Pillowy-soft rolls are stuffed with a lemon curd filling, studded with ground cardamom and freshly grated ginger, and topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting.
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00:00 Hey everybody, it's Brooke in the Delish Kitchen studios.
00:03 I'm really stoked because they let me bake, y'all.
00:06 And I wanted to share a thought with you guys.
00:08 What if a cinnamon roll went on vacation?
00:11 It'd be a lemon roll.
00:13 What's a lemon roll, you might ask?
00:14 Well, a lemon roll is just like a cinnamon roll, but instead of cinnamon on the inside,
00:18 we did lemon curd, some fresh ginger, and a little bit of cardamom to get that perfect
00:22 combination of pillowy cinnamon roll bread texture, but with a tangy, sweet, slightly
00:28 spicy filling.
00:29 This is unique, it's different, it's not like anything you've ever had before.
00:32 I'm gonna show you how to nail it.
00:34 You can't call this a lemon roll and it doesn't taste like lemon.
00:36 That would be absolute nonsense.
00:38 But to create a strongly flavored lemon dessert, you can't just rely on lemon juice.
00:42 Once you bake it, that fresh, poppy lemon flavor mellows out quite a bit, and we don't
00:48 want that.
00:49 We want that lemon flavor to carry all the way through.
00:51 To help us do that, I'm adding lemon zest to the dough, the filling, and the topping.
00:56 First, let's get started on this lemon roll dough.
00:58 To add enough lemony zest and punch and zing to this dough, I'm gonna start with lemon
01:03 zest.
01:04 To properly and effectively zest a lemon, you're gonna need a fine grater.
01:09 It should have something similar to the holes you need on a box grater, but what I really
01:13 like to use is a tool that looks like this.
01:15 And then when you're zesting, I like to hold whatever I'm zesting in my non-dominant hand
01:20 and hold my zester in my dominant hand so that the holes are facing up at me instead
01:26 of falling down into the bowl.
01:28 So I'll hold the lemon here and just sort of scrape it along the microplane so it starts
01:33 to collect.
01:34 And that way I don't waste any lemon zest and I can sort of watch it as I go and make
01:38 sure it's actually zesting.
01:40 This zest is gonna be the main flavoring for the dough, which we're about to start right
01:43 now.
01:44 And to start that dough, I'm gonna add some sugar directly to my lemon zest and use my
01:49 fingertips to start working some of that citrus oil out of the zest and into the sugar.
01:54 We're gonna take a tablespoon of that and add it to a little bit of whole milk.
01:58 We're gonna heat that in the microwave in 15 second increments just until it gets between
02:02 110 and 115 degrees.
02:05 It'll be perfect temperature for adding a little bit of active dry yeast to it.
02:09 Then we're gonna give it about 5 to 10 minutes for that yeast to bloom and get all nice and
02:13 frothy and bubbly and smelling good.
02:16 When you're heating the milk in the microwave, be mindful, okay?
02:19 Don't stick it in there for a minute and let it start boiling.
02:21 You won't want it to be super duper hot.
02:23 You want it to be right between 110 and 115 because that's the ideal temperature for yeast
02:28 to bloom.
02:29 This dough is actually pretty simple to come together.
02:32 It's all blended together in a stand mixer so you don't need to worry about having sore
02:36 arms or anything.
02:37 We're gonna go into the stand mixer with a couple of eggs, some flour, melted butter,
02:43 that milk mixture with the yeast in it, and the rest of that lemon and sugar zest mix,
02:48 some salt, and a little bit of vanilla.
02:50 We're gonna beat that on medium low speed for about 10 to 12 minutes until the dough
02:54 starts to feel nice and soft and flush and it should be completely pulling away from
02:58 the sides of the bowl.
03:00 Don't skimp on your kneading time either, okay?
03:01 I know it'll start to look like it's ready and you'll be like, "Oh, this dough looks
03:04 good enough."
03:05 Give it the whole 10 to 12 minutes.
03:07 Honestly, give it 12 minutes.
03:09 The 10 is just kinda...
03:12 Got a bowl here.
03:13 I'm gonna spray it with a little bit of nonstick cooking spray so the dough doesn't get stuck
03:17 to the outside of the bowl as it rises.
