Strawberry cinnamon rolls have a gooey, sweet filling all wrapped up in the most soft, tender and fluffy dough.
I seem to be on a bit of a strawberry kick lately, so bare with me. Need a special breakfast for you lover on Valentine’s Day? This is it! Who can resist a warm cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven? Not this girl. The addition of gooey strawberries is amazingly delicious! These rolls come out super soft, tender, gooey and get slathered in a thick layer of creamy cream cheese frosting. The perfect indulgent breakfast treat!
Homemade strawberry cinnamon rolls or any homemade cinnamon rolls in general are quite the process but trust me, it’s so worth it! As soon as you take the first bite you’ll know what I’m talking about. You can even prepare these rolls the night before to make the next morning super easy. I used the same sweet roll dough recipe as my favorite cinnamon rolls. Just prepare the recipe up until just before the second rise. When you place the rolls in the pan, you’ll cover the pan with a damp towel and place in the refrigerator over night. In the morning, take them out and place them in a warm environment so they can rise for the second time. Once they are nice and puffy, they’re ready to bake!
The sweet strawberry filling is homemade and it’s super easy. Nothing artificial or fake, just pure strawberry goodness. If you aren’t up to making your own filling, you can absolutely use store-bought strawberry preserves or jam – no judgement here!
In every bite you get the sweet gooeyness of the strawberry filling mixed with with spicy sweet flavors of cinnamon sugar and it’s seriously HEAVENLY. Plus, a generous slather of cream cheese frosting just makes them even better.
Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
*Dough*
- 1 standard packet active dry yeast 2 1/4 tsp
- 1 cup warm milk
- 2/3 granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 egg yolk lightly beaten
- 4 1/2 - 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
*Filling*
- 1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbs cornstarch
- 1 tbs water
- 1 tbs cinnamon
- 1 tbs granulated sugar
*Cream Cheese Frosting*
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, Add yeast, warm milk and 1 tbs of measured out sugar. Stir together lightly and allow to sit for 10 minutes or until foamy on top. Stir in remaining sugar, melted butter and beaten eggs until combined. Add 3 cups of flour first and then add one tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough. The dough WILL still be sticky so do not over-flour your dough! It should be sticky but not sticky enough where it sticks to your hands.Also note that your dough may not completely stop sticking from the bottom of the bowl so don't base your flour additions on that. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl and set into a warm place to rise until doubled, about one hour. I like to turn my oven onto 170 degrees and then turn it off, it creates the perfect warm environment.
- While the dough is rising, gather your ingredients for the strawberry filling. In a medium-sized saucepan, add the strawberries and sugar. Stir constantly for 5 minutes until they start to release their juices. Mix corn starch and water together and stir it into the strawberry mixture. Allow to thicken, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow the strawberry filling to cool to room temperature. Stir together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside for later.
- Once the dough is risen, don't punch it down just yet. Flip the bowl over and dump it out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat it down lightly to release the air inside and roll it with a rolling pin into a very large rectangle, about 1/4" thick. Spread the strawberry filling on into an even layer and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top.
- Roll the dough up very tightly into a long log. Cut the log into 12 or 16 cinnamon rolls. 12 for a large 9x13 pan or 16 for two round 8" baking pans (8 rolls in each). Grease your pan of choice extremely well and place cut cinnamon rolls into prepared pan.
- At this point, BEFORE the second rise you can choose to finish the process the next morning. Just place the pan of cinnamon rolls in the refrigerator with a damp cloth on top. In the morning, remove the rolls from the refrigerator and place them in a warm environment to do their second rise. Once they are puffy, they're ready to bake! Continue the recipe as normal.
- Allow them to rise in a warm place one more time until puffy, about thirty minutes. Once rolls have done their second rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and arrange the rack into the center of the oven. Bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
- While rolls are baking, prepare frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth with no lumps. Add in sugar, vanilla and optional pinch of salt and mix until smooth an creamy. I like to spread a thin layer of the frosting onto the warm rolls just as they come out of the oven so it seeps into all of the crevices and then a heftier layer once they have cooled down a bit.
- These Soft and Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls will stay fresh for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container at room temperature. I always store mine at room temperature and have never had an issue. If you are concerned about the cream cheese, store in the refrigerator. They are perfect warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds! Just like a fresh cinnamon roll right out of the oven.
Wow! I am totally loving this, I love the strawberry in them! These would be so delcious!
Talk about a mouth full of sweet goodness!! Yum!!
Oh my gosh, I want these so badly right now!! Total perfection, love it!
Love the addition of strawberries to these! It is like giving cinnamon rolls a little spring update. 🙂
These cinnamon rolls look dreamy. I love the strawberry flavor you used. I need to make some soon. I know my family would love me for it 🙂
I just made this! They are great? but next time I’ll put the cinnamon sugar mix down first and then the strawberry mix. I also added a bit of strawberry preserve ??? thank you for the recipe
Yum! You’re welcome!
In the ingredients next to teast why does it say 2?
I have never made Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls before. I have made Cinnamon Rolls, but I use alot more cinnamon and sugar maybe about 1 cup sugar and 1/2 c cinnamon ( sorry I don’t measure much.} Or are you suppose to make it so you can taste the cinnamon and sugar along with the strawberries ? Also about how much strawberry jam should I use. Thank you
It’s ok. The recipe has some good ideas to implement into another recipe, but that’s about all I can say. The dough did not taste good on its own. The strawberry filling had WAY too much liquid. I even added extra corn starch (2x the amount called for) to help thicken, and my entire counter was covered in juice when I rolled up the dough. The “gooey” dough is actually undercooked/raw dough, even after leaving it in the oven 5 mins longer than suggested. I think the only thing that actually came out alright was the frosting, so props on that. Otherwise, I would not recommend actually making this recipe. I would recommend reading through it to get some good ideas, but nothing more.