I love springtime here in Arizona, thats when the citrus trees start to bloom. If you have never experienced citrus trees blooming then you are missing a lot. Another reason for loving springtime here is that along with the blooming, the actual fruit on the trees are perfect and its time to eat them. I take it upon myself to use all the free citrus I get my hands on. I know you’re asking yourself, why another lemon post? Well I have to do something with all those lemons on my mother-in-laws tree.

The best thing about these lemon rolls is the dough, it’s to die for. It’s my go to dough for any type of “swirl” buns. It is a brioche dough, meaning it’s enriched with butter, eggs and honey which gives it a slightly sweet, almost layered texture. The thing that really puts the dough for this recipe over the top is the lemon zest. The zest gives it that aromatic scent that pushes these lemon rolls over the top. The filling and glaze also work together to make these lemon rolls something you will want to experience over and over.

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Lemon Rolls

Makes 12 Rolls

No Knead Dough Ingredients

• 3/4 C. Lukewarm water
• 2 1/4 t. granulated yeast
• 2 1/4 t. kosher salt
• 4 large eggs at room temp, lightly beaten
• 1/4 C. honey
• 3/4 C. (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
• 4 1/2 – 5 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 T. Lemon zest

Roll Filling

• 1/2 C. melted butter
• 1/2 C. sugar
• Zest from 2 lemons

Lemon Glaze

• 16 oz. powdered sugar (half bag)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 stick butter melted
• Enough milk to make glaze consistency

Directions

1. Since this is a no knead dough, don’t over mix. Mix the yeast, salt, eggs honey and melted butter with the water in a 5-quart mixer bowl, or lidded (not airtight) food container.
2. Add zest to the flour and using your fingers rub it in to distribute. Mix the flour zest mixture in with the wet mixture, using a spoon or using your mixer until all of the flour is incorporated.
3. Cover dough (not airtight), and allow to sit at room temperature for about two hours. After its risen put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You will need to do this because the dough at room temp is really soft, almost too soft to handle.
4. While the dough is cooling off, mix all the filling ingredients together and set aside.
5. Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll dough out on the counter into a large rectangle about 1/4″ thick, or you can go thinner if you want so you have more swirls. Just don’t make it too wide or you will have too many rolls.
6. Spread the filling all over the dough and roll up into a log and pinch the dough to seal it up. Slice it up into 12 rolls and place them in a greased 9×13″ pan. Let rise for about and hour or until doubled in size.
7. Bake at 375 degrees F. for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top and check the bottom to make sure they are browned as well. If they aren’t, put some foil over the top until the bottoms are browned. If the bottoms aren’t slightly browned they will be doughy.
8. While the rolls are baking, mix glaze ingredients in a medium bowl. When rolls are done and still warm, pour on the glaze and spread over rolls. Enjoy.