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Lime blackberry sweet rolls combine soft and pillowy overnight roll dough with jam and fresh blackberries topped with blackberry lime cream cheese frosting. These rolls pack a flavor punch that you’ll remember for days afterwards.

Once upon a time, and very briefly I was a caterer. Too many boring details to talk about why I talked, but one of the best things I ever made was my blackberry limeade. Once I made blackberry limeade for a wedding of 200. Dutifully I made magnificent lime syrup and squeezed a mountain of limes and strained out seeds from endless pounds of blackberries. Let me tell you it was worth it.

I’m convinced lime is a force multiplier that unlocks the deep flavor of blackberries in a way that other flavors fail to do so. Like chocolate and coffee, blackberry and lime just go together.

These lime blackberry sweet rolls come together much like my strawberry jam rolls. The difference here is that we’re adding in lime zest in the dough and fresh blackberries in the filling. Also, we’ll add in more lime zest in the frosting that has a little hint of jam that’ll give just a hint of color to the frosting.

So grab a lime, and let’s make a batch!

blackberry lime rolls on sheet tray and plate

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Lime Blackberry Sweet Rolls

Why lime blackberry sweet rolls are a cinnamon roll variation you’ll want to try

Lime + blackberry = holy cow, why didn’t I think to put these two flavors together before?: It’ll make your mouth happy, guaranteed.
Cream cheese frosting: the lime lifts the tanginess of the cream cheese to contrast with the sweet flavors perfectly. I don’t always put cream cheese frosting on my overnight cinnamon rolls, but I like them here.
Overnight roll dough: like my other cinnamon rolls, the sticky roll dough gets a nap in the fridge overnight. This not only makes it so that you can make the rolls first thing in the morning without having to wait for the first rise, but it makes the dough taste better. Most importantly, the cold of the fridge makes the sticky dough less sticky and easier to roll.

Ingredients for blackberry lime rolls

(sorry for the hilariously small AI butter and cream cheese. Sometimes I’m not organized with my photography, and Photoshop is here to entertain!)

Overnight Roll Dough

Warm water: makes yeast happy!
Yeast: instant or active dry
Granulated sugar: flavor and for the yeast
Milk: whole, to enrich the dough
Butter: for flavor and a soft dough
Salt: for flavor
Eggs: to further enrich the dough
Vanilla paste
Flour: all-purpose for a light sweet bun
Lime: zest to flavor the dough

Blackberry lime cream cheese frosting

Cream cheese
Powdered sugar
Butter
Lime juice and zest
Blackberry jam

Blackberry Filling

Fresh blackberries
Blackberry jam

Timeline for making lime blackberry sweet rolls so that rolls are actually for breakfast and not lunch

One of my least favorite things about cinnamon roll recipes is feeling like you need to wake up at 3 am so that you can eat your rolls at a time that’s actually reserved for breakfast. While most of this problem is erased with my overnight roll dough, here’s a timeline of how I get rolls to the table by 8 am with no stress.

Night before you want to bake: make the roll dough. Pop it in the fridge, covered. Set out the butter and cream cheese for the frosting.
6 am baking day (I’m usually up at 5, so adjust per your morning habits): Roll out the dough. Fill the rolls, then roll up the dough and cut. Cover and let the rolls rest.
Somewhere from 6:30-7 am: The time variance will depend on how warm your kitchen is. In the summer, the rolls are ready to bake after about 1/2 hour of resting. In the winter, it’s closer to 1 hour. When they’re puffy, they’re ready to go. Bake the rolls. Make up the icing while the rolls are in the oven.
6:55-7:25 (again time variation depends on when you put the rolls in): Pull the hot rolls out of the oven. Let them cool for about 10 minutes, then spoon over the icing.

Tips for the best rolls

Use a knife or crush the berries: In general, I’m a fan of cutting all my sweet rolls with dental floss. It does a great job slicing through the layers without crushing them. In this case, the fresh blackberries can make it hard to get an even pull to cut the rolls. On a few of my rolls in this batch, the floss pulled to the place of least resistance–where the dough was instead of cutting through the berry. I think if you used a knife, this problem would go away. Either that, or crush up the blackberries a bit when you scatter them on the dough.
Ice the rolls when they’re warm, not hot: Warm rolls suck up icing, which keeps them moist. Because there is butter in the icing, if the icing goes on when the rolls are hot, it could melt into a puddle. Just wait a little bit until the rolls are warm, and you’ll be fine.

Lime Blackberry Sweet Rolls

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 9 hours 50 minutes
Yield: 16 rolls

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Description

Zingy cousins of cinnamon rolls filled with blackberry jam and fresh blackberries with the tang of fresh lime to make the blackberries come alive!

Ingredients

Scale

Overnight Roll Dough

1/4 cup warm water (59 mL)
2 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 g)
3/4 cup whole milk (177 mL)
4 Tablespoons butter (57 g)
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, cold
1 tsp vanilla paste
3 cups flour (390 g)
Zest of 1 lime, divided

Blackberry Filling

1/3 cup blackberry jam (96 g)
6 oz fresh blackberries (170 g)

Blackberry Lime Cream Cheese Icing

2 oz cream cheese, softened (56 g)
½ cup powdered sugar (60 g)
2 Tablespoons butter (28 g)
Juice of 1 lime
Zest of the rest of the lime from the dough
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

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Instructions

Make the dough:

Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water in a small bowl with a pinch of the
sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
Warm the butter, milk, salt, and the rest of the sugar in a small pan on
the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Stir to finish melting the butter.
Crack your eggs into a wide shallow dish, like a pie plate.
Use a fork to whip the eggs into the butter and milk mixture, then add in half the lime zest.
Check the temperature with
your finger (the milk/egg mixture should be just warm to the touch.).
Put the flour into a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in
the center with your hands, then pour in the milk mixture then the yeast
mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.
After that, with a dough hook on your stand mixer, beat the dough for
about 5 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic
sticky dough that pulls away in strands from the sides of the bowl.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to rise
overnight or 4 hours minimum.

Assemble the rolls

Sprinkle some flour on a work surface, then scrape out the cold dough on
top of the flour. Sprinkle flour over the top of the dough.
Quickly roll the dough into a rectangle about 12″X16″.
Line two half sheet baking pans with a piece of parchment.
Spread dollops of jam all over the dough.
Scatter the whole blackberries over the dough. You can chop them or crush them lightly if they seem too chunky to you.
Roll up the dough over itself along the long edge into a tight log.
Eyeball or use a measuring tape to mark the dough for cutting the rolls
into 16 pieces.
Run a length of dental floss under the dough. Cross the ends over each
other with opposite hands and pull on the floss to cut a roll.
Place the cut roll on the prepared pan.
Continue cutting the rest of the rolls. Put no more than 8 rolls on a pan.
Cover the rolls with a clean tea towel and let them rise at room
temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Rolls are ready to bake when they’re visibly
puffy and light.
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and set. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool while you make the icing.

Make the icing:

Beat all the ingredients together into a smooth icing.
Use a spoon to spread a dollop of the icing all over the top of each roll.

Rolls are best eaten the same day
that they’re made, but you can freeze them without the icing in an airtight bag
for up to 1 month. To reheat, warm them in a pan in a 300F degree oven for 15
minutes. From there you can ice them.