Easy Raspberry Lemon Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls (Video)

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These raspberry cinnamon rolls made with soft and fluffy sourdough and a lemon glaze are absolutely delicious! Raspberry lemon sourdough rolls are good anytime of the year, but I especially like them in the springtime!  The raspberry and lemon together with the tangy sourdough are some of my favorite springtime flavors.  

raspberry lemon glazed cinnamon rolls

These raspberry cinnamon rolls can be made the night before so you can quickly bake them fresh for breakfast in the morning, or you can bake them right away for a quick dessert.  You can mix the dough up in a mixer, or just do some quick stretch and folds by hand to develop the gluten.  This raspberry sweet roll recipe can also be made with discard or active sourdough starter and they will turn out just fine.  This is a very flexible recipe for soft and fluffy raspberry cinnamon rolls that you and your family are going to love!  

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

The best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted have been made with sourdough, and adding raspberries and lemon just takes it up a notch.  There’s something about the slight tang of the sourdough combined with the sweet ribbons of raspberry filling and lemon glaze that makes these the absolute best raspberry sweet rolls you’ll ever eat!

There’s nothing quite like a delicious batch of raspberry cinnamon rolls on a spring morning with hot tea and good company.  These rolls are also perfect for a family brunch, special occasions or even for a Sunday morning breakfast.  Because they can be made the night before, you can easily have them ready for a yummy breakfast anytime during the year, even during the busy summer months.  Raspberry lemon sourdough cinnamon rolls and coffee in the garden makes for a sweet breakfast treat.

You can also make a delicious lemon cream cheese frosting for these raspberry rolls that not only looks beautiful but is also delicious.  

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

bubbly sourdough starter

For more of our favorite sourdough recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

FAQ

Why are my sourdough cinnamon rolls not fluffy?

If you add too much flour to your dough, they won’t be as fluffy.  You don’t want a sticky dough, but not a super dry dough either.  Make sure you give them enough time to rise, I prefer to raise them overnight.  You can make quick cinnamon rolls with baking powder and baking soda as the leavening, but they won’t be as fluffy as the rolls you allow to rise overnight.

Do cinnamon and raspberries go together?

Yes, cinnamon and raspberries go beautifully together.  You don’t want to cinnamon to be overpowering, but it does bring out the raspberry flavor beautifully.

How do you make sourdough rolls less dense?

Allow them to rise until they are fluffy.  Make them with active sourdough starter.

What kind of flour is best for raspberry cinnamon rolls?

Bread flour will give you the fluffiest and softest cinnamon rolls, but you can make cinnamon rolls with a variety of flours including whole grain or all purpose.

If you’re looking for classic cinnamon rolls, try our easy overnight sourdough cinnamon rolls.

Tips

  • To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long-fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight.  This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
  • If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add a little more flour to this recipe.  I always mix them until they dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing up by hand.
  • You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in these rolls.  Then just roll them out, shape and allow to rise until double and then bake.
  • You can use string to cut the rolls if you’d like, but I find that cutting them with a very sharp knife works just fine for my family.
  • It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming on the eggs.

​Find other delicious recipes here:

Dough Ingredients

Water or milk

You can use warm milk or buttermilk in this cinnamon roll recipe.  Basically any kind of liquid will be fine.

Sourdough starter

Active sourdough starter is preferred, but sourdough discard works just fine too providing you are adding the baking soda and baking powder into the recipe. Learn how to make your own sourdough starter here.

Butter

Homemade butter is my favorite fat to put into these rolls, but you can also use melted beef tallow or coconut oil.

homemade butter

Sweetener

Sugar is what I use most often, but you can make these with honey or cane sugar as well.

Salt

Redmond real salt from Azure Standard is my favorite, but any kind of salt will do.

Eggs

Farm fresh eggs are always best.

Flour

Bread flour will make the fluffiest rolls, but I’ve made these cinnamon rolls many times with all purpose flour.  You could also make them with whole grain flour, but they wouldn’t be quite as fluffy.  

