Lemon Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls

A lemon blackberry cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting cut in half on brown parchment paper.

Fluffy lemon brioche, rolled with lemon blackberry butter and topped with a lemon cream cheese frosting, these lemon blackberry cinnamon rolls are perfect for brunch. Ps the blackberry butter also makes the perfect filling for a blackberry stuffed french toast!

Prep Time2 30

Cook Time30

Total Time3

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: blackberry, Cinnamon Roll, Cream Cheese frosting

Servings:

Calories: 455kcal

Equipment

9"x13" metal pan
Stand Mixer

Ingredients

Lemon Brioche Dough

50 grams granulated sugar
2 lemons, zested
500 grams all purpose flour
15 grams instant yeast
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
250 milliliters whole milk lukewarm
2 eggs room temperature
60 grams unsalted butter softened
150 milliliters heavy cream

Blackberry Butter

270 grams blackberries fresh or frozen
1 lemon juiced
35 grams granulated sugar
150 grams unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Cream cheese frosting

226 grams cream cheese room temperature, 8 ounce block
1 lemon juiced
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
50 grams powdered sugar more as needed

Instructions

Lemon Brioche

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the sugar and zest of two lemons. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers until combined and fragrant.
Add in the flour and yeast, and whisk to combine.
Sprinkle in the salt. Then add in the warm milk, two eggs, and vanilla extract.
Use a dough hook to knead everything together on medium low speed for 15 minutes until the dough has smooth edges and the bowl is clean.
Add half of the butter in and knead again until incorporated (about 5 minutes). Add in the second half of the butter and knead once more until smooth. The dough should pass the window pane test *see notes section for more info.
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl that is at least twice the size of the dough.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and place somewhere warm to rise for 1 hour. The dough should double in size. *Alternatively if prepping the night before, cover the bowl with something airtight and place it in the fridge.

Blackberry Butter

Add all of the blackberries into a medium pan or small pot along with the lemon juice, salt, and sugar. Place over medium low heat, stirring frequently.
Keep cooking the blackberries until thicken. It won't necessarily get "jammy" because there's very little sugar added but it will look like the excess juice has evaporated and all the blackberries have broken down.
The blackberries are done cooking when they kind of hold their shape in the pan. So if you drag a spatula through the mixture, the lines should hold for a good 2-3 seconds.
Remove the pan from the heat and add in the butter. Stir until all the butter has melted. Then pour into a large shallow dish and continue to stir every 10 minutes so that the blackberries and butter stay combined as they cool.
Once the butter is at room temperature. Place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes (or overnight if prepping it the night before) to firm up.
The butter will need to be spreadable before assembling the rolls so you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a little if you leave it in the fridge overnight.

Assemble the rolls

Preheat the oven to 375 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
Line a 9"x13" metal pan with parchment paper.
Once the dough has doubled in size, punch the air out of the dough and then scoop it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll it out to a 14" x 14" (36 cm x 36 cm) square. Try to keep the dough as square/right angled as possible while rolling it out and use flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
Spread the blackberry butter over the surface of the dough, but leave a 1/2" border on one of the sides.
Roll the dough up, starting with the side opposite of where you left the border. Be careful to keep the roll tight but don't squeeze out the butter.
Once fully rolled, place it seam side down and give the roll a few squeezes while also ever so slightly stretching it out. You want the roll to grow to be 18" long.
Use a long sharp knife to mark 1.5" marks along the roll. Then slice where each mark is to cut the roll into 12.
Working with one roll at a time, take the end of the dough spiral (the tail) stretch it slightly away from the roll and tuck it under.
Place the rolls into the pan so that they are in 4 rows of three. Space the rolls evenly in the pan so that there is also space between the rolls and the edges of the pan.
Cover the pan with plastic and set aside for at 30-45 minutes to proof until the rolls are almost touching one another.

Bake

Drizzle or brush the tops of the rolls with the heavy cream.
Bake the pan of cinnamon rolls in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.
The rolls should just start to turn golden brown. Take the pan out of the oven and make the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, salt, and lemon juice together until smooth. Sift in 50 grams of powdered sugar at a time and beat until smooth.
Add more powdered sugar as desired to sweeten or thicken the frosting.
Dollop the frosting over the top of the rolls and then use the back of a spoon to swirl it out over the top of each roll.

Notes

Tips for making a Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls

To cut down on time in the morning, I recommend making the dough and even the blackberry butter the night before. Once the dough is fully kneaded you can just ball it up, put it back in the mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a lid and put it straight in the fridge. In the morning take the dough and the butter out of the fridge and continue with assembling!
Fresh or frozen blackberries will work for this recipe, the frozen blackberries tend to take a bit longer to cook down because they release more moisture so just keep an eye on them as they cook. The blackberries are done cooking when they kind of hold their shape in the pan. So if you drag a spatula through the mixture, the lines should hold for a good 2-3 seconds.
When making yeasted dough, ensure that you allow your mixer to fully knead the dough, until it forms a smooth ball and the sides of the bowl are cleaned. This will happen twice while kneading the dough, once before the butter is added and once after.
When rolling out the dough, try to make it as square as possible. This will help when it comes shaping and cutting the twist. I use a bench scraper to keep reshaping into a square as I roll it because it can be tricky to reshape at the end.
These won't get super dark while baking so a better indicator that they are done is that the top of the dough looks dry and if you push down it should spring back mostly.
If you aren't a big cream cheese frosting person, no stress, you can use the lemon glaze from this Lemon Poppyseed Bun!
To make the Blackberry Stuffed French Toast, follow the steps from this Lemon Ricotta Stuffed French toast but instead of the ricotta (or in addition if you're feeling crazy), add about a tablespoon of the blackberry butter into the opening of each french toast pocket. Then, continue with the steps of freezing them for a few minutes, give them the custard bath, and cook until golden brown in butter in a cast iron pan! If you want both the cinnamon rolls and french toast, make 1.5x the blackberry butter.

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