Lemon Rolls

If a cinnamon roll went on summer vacation, it’d be a lemon roll. These pillows of cream cheese-covered sunshine are stuffed with a lemon curd filling that’s studded with ground cardamom and grated ginger, making this a dessert that you’ll be clamoring to share…or maybe not. Here are some tips and tricks on how to make them:

The lemons:
Creating a strongly flavored lemon dessert means using a lot of lemons. While the juice has lemon flavor when raw, it tends to mellow out when cooked, then it no longer reads as the bright and poppy citrus flavor you need in a lemon dessert. Instead, we leaned heavily on zest, using it in the dough, the filling, and the cream cheese frosting.

The spices:
Like with cinnamon rolls, the rolled-out dough is upgraded with a layer of softened butter mixed with sweetener and spices. Instead of the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg combo, these rolls call for lemon curd, fresh ginger, and spicy ground cardamom. The warmth from the ginger and the cardamom creates a delicate balance with the sweet tang of the lemon.

The lemon curd:
We went with store-bought lemon curd to keep this simple, but beware—not all lemon curds are created equal! In testing, we found that brands with slightly thicker lemon curd were easier to incorporate into the softened butter and spread onto the dough without creating a sticky, soggy, hard-to-roll mess. Bonne Maman was our overall favorite brand for the consistency and the lemon flavor. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can absolutely make your own lemon curd from scratch.

The time:
The total time might seem a little daunting, but 2 hours of that time is spent rising the dough to make sure it’s developed plenty of yeasty, richly flavored goodness. These are no more effort than a cinnamon roll, but infinitely more rewarding when you need something with a little bit more contrast than the standard sweet.

Did you try making these? Let us know how it went in the comments!