Baking powder & baking soda

Optional – only needed if baking right away with no rise time.

Raspberry Filling Ingredients

  • Raspberries, fresh or frozen – or raspberry jam
  • Sugar
  • Cinnamon
  • Corn starch
making raspberry filling for raspberry cinnamon rolls

Frosting Options

Lemon Glaze

  • Milk
  • Powdered Sugar
  • Brown Sugar
  • Water

Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

  • Cream cheese
  • Butter
  • Milk
  • Powdered sugar
  • Lemon juice

Tools You May Need

How To Make Raspberry Lemon Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Mix Up The Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the first six ingredients.

If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball.  Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple hours.  This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.

While the dough is mixing, make the raspberry filling.  You can just use raspberry jam.  Or you can use fresh or frozen raspberries and cook them with some sweetener, corn starch and cinnamon until they are nice and thick.  Cool for a few minutes before spreading on the rolls.  (See video).

making raspberry filling for raspberry cinnamon rolls

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a rectangle.

Make the sweet rolls

Spread the raspberry filling on the dough.

putting raspberry filling for raspberry cinnamon rolls

Roll dough up beginning with the long side of the rectangle.

Using a sharp serrated knife, cut rolls into approximately 1 ½” lengths.

Place in a greased cast iron skillet or baking dish.

cutting raspberry cinnamon rolls

Cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place overnight.  If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish raising a couple of hours before baking.

allowing cinnamon rolls to rise

You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point, and take them out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.

Bake the rolls

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and bake rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

While the rolls are baking mix up the lemon glaze or lemon cream cheese frosting.

Remove from rolls the oven and drizzle the lemon glaze over them.  Or spread the lemon cream cheese frosting over the warm rolls.  

adding lemon glaze to raspberry cinnamon rolls

Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired.

Serve warm with a cup of coffee or tea from Farmhouse Teas.

raspberry cinnamon roll

Savor every bite!  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21 

Yield: 12 Rolls

Easy Raspberry Lemon Cinnamon Rolls

raspberry lemon cinnamon rolls

These raspberry cinnamon rolls made with soft and fluffy sourdough and a lemon glaze are absolutely delicious! Raspberry lemon sourdough rolls are good anytime of the year, but I especially like them in the springtime!  The raspberry and lemon together with the tangy sourdough are some of my favorite springtime flavors.  

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water or milk
  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • ½ cup melted butter
  • ½ cup sugar or honey
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 4-5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (optional - only use if baking right away)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda (optional - only use if baking right away)
  • Raspberry Filling
  • 1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen - or raspberry jam
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbl. cinnamon
  • 2 Tbl. cornstarch
  • Topping Options:
  • Lemon Glaze
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
  • 8 oz. cream cheese
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2-3 Tablespoons milk (can add more to make a thinner frosting)
  • 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Mix Up The Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the first six ingredients.

If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball.  Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple hours.  This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.

While the dough is mixing, make the raspberry filling.  You can just use raspberry jam.  Or you can use fresh or frozen raspberries and cook them with some sweetener, corn starch and cinnamon until they are nice and thick.  Cool for a few minutes before spreading on the rolls.  (See video).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a rectangle.

Make the sweet rolls

Spread the raspberry filling on the dough.

Roll dough up beginning with the long side of the rectangle.

Using a sharp serrated knife, cut rolls into approximately 1 ½” lengths.

Place in a greased cast iron skillet or baking dish.

Cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place overnight.  If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish raising a couple of hours before baking.

You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point, and take them out of the freezer to raise and bake later on.

Bake the rolls

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and bake rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

While the rolls are baking mix up the lemon glaze or lemon cream cheese frosting.

Remove from rolls the oven and drizzle the lemon glaze over them.  Or spread the lemon cream cheese frosting over the warm rolls.  

Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired.

Serve warm with a cup of coffee or tea from Farmhouse Teas.

Savor every bite!  Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

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