High Altitude Strawberry Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

A recipe for soft, fluffy high altitude strawberry rolls made from scratch, filled with homemade fresh strawberry jam, and topped with cream cheese frosting.

You might also love these lemon poppy seed rolls, apple butter rolls with maple icing, and buttermilk cinnamon rolls.

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This post is sponsored by Big Country Foods. I’ve used their organic, fair-trade pantry ingredients in today’s recipe, but all opinions expressed are my own.

Why You’ll Love these Rolls

Bursting with Strawberry Flavor. The fresh strawberry flavor in these rolls is just fantastic. And while I made my own homemade strawberry jam, you could buy a jar of jam or strawberry pie filling if you like.

Soft, Warm and Gooey. Just like cinnamon rolls, these strawberry jam filled rolls are so soft and gooey, thanks to the enriched dough, and a generous pour of cream that soaks into the rolls as they bake.

Frosting. Everything is better with a thick swirl of cream cheese frosting, am I right?

Versatile. Instead of strawberry, you could make these with any other flavor of jam or pie filling, such as blueberry, raspberry, apple. You might even try lemon curd for the filling!

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Dough

For the dough, I used my enriched dough recipe that I always use for Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls. It’s soft, tender and flavorful, and bakes up into the lightest, fluffiest rolls. Be sure to read my cinnamon rolls post for all my tips on making this dough.

Strawberry Jam

Homemade strawberry jam makes the most delicious filling in these strawberry rolls. All you’ll need is fresh or frozen strawberries, lemon juice and sugar, with a little powdered pectin (I only use classic pectin) to set the jam. You’ll use some of the jam in today’s strawberry roll recipe, and the rest you can save to spread on toast or biscuits.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Lightly sweetened cream cheese frosting pairs wonderfully with the strawberry jam. It’s creamy and flavorful, with a little butter for added richness and vanilla and almond extracts for flavor.

Instructions

Make the strawberry jam.

• In a large saucepan or stock pot, combine the strawberries and lemon juice.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the strawberries are beginning to break down.  Mash the fruit slightly, or leave it chunky, whichever you like.
• Sprinkle the pectin over the strawberries and stir it in.  Increase heat to medium/high and stir constantly (while wearing oven mitts to protect against splatter burns), and bring to a boil. 
• Dump all the sugar in at once. Continue stirring constantly to return to a vigorous boil that can’t be stirred down. Boil hard for 1 minute.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter (the fat helps to reduce any foaminess).
• Pour into a jar and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled.
• You can make the jam as much as a week in advance, if you like. You’ll get about 2 1/4 cups of jam, and you’ll have some leftover after filling the rolls.

Make the dough.

• Melt 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the buttermilk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F. If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It’s important that you check the temperature – if it’s too cold, it won’t activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 cups of the flour with the sugar, salt, spices and instant yeast.
• When the butter/buttermilk is ready, add it to the bowl along with the eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Stir together into a rough dough.
• Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured clean work surface. Knead the dough for about 4-5 minutes, gradually kneading in 1/2 cup more flour to keep it from sticking, until the dough is smooth and springs back when lightly pressed. Altogether, you should only use a total of 3 cups of flour in the dough (reserving the remaining 1/4 cup of flour for rolling out the dough later). Rather than kneading by hand, it’s very easy to knead in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
• Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Shape the dough into a ball, place in the bowl, and cover tightly with plastic. Set the dough in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise (Image 2 & 3).

TIP: The dough is soft and sticky, and doesn’t form a firm dough ball. After proofing/rising the dough, I STRONGLY advise placing the bowl in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours, or overnight. It’s much easier to roll out, fill and cut the dough when it’s cold.

Assemble, cut and bake the rolls.

• Line a 9×13 pan with a sheet of parchment paper, or spray with non-stick spray.
• Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured work surface (using the last remaining 1/4 cup of flour to keep the dough from sticking). Roll your dough out into a rectangle measuring approximately 12×18 inches (Image 5).
• Spread the dough with the 4 tablespoons softened butter. Now spread with about 1 cup of the strawberry jam (Image 6). It can be tempting to add more, but it’s difficult to roll the dough up with more jam, or the jam will squish out.

• Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long sides) into a log. You don’t want to roll it too tight, or the jam will squish out (Image 7).
• Using a gentle sawing motion with a sharp, non-serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 rolls, or use a piece of unflavored dental floss to cut the rolls. It’s okay if things get messy with the jam filling (Image 8).

• Place the rolls, cut side up, in the pan (Image 9). Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for 30-40 minutes to puff up a little.
• When the rolls have puffed just enough that they are just starting to touch each other, they’re ready to bake (Image 10).

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Warm the cream briefly, just to take the chill off. Pour the cream over the rolls.
• Bake the rolls on the center oven rack for about 25 minutes, until they appear done in the middle, and they are pale golden brown (Image 11).

Make the frosting.

• Use an electric mixer to mix everything (except the jam) until creamy.
• Cool the rolls for 10 minutes, then spread the frosting on the warm rolls. Add some strawberry jam on top of each, and swirl it into the frosting a little (Image 12).
• Serve the rolls right away.

Icing Variations

If you’re not a fan of cream cheese, or just want something a little more drizzly or with a different flavor, there are so many yummy icings you could pour over your strawberry rolls. Add more liquid for a thinner drizzling consistency, or less liquid for a spreadable frosting.

• Lemon Icing. Stir together 1 cup powdered sugar with several tablespoons of lemon juice until smooth.
• Orange Icing. Stir together 1 cup powdered sugar with several tablespoons of orange juice until smooth.
• Strawberry Icing. Combine 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon freeze-dried strawberry powder. Stir in cream or milk plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth.
• Vanilla Icing. Use the vanilla icing recipe found here on my cinnamon rolls.
• Buttercream Frosting. A thick swirl of buttercream frosting would be fantastic on strawberry rolls.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

If I don’t have instant yeast, can I use active dry yeast?

This recipe calls for instant or rapid-rise yeast, which does not require any proofing first, so you can just mix it right into the dough.

If you only have regular active dry yeast, you should proof it first, before adding to the dough.  To do this, heat your butter and buttermilk as instructed. Then sprinkle the yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, over the liquid.  Stir in and let sit until foamy, about 5-10 minutes.  Add to your dough and mix as instructed.

Can I make the dough without a stand mixer?

You can make the dough without a mixer and dough hook, but it will be more difficult to knead the dough by hand. Since the dough is soft and sticky, it’s tempting to add too much flour when kneading by hand, resulting in a drier roll.

Why does the dough need to be chilled after rising?

Because the dough is so soft, chilling it for an hour or two makes it much easier to work with when you roll it out, fill and cut the rolls.

Can I make these rolls in advance and bake them in the morning?

There are a few overnight/make-ahead options with these rolls.

• Make the strawberry jam up to 1 week in advance, and keep it refrigerated until needed.
• Make the cream cheese frosting 1 day in advance. Keep refrigerated, but let warm to room temperature before spreading onto the baked rolls.
• Make the dough, let it rise, then cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, proceed with the remaining steps to roll out, fill and cut the rolls. OR…
• Make the dough, let it rise, then cover the bowl and chill the dough for 1-2 hours. Proceed with the remaining steps to roll out, fill and cut the rolls. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, let the pan warm up (covered) in a warm place until the rolls have puffed up and start to touch each other. Now you can bake the rolls.

Can I use store bought strawberry jam or pie filling?

Yes, you can.

Why do the instructions say to pour cream over the rolls before baking them?

Cinnamon rolls baked in cream are exceptionally soft, gooey and luscious. Pouring cream over the strawberry rolls just takes them to the next level of deliciousness. Note that the rolls pictured here were baked without cream. I tested a second batch with the cream (which I didn’t photograph), and they were hands down the favorite of the two. If you decide not to pour cream over the rolls, I’d suggest lightly brushing the rolls with melted butter or a small amount of cream before baking, to add more moisture and flavor.

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