I'm really into making rolls. This dough is my all-time, hands down, favorite dough. It's a little like brioche, it's light and tender, it's buttery and rich, it's everything you want a beautiful yeast dough to be. In the back of my mind, I'm always thinking. "Can I roll that?" Stay tuned for 1,001 renditions of rolls, sweet and savory.
In this recipe, I used an amazing strawberry and rhubarb jam I picked up from my favorite upstate farm. It's insanely good. To further drive home the strawberry flavor, I chopped up some fresh strawberries and tossed them in too. If you don't have strawberry rhubarb jam, feel free to use straight up strawberry jam. The lemon cream cheese glaze is the perfect compliment to the jammy fruit. Serve warm or room temperature, morning, noon, or night.
Bowl #1
1/4 cup [60 grams] warm water
1 packet [7grams] [2 1/4 teaspoons] dry active yeast
1/2 cup [70 grams] all-purpose flour
1/4 cup [50 grams] granulated sugar
2 tablespoons [12 grams] dry milk powder
2 teaspoons [8 grams] salt
Bowl #2
1/4 cup [55 grams] buttermilk, room temperature
2 whole eggs
Bowl #3
2 cups [290 grams] bread flour
Bowl #4
6 tablespoons [88 grams] butter, room temperature
On the sidelines:
1/2 stick [4 tablespoons] [56 grams] butter, softened
1/4 cup [55 grams] granulated sugar
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
1 cup strawberry rhubarb jam, slightly warmed up or at room temperature for easy spreading
Lemon cream cheese glaze, recipe as follows
1
In the first bowl, mix all ingredients for a minute.
2
Add the second bowl to the first bowl and continue to mix for another minute.
3
Add the flour from the third bowl into the batter and knead for five minutes. Preferably, this should be done in a standing mixer to cut down on elbow grease.
4
Gradually add in the butter, one pat at a time, until all the butter is incorporated. Knead for another minute or so.
5
Lightly grease a large bowl. Scrape the dough into a rough ball, place in the oiled bowl, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise for two hours.
6
If making the same day, refrigerate the dough for an hour so that it's easier to handle. If making the next day, park the bowl in the fridge overnight.
7
Once the dough is chilled, lightly flour your work surface. Roll out the dough to a large rectangle, roughly 12x14 inches.
8
Spread the dough with the softened butter. On top of the butter, spread the jam. On top of the jam, sprinkle the chopped strawberries.
9
Starting with the long side of the rectangle, begin to roll up the dough into a tight log. Take your time, there's no rush here. The better we roll this up now, the easier it will be to cut them later. Once completely rolled, pinch the seam together to seal up the log.
10
Cut the dough into inch and a half, or so, pieces. I like to halve the log, then halve the shortened pieces, and then halve the even shorter pieces. This will end up with 16 pieces. But, either way you slice it or dice it, you can't really mess this up.
11
Lightly spray two 9-inch cake pans with nonstick spray. Put half the pieces in one pan, roll-side up, and the other half of the pieces in the other pan. Cover and let rise for an hour.
12
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly beat an egg with a splash of water and brush onto the tops of the rolls. Bake until golden brown and puffy, roughly 30 minutes. Let cool and spread with glaze.
Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
Bowl #1
1/2 package [4 ounces] cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick [56 grams] butter, softened
1 cup [140 grams] powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt
1
In a standing mixer or with a handheld mixer, beat everything together until light and fluffy.
