Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s a look at the ingredients you’ll need for these fluffy strawberry milk rolls.

Strawberry Milk: The key ingredient for the strawberry milk icing. Use prepared strawberry milk from the refrigerator section, or stir up your own with strawberry milk mix. Using a powdered mix allows you to adjust the intensity of flavor.

Strawberry Cake Mix: Cake mix gives these rolls a sweet strawberry flavor, vibrant color, and a soft crumb.

All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour provides added structure and elasticity to the dough, allowing the rolls to rise and become fluffy.

Freeze-Dried Strawberries: Freeze-dried strawberries have a concentrated flavor and are perfect for the filling of these rolls. Fresh berries would have too much water and would end up gummy and bland.

Lemon Zest: Just a little lemon zest makes a huge difference in the filling, adding depth of flavor and a zesty pop that complements the sweet strawberry flavor.

Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Water, yeast, egg, butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar.

How to Make Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls

Here are our best tips for making these Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls. See the full recipe for detailed instructions.

1. Make the Dough

This dough can be kneaded by hand or with a stand mixer. If using a mixer, knead for about 5 minutes using the dough hook attachment. Once the dough is kneaded, place it in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

2. Mix the Filling

Pulse the freeze-dried strawberries in a mini-food processor or place them in a resealable food-storage plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Crushing by hand won’t give you a superfine powder, but it will work just as well! Mix the strawberry powder with the granulated sugar and lemon zest.

3. Shape the Rolls

Roll the dough out into a 16x12-inch rectangle. Spread the melted butter and sprinkle the strawberry-lemon sugar over most of the dough, leaving an uncovered edge along one of the longer sides of the rectangle so you can effectively seal the dough into a log once rolled. This prevents the rolls from unraveling while they rise a second time.

4. Rise and Bake

Let the shaped rolls rise at room temperature until they are doubled in size–they should fill the pan and touch each other, closing most (if not all) of the gaps between the rolls. These bake for a relatively quick 20 minutes and come out with a golden exterior. Cool for about 5 minutes before icing. Add the icing while the rolls are still warm.

How to Store (and Reheat) Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls

Follow these tips for storing Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls.

Refrigerator Storage

While these buns are best the day they are made, any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days in the refrigerator.

Freezer Storage

Rolls can be stored in the freezer by wrapping individually in plastic and placing them in an airtight container or resealable freezer plastic bag for up to 1 month.

Thawing

Thaw individual rolls in the refrigerator. To warm, microwave for 20 to 30 seconds, in 10-second intervals, until just warmed through. Be cautious of the filling and frosting overheating, as they can become very hot quite quickly.