Sourdough Strawberry Rolls

You are going to love these sourdough strawberry rolls, filled with fresh strawberries and strawberry jam, and topped with the most delicious vanilla cream cheese frosting.

This fresh take on sourdough cinnamon rolls will add some color and sweetness to your day! These sourdough berry sweet rolls are going to be a huge hit.

If you love using fresh strawberries along with your active sourdough starter, then make sure you check out this sourdough strawberry cake, sourdough strawberry muffins or even these sourdough strawberry shortcakes.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

A Fresh Take on Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls - If you love sourdough cinnamon rolls, but crave a fresher version, then these might be just what you're looking for! Enriched dough with a tender texture, filled with fresh strawberries, plus more on top, they are the perfect treat when strawberry season rolls around!

Stunning Summer Dessert - These rolls with a sweet strawberry filling make a stunning summer dessert, bejewelled with bright red strawberries! They are the perfect treat to bake, take and share to your next gathering. They also make the most beautiful sourdough Valentine's Day bake!

Berry Sweet Sourdough Rolls - while I've used fresh strawberries for these sweet berry sourdough rolls, you could also substitute raspberries, blueberries or even blackberries for something a little different.

Get Your Sourdough Starter Ready

Just like baking sourdough bread, you'll need an active sourdough starter to make these sourdough strawberry rolls. You can find an easy recipe to create a sourdough starter here.

You want to make sure your wild yeast colony is at the peak of it's activity before making this sweet roll recipe so that the dough rises sufficiently and is soft and puffy prior to baking. If your sourdough starter isn't up to the task, you will end up with gummy, dense rolls.

You can find my best tips for boosting your sourdough starter here. You might also find this article on the best time for using sourdough starter helpful.

How To Make Sourdough Strawberry Rolls

This sourdough strawberry rolls recipe is based on my recipe for fluffy sourdough cinnamon rolls (which gets rave reviews in my Facebook Group).

I've chosen to mix the dough for these sourdough strawberry rolls in a my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, however you can easily do it by hand with no issues. The dough is silky and elastic and is actually a pleasure to knead by hand, so don't let not having a stand mixer put you off this recipe.

Warm the milk to around 37C. Add the warm milk and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until the sugar has thoroughly dissolved (I use the whisk attachment for this step).

You can just warm the milk in the microwave before putting into your stand mixer bowl. You just don't want cold milk in your dough as it will take forever to rise!

Now add your sourdough starter, egg, vanilla extract, salt and bread flour and use your stand mixer to knead into a rough dough (I swap over to the dough hook attachment for this step).

This shouldn't take too long (around 2 to 3 minutes). Leave the dough to rest in the stand mixer bowl for around 30 minutes.

Add the butter and knead into the dough until the dough is smooth and fairly elastic. You may need to increase the speed of your stand mixer to allow the butter to be incorporated (see notes below). You want the dough to be slapping the sides of the bowl and not to be sticky at all.

Transfer to the dough to a bowl and allow to ferment. You want the dough to rise a little (around 30%) and feel soft to the touch. This needs to happen at room temperature - not in the fridge.

Once the dough has finished bulk fermentation, you will need to fill and shape the cinnamon rolls.

Rolling and Filling the Dough

Before you roll out the dough you need to make the filling. Add the diced strawberries to the strawberry jam and mix until well combined. Set aside while you roll out the dough. For a little extra zing, consider adding a little lemon juice or even lemon zest to the filing mixture.

Turn the dough out on to the counter. It shouldn't be sticky and be easy the handle. Do not use flour when rolling out the dough.

Gently roll the dough out into a rectangular shape. I use a combination of stretching with my hands and using a rolling pin to achieve this. 60cm x 30cm is a good size to aim for. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the bigger you an get it, to more perfect strawberry swirls you will get.

Spread the filling all over the dough, leaving a 10cm gap on one of the long edges. You need to leave a gap so that dough will stick to itself when you roll it.

Once the filling is spread, roll the dough into a log, starting on the opposite long edge to the gap you've left.

Roll the dough into a tight log, using the unfilled dough to seal the log. You can spray a little water on the part where the dough joins if you want to - but the dough should stick to itself without it.

