Amazing raspberry rolls recipe – even better than cinnamon rolls!

In today’s post: These sweet raspberry rolls are like cinnamon rolls but even better!

I don’t love winter, but I do love BAKING, and there’s no better time to do it than on a cold winter morning. Honestly, these raspberry rolls (a close cousin to cinnamon rolls) almost make waking up to a foot of snow a happy occasion – if you’re going to be stuck inside, you might as well delight your family with a pan of deliciousness. Of course, they’re not only good in the winter – I’m pretty sure you and every single person you know would enjoy these any day of the year.

I dreamed these up years ago after having a roll from a local bakery that was topping with raspberry frosting. I’ve always liked my mom’s cinnamon roll recipe, but I actually find that cinnamon rolls are sometimes a bit too sweet (crazy, I know). But soft homemade bread wrapped up with raspberry filling and topped with cream cheese frosting? That sounded just about perfect.

I’ve made these rolls dozens of times over the years. I try to invite neighbors and friends over for brunch now and again and I know these rolls will always go over well.

These start with my homemade dinner rolls recipe (which I also use to make garlic breadsticks and buttery crescent rolls). I know making your own bread dough can be intimidating, but once you’ve done it a time or two it’s really not that hard! If you’ve never made bread before, visit my favorite dinner rolls post – I’ve included a 10 minute video in that post that walks you step by step through the process of mixing, kneading, rising and baking. Give the basic dinner rolls recipe a shot, and once you’ve conquered that you’ll be ready to turn the basic rolls into these showstopping raspberry rolls!

If you’re already familiar with making yeast bread, you’re all set to dive into this recipe.

How to make raspberry rolls

Here’s a quick video that shows the process for making raspberry rolls:

You’ll start with my basic dinner rolls recipe (recipe cards for dinner rolls and raspberry rolls found at the end of this post). Mix up the ingredients and knead as directed. Let the dough rise once for an hour or a bit more until nearly doubled in size. Then you’ll start shaping as raspberry rolls instead of breadsticks:

1. On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 12×18 rectangle. 2. Mix raspberry preserves and softened butter and spread evenly over dough, leaving 1 inch uncovered along top edge as shown. 3. Carefully roll up dough from the bottom, pinching to seal seam. 4. Use a sharp knife to mark 14 equal pieces. 5. Gently slide a 12 inch length of thread under roll until it’s even with the first mark. Criss cross thread across top of roll and pull ends gently to slice through. 6. Either discard end pieces or place them in separate, small baking dish. Place remaining 12 rolls in a greased 9×13 pan.

NOTE: You don’t have to cut off the ends and discard them or bake them separately, but I like to because I find using the entire amount of dough in a 9×13 pan results in an overfilled pan and slightly uneven baking. So I generally just put the two end rolls in a small, greased casserole dish and cook them along side the 9×13 dish. That makes an extra treat for the kids if I plan to serve most of the rolls to guests!

1. All 12 rolls are in the pan. 2. Let rise for 20-30 minutes or until rolls are puffed and just touching. 3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden brown. (I like to gently pull two of the center rolls apart from each other to be sure the dough is fully cooked in the middle before I take them out of the oven – last time mine cooked for exactly 22 minutes). 4. Let rolls cool for at least 15 minutes before topping with frosting.

Here they are fresh out of the oven:

And after they’re topping with the sinfully delicious cream cheese frosting:

 

 

The rolls really are best warm, but they taste great cooled as well. Start to finish they take about 3 hours.

Raspberry Rolls recipe

 

And click here for the recipe card for the dough I use to make them. Remember to click through to that post for instructions on mixing up the dough.

Tips for making raspberry rolls

Tip #1: My recipe calls for raspberry preserves. I love homemade raspberry jam, but I use storebought raspberry preserves or jam for this recipe because storebought is usually thicker than homemade jam. After all, you don’t want all that raspberry filling leaking down beneath the rolls while they bake! I also tend to like the stuff in the jars labeled “preserves” better than what’s in the jars labeled “jam”, but either should work fine as long as it’s thick.

Tip #2: The frosting recipe makes quite a good amount of frosting – more than you see in the photos here. I usually go ahead and dump it all on – everyone loves frosting right? – and I’ve never had any complaints. But if you prefer a smaller amount of frosting on your rolls, feel free to scale down the frosting ingredients.