will make anyone who tries them fall in love.
- Serve a batch to your family for Mother’s Day brunch or any time you find yourself with an abundance of ripe summer strawberries. The sweet strawberry rolls are sure to impress!
Readers also love this Strawberry Sorbet
Step by step recipe video
Key ingredients
Strawberries – The recipe is packed with over a cup of either fresh or frozen strawberries. If using frozen, be sure to fully thaw the berries and blot away all excess liquid before dicing.
Dough – Using pizza dough (packaged or homemade) is one of my favorite breakfast sweet roll shortcuts, because there’s no need to proof the yeast or knead the dough and wait for multiple rises. All of the hard work has been done for you ahead of time.
Look for refrigerated pizza dough in the prepared food section of many grocery stores, or you may swap it out for a basic bread dough or sourdough instead. Alternatively, use the dough from your favorite cinnamon roll recipe or these Vegan Cinnamon Rolls.
For gluten free strawberry rolls, buy a gluten free pizza dough or make your own from scratch.
Sugar – Any granulated white or brown sugar will work. I like unrefined raw cane sugar, which adds a subtle caramel flavor. To prepare added sugar free sweet rolls, choose an all purpose sweetener without sugar, like xylitol or granulated monk fruit.
Cornstarch – Stirring a tablespoon of cornstarch or two tablespoons of flour in with the berries is important because it helps to thicken the filling so it does not just ooze out when baking.
Coconut oil – Three tablespoons of coconut oil or butter will add richness and a buttery taste. For heart healthy oil free rolls, use softened almond butter or cashew butter instead.
Cinnamon (optional) – I recommend a fourth teaspoon of ground cinnamon in the filling for added depth of flavor.
Cream cheese frosting ingredients
You can honestly glaze these rolls with anything you wish, such as traditional buttercream, store bought vanilla frosting, or a simple glaze.
I’ve included my own classic cream cheese icing recipe below, because it is my personal favorite. If you choose this frosting option, here is everything you need to make it.
Cream cheese – The recipe calls for four ounces of full fat cream cheese or vegan cream cheese. I have not tried substituting low fat cream cheese or Greek yogurt, but feel free to experiment.
Powdered sweetener – The frosting uses standard confectioner’s sugar, also called powdered sugar or icing sugar. Or use an equal amount of any powdered sweetener without sugar that measures like powdered sugar.
You can also make your own powdered sugar by blending white, coconut, or unrefined date sugar in a blender or food processor until fine and powdery.
Milk of choice – Add one tablespoon milk or dairy free milk, or more as desired to thin out the glaze to your preferred texture. As a fun flavor spin, sub half of the milk for brewed coffee, chai tea, or espresso.
Vanilla – I like to blend in half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to compliment the natural sweetness of the strawberries.
How to make homemade strawberry sweet rolls
- Gather all of your ingredients ahead of time, and read through the recipe instructions.
- Take out the pizza dough from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius.
- Meanwhile, use a rolling pin to roll out the pizza dough on a nonstick floured surface. You want to roll it out into as thin of a rectangle as possible, under an eighth of an inch in thickness. A thinly rolled dough will give you more gooey strawberry filling in each bite.
- Spread softened butter or oil evenly over the entire surface of the rectangular dough.
- Add the diced strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, and optional cinnamon to a medium mixing bowl, and stir until well combined.
- Now spread the filling evenly on top of the dough, going almost all the way to the sides.
- Tightly roll up the dough into a long log shape. Then use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut thin strips. It’s okay if some of the berry liquid seeps out during this process.
- Arrange the unbaked strawberry pastries in an eight inch baking pan, and place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven.
- Bake 35 minutes or until soft and lightly golden in color, with bubbly strawberry filling.
Cream cheese frosted strawberry rolls
To make the easy cream cheese frosting, first let cream cheese soften to room temperature.
Use hand beaters or a stand mixer to whip the cream cheese and vanilla extract, slowly blending in the powdered sugar about a half cup at a time.
If frosting is too thick, beat in a tablespoon of milk or more as needed.
For the gooiest and best results, ice the rolls while they are still warm. This allows the frosting to deliciously melt into the hot strawberry sweet rolls.
Store leftover glazed rolls in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to five days, and reheat before enjoying.
Katie’s favorite recipe variations
Strawberry Lemon Rolls: Follow the base recipe below, stirring the zest of one lemon into the cream cheese frosting. Swap out the milk for lemon juice to make a quick lemon glaze. This variation is also lovely with lime or orange and orange zest.
Chocolate Chip Strawberry Rolls: Sprinkle a handful of mini chocolate chips or white chocolate chips onto the rolled out dough after adding the strawberry filling.
Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls: Increase the cinnamon in the recipe to one tablespoon.
Raspberry Sweet Rolls: Instead of diced strawberries, use an equal amount of chopped fresh raspberries or even raspberry jam. You can do other fruit as well, such as blackberries, peaches, cherries, or blueberries.
Strawberry Banana Rolls: Replace up to half of the strawberries with diced bananas. Sprinkle finely chopped walnuts or pecans over the filling before rolling up the dough.
The recipe was adapted from my Strawberry Bread and these Easy Cinnamon Rolls.
Strawberry Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
Strawberry Rolls
- 16 oz pizza dough or bread dough
- 1 1/3 cups diced strawberries (200g)
- 3 tbsp coconut oil or butter (36g)
- 1/3 cup sugar or granulated sugar free sweetener (70g)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch (8g) or 2 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
- 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar free sweetener (150g)
- 1 tbsp milk of choice, or more as needed
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- 1. Let pizza dough come to room temperature, then preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius).
- 2. On a nonstick floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle under 1/8th of an inch thick.
- 3. Spread softened butter or oil evenly over the rectangle.
- 4. In a medium bowl, stir the strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, and optional cinnamon until well mixed.
- 5. Spread this strawberry filling over the top of the pizza dough.
- 6. Tightly roll the dough into a long log shape, then use a knife or pizza cutter to slice thin strips. Do not worry if some of the strawberry liquid seeps out.
- 7. Arrange the rolls in an 8 inch pan. Bake 35 minutes on the center rack of the oven, until dough is fully cooked and lightly golden and filling is bubbly.
- 8. Bring the cream cheese to room temperature, then use a stand mixer or hand beaters to whip cream cheese, vanilla, and about half a cup of powdered sugar until fluffy.
- 9. Slowly beat in the remaining powdered sugar. If glaze is too thick, add a tablespoon of milk or more as desired to thin it out.
- 10. Frost the strawberry sweet rolls while they are still warm, so the icing melts into the top.
Video
Notes
Easy summer breakfast recipes