03:20 So I'm gonna dump this dough in here gently.
03:24 I'm gonna try to form this into a ball-ish shape just so it rises evenly, but I'm not
03:30 too worried about this part 'cause I am gonna roll it out later.
03:33 The dough is nice and soft and flush and I can stick my finger in it and it comes back,
03:38 but it comes back slowly.
03:39 You don't want it to like bounce right back and you don't want that dent to stay in there.
03:43 To help my dough rise, I'm gonna cover it with some plastic wrap and I'm gonna put this
03:48 in a warm spot in the kitchen to rise until it's doubled in size for about an hour.
03:54 When I say warm spot, I mean somewhere by the stove if you got your stove on or somewhere
03:59 by the refrigerator.
04:00 My refrigerator runs pretty hot so I like to set doughs next to the refrigerator.
04:04 Dough doesn't rise when it's cold, so you need to put your dough in a warm spot and
04:07 that'll help it rise.
04:08 We've got a little bit of downtime now.
04:09 It's time to get working on the filling.
04:12 The thing I love about this filling is not only the flavors that go into it, but the
04:16 fact that I'm using store-bought lemon curd.
04:18 You could definitely make your own lemon curd if you want to, but honestly baking is already
04:23 hard enough so I didn't want to overcomplicate things and I'm going store-bought this time.
04:27 This part is pretty similar to what you would do for regular cinnamon rolls.
04:31 We're going to combine in a small bowl some lemon curd, a little bit of softened butter,
04:37 some granulated sugar, and lemon zest to start the base for that mixture that's going in
04:42 the middle of our rolls.
04:43 To that we're going to add things that I think really crank up the flavor of this lemon roll.
04:48 Some fresh ginger and a little bit of cardamom.
04:50 If you're not a cardamom fan, I want to talk to you first of all.
04:55 But it's okay.
04:56 If you're not a cardamom fan, you can also use nutmeg.
04:59 You could use cinnamon.
05:00 That wouldn't be my first go-to choice, but I think nutmeg is a great alternative if you
05:04 don't like cardamom.
05:05 But also call me.
05:06 I'm going to talk about it.
05:08 Because why?
05:09 I love the fact that this mixture has ginger and cardamom in it.
05:12 Just adds that extra layer of zing and pop that we really need to make these not taste
05:16 like boring old lemon rolls.
05:18 Our dough is huge now.
05:21 It had a chance to rise and it's nice and puffy and ready to be rolled out.
05:25 I'm going to turn my dough out onto a sheet of parchment so that when it's time to chill
05:29 it in the refrigerator, it's a lot easier to transfer it to a sheet tray instead of
05:33 working with a really floppy piece of dough.
05:35 I'm going to lightly flour the parchment, turn the dough out and roll it into a rectangle
05:39 that's about 13 by 18 inches.
05:41 When you're rolling this out, you want to sort of use the parchment paper as your guide.
05:46 I'm not going to assume you have a ruler in your house.
05:49 But the parchment paper is about 13 by 18, so you want this to be just a little bit larger
05:54 than the sheet of parchment you're using.
05:56 When you're using a rolling pin on any sort of dough, especially softer doughs like this,
06:00 you want to make sure that you are working the dough out from the middle.
06:04 So you don't want to just go to town on it.
06:06 You want to start from the middle and gently coax the dough into the shape that you want
06:10 it to be in, so that you have a nice even shape at the end.
06:14 Rolling them out evenly will also help them bake more evenly, which is always something
06:17 we want.
06:18 Take this part slow.
06:20 It should be a little bit therapeutic, so just take your time.
06:23 Once you've got the dough to the general size that you want, it's okay if it's not exactly
06:27 a perfect rectangle.
06:29 You might not be able to get that with a rolling pin, especially if you're newer to using a
06:32 rolling pin.
06:33 Also, to clean up the sides and the corners, I like to use a bench scraper or even my hands
06:38 to just sort of, again, guide the dough into the shape that you want it to be.
06:41 Then I'm going to slather it with all of that lovely lemon curd butter mixture that we made.
