Whole Wheat Raspberry Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Coming soon: photos from my sister’s wedding this weekend. It was beautiful and lovely and happy and sweet. There were also children crying in almost every picture (whose children, I will leave you to wonder) and one child spent most of the day puking and the other one had to be threatened/bribed into photos, where he almost exclusively posed in ‘touchdown’ fashion—always a wedding photo classic (yet again, whose children could these be?). I’m fairly certain we will never again be invited to another wedding in our entire lives, but it was lovely anyway. More on that soon.

In the meantime, these rolls. Oooohhhhh, these rolls. Jeff declared them the best cinnamon-style rolls I’ve ever made. I declare them pretty dang good, myself.

Instead of your typical butter and cinnamon filling, these rolls are filled with gooey, sweet raspberry jelly. The lemon cream cheese frosting takes them above and beyond, and you will not even suspect that the roll dough is whole wheat—so soft, so fluffy, and so delicious. That makes them health food, right? Whole wheat dough cancels out the cream cheese frosting, correct? I’m no nutritionist, but in my mind, this logic is sound.

Whole Wheat Raspberry Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from It’s Always Autumn and Mel’s Kitchen Café

Roll dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
3-4 cups white wheat flour

Mix water, yeast, sugar, oil, gluten, and 2 cups flour in stand mixer. With dough hook attached and mixer on low speed, add remaining flour slowly while mixing, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough forms a ball and begins to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead in mixer 5-10 minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, grease bowl, and replace dough, turning to coat with grease. Cover and let rise in a warm area 1-2 hours or until doubled in size (I was in a bit of a hurry when making these and learned a new [to me] trick—preheat your oven on the lowest possible heat setting, then turn it off once it’s preheated. Place your covered dough in the warm oven and let it rise in there . . . it rises much more quickly in that nice warm oven than it does on the counter! Just make sure the oven isn’t HOT . . . only warmed). Punch dough down and roll out into a large rectangle.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

Raspberry filling:
3/4 cup raspberry preserves
1/4 cup softened butter

Mix thoroughly in a small bowl. Spread over bread dough.

Starting at a long end of the dough, roll it up tightly and pinch the long edge to seal. Use a length of thread to slice into 1-2 inch long rolls.

Place rolls in prepared pan, cover, and let rise until double.

While dough rises, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pan in preheated oven and bake 15-25 minutes or until rolls are golden brown and cooked through. Let cool in pan.

Lemon cream cheese frosting:
4 tablespoons softened butter
2 ounces softened cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Use electric mixer to mix butter and cream cheese in medium bowl; beat well. Slowly add powdered sugar and milk, alternating and beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Spread over rolls.