Lay the log out with the seam side down.

Cut the log into approximately 10 pieces (you can measure and divide by 10 if you want them to look even - or just go freehand if you're not too fussed). As you can see in the photos, I have not measured these at all. Using dental floss to cut them will help you keep their shape and give the strawberry rolls a flat surface, however a knife is fine if you don't have any dental floss.

Place the sourdough strawberry rolls into a cast iron skillet lined with parchment paper (I've used the base of my cast iron bread pan). You don't have to use parchment paper, but I find the jam makes quite a mess, so the parchment paper makes for much easier clean up.

Face all the seams inwards so that they don't unravel. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, a baking tray or casserole dish is perfectly fine. They don't have to touch when you first put them in the dish, they will once the dough has puffed up though.

Second Rise

Now it's time for the final rise. Cover the skillet containing the rolls with a tea towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm place. The dough is enriched, so it will take a little longer than normal (especially since we are dealing with sourdough). Just be patient!

Once the dough is puffy, it's time to get your sourdough strawberry rolls into the oven!

Baking

Once the rolls are puffy and have taken up the room in the skillet, it's time to bake them. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Bake rolls for 25 to 30 minutes at 180C (350F). Keep an eye on them though as they will burn easily due to the sugar. Some people recommend pouring a tub of heavy cream over the rolls before baking, but it's not necessary with these rolls. The jam mixture creates a lovely glaze underneath the rolls, so the cream just makes them soggy.

Once they're finished baking (they should be lovely and golden brown), leave them to cool in the skillet for around 30 minutes before taking them out.

Once they're out of the oven, you can brush them with butter to give them a nice glaze. You can leave them unbuttered if you prefer. The butter will give them a nice shine.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Add cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt to your stand mixer. Beat the frosting until it's thick and glossy. Store in the fridge until ready to use.

Once the rolls have cooled a little (I leave it about 30 minutes) smother them in the vanilla cream cheese icing. You can use a vanilla glaze or even just dust them in icing sugar if you prefer.

Top the frosted rolls with fresh, sweet strawberries for a pop of fresh color and sweetness.

​Baker's Timeline

You can easily make these sourdough strawberry rolls fit into your schedule.

Maybe you want to have them ready at a certain time for a special occasion.

These delicious sweet sourdough rolls are perfect for Valentine's morning breakfast! Here's how to have them ready!

Baking Timeline for Sourdough Strawberry Rolls

Time	Process
8.00am	Mix and knead dough for sourdough strawberry rolls.
9.00am	Cover dough and allow to bulk ferment.
5.30pm	Roll out dough, spread filling and roll. Cut into individual rolls and place into cast iron skillet.
6.00pm	Allow rolls to sit for around an hour before covering in plastic wrap and placing into fridge for the night.
6.30am	Take rolls out of the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature.
8.00am	Bake sourdough strawberry rolls for 25 to 30 mins (make frosting while they're baking).
8.20am	Allow rolls to cool for around 30 minutes.
9.00am	Smother in vanilla frosting and enjoy!

What Fruit Can You Use Instead of Strawberries

One of the best things about these sourdough strawberry rolls, is that you can use any summer fruit you like. You could swap strawberries for raspberries, blueberries, apricots etc, just like in this sourdough berry cobbler!

Sourdough Blueberry Rolls - You can make a delicious blueberry filling by adding 300g of fresh blueberries to 300g of blueberry jam. Fill the rolls in the same way as directed in the recipe card. Lemon zest is also a lovely addition to the blueberry filling.

Sourdough Apricot Rolls - Make sweet sourdough apricot rolls by mixing apricot jam with fresh diced apricots. Fill the rolls in the same way as directed in the recipe card.

Can You Use Sourdough Discard To Make These Sweet Strawberry Rolls?

I've written this recipe using active sourdough starter, and hence the suggested timeline is also based around the fermentation times of an active sourdough starter. If you wish to use sourdough discard, you would also need to add 7g of commercial yeast to your dough to ensure it rises. 

You can read more about the difference between active sourdough starter and sourdough discard here.

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