06:46 When you're spreading the filling in the middle, make sure you go all the way edge to edge
06:51 on the dough, because you don't want those two end pieces of lemon roll to not have any
06:56 filling in them, because whoever gets those is going to be really sad.
06:59 Transfer it to a sheet tray and let it chill for about 15 minutes.
07:03 The reason that we're going to chill the dough is to give it a chance to firm up just a little
07:06 bit so that when we roll it, we get a nice, tight, clean spiral.
07:10 Any good roll has to have frosting on it.
07:12 This one is absolutely no different.
07:14 Frosting is really simple, because I didn't want to overcomplicate this part.
07:17 Into a medium bowl, we're going to stir together some softened cream cheese, powdered sugar,
07:23 lemon zest and lemon juice, cardamom, and a little bit of salt.
07:27 We're going to stir those together until they're nice and smooth.
07:29 You shouldn't see any lumps from the cream cheese, and then it'll be ready to go.
07:33 This has had a chance to get nice and chilly, which means the dough is firm enough for us
07:37 to get a nice, clean, pretty spiral.
07:39 I'm just going to slide this off.
07:41 Look how clean that was.
07:45 So easy.
07:46 All that's left to do is just roll this into a nice, neat spiral.
07:49 To start the roll, you want to use the parchment paper to help you guide the dough into a spiral.
07:55 So you just lift up at the ends and then start to tuck the dough really tightly.
07:59 Then as you roll, push the roll forward and then pull the parchment back.
08:04 Push the roll forward and pull the parchment back.
08:06 Once you've got it tightly rolled, we're going to slice it into 12 evenly sized portions,
08:11 then add it to a greased 13x9 baking dish.
08:15 I'm going to just cover these with a little bit of plastic wrap and let them rise in this
08:19 baking dish for another hour.
08:22 Then they'll be ready to bake.
08:24 Time for the final step for these lemon rolls.
08:27 This is the easiest part of this whole process, so we're going to speed right through it.
08:30 All you have to do is just prep them to go in the oven.
08:32 So first thing we're going to do is brush them with a little bit of egg wash.
08:36 It's just one egg that I beat with two tablespoons of water.
08:39 Last step, we're going to pour heavy cream over these rolls.
08:42 Now you might be thinking, "Girl, there's already enough going on in these rolls.
08:45 You don't need extra heavy cream."
08:47 But you do need heavy cream.
08:48 Heavy cream is something that makes cinnamon rolls so extra gooey and pillowy and soft
08:53 and fluffy.
08:54 It's the thing that makes you feel like you're committing a crime when you eat them.
08:58 Don't skip the heavy cream.
08:59 It's what Cinnabon does to make their cinnamon rolls taste so good, okay?
09:03 Don't tell anybody I told you that, please.
09:05 They'll come find me.
09:06 These will go into a 350 degree oven for about 30 to 35 minutes or until the tops start to
09:11 get nice and golden brown and your whole kitchen smells like lemon.
09:15 As soon as these rolls cool down a little bit from the oven, we spread that lovely cream
09:19 cheese frosting on top of them.
09:20 But we wanted to wait until they cooled down a little bit because you don't want that frosting
09:23 to melt.
09:24 I added a little bit of lemon zest on top and it's also really pretty.
09:27 I like a good presentation for my dessert.
09:29 The moment is finally here.
09:31 I get to bite into this swirly, lemony, cream, cheesy, gingery goodness and I don't have
09:38 anything else to say so I'm just going to bite this thing.
09:44 This is out of this world.
09:46 It's not often that I like really pat my own self on the back but I have to pat myself
09:50 on the back for this one.
09:51 That lemon is just in and through everything.
09:54 It's in the dough, it's in the filling, it's in the topping.
09:56 The ginger keeps it from getting boring.
09:58 Sometimes lemon desserts can get a little bit overwhelmingly lemon but that ginger and
10:02 the cardamom help break it up a little bit.
10:04 And it's not too sweet.
10:05 I'm not like a super duper sweet dessert girl so this right here, oh this is right up my
10:10 alley.
10:11 If you need more easy summer dessert recipes like this one, keep it right here at Delish.com.
10:16 [Music]