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These overnight strawberry jam rolls are made with my easy roll dough perfumed with vanilla, stuffed with strawberry jam, rolled up into a gorgeous snail shape, then glazed with a simple powdered sugar icing.

I went downstairs after writing up my recipe to notice that only a few were left. My oldest son guiltily said, “What? I only ate 4.” Shoot, my naughty dog managed to nab one when my youngest son left his unguarded.

These strawberry buns are a spin on my overnight cinnamon rolls I’ve been making for years. They’re light, much less sugary than a cinnamon roll. The combo of the strawberry jam and the vanilla in the dough will catch you off guard with just how much flavor there is in this little morning treasures.

You’ll love working with the cold dough. I’ve long been an advocate for working with cold dough when it comes to sweet buns. I’ll outline a bit down why it’s an amazing technique, and once you try it, you’ll be sold.

The best part about these buns is that you can make up the dough before bed. The next morning you can fill and shape them and get them in the oven without any hassle. I love this timeline for special birthday breakfasts, Christmas morning breakfast, and lazy Saturdays. I think you’ll love it too.

Let’s go fill some strawberry jam rolls.

strawberry jam rolls on plate with strawberries, strawberry jam and offset spatula

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Overnight Strawberry Jam Rolls

Why overnight roll dough is better, and why you’ll love it

This recipe uses overnight sweet roll dough which rises in the refrigerator overnight. In many cinnamon roll style sweet bun recipes (this is one), you let the dough rise at room temperature. This dough by its nature is sticky, and for the novice baker, you might think that adding more flour will fix it. Unfortunately, what this does is create a drier, stodgier bun. Here’s why the refrigerator is the solution for all the woes of sweet bun dough.

Less sticky: The refrigerator both chills the butter in the dough, firming it up as well as the dough itself. By doing so, the dough straight from the fridge is far less sticky than its room-temperature twin. Less sticky means that you’ll need less flour on your work surface and as you work the dough. Less flour means you’ll get a softer, lighter bun.
More flavor: cold fermentation gives dough better flavor. It allows more of the byproducts of fermentation like lactic and acetic acid more time to develop.
Better texture: because the dough rises overnight, it has had more time for the gluten to relax, making it easier to handle, and ultimately making for a better crumb with lighter structure.
Time hacking: because you made up your dough ahead of time (it’s literally 5 minutes of active time plus a little on the mixer), you’ve bought yourself hours of waiting. This means you can shape up these buns in minutes and let them lazily warm up and rise before the oven. By doing so, you turn a recipe that could’ve taken you all morning into one that’s actually ready for a breakfast treat.

strawberry jam roll on plate with strawberries

Strawberry Jam Rolls Ingredients and components

Overnight Sweet Roll Dough
- Water
- Yeast: instant
- Sugar: granulated
- Butter: adds fat for flavor.
- Milk: whole milk for flavor and tenderness.
- Salt
- Vanilla paste: for flavor.
- Eggs: adds fat and protein for texture and structure.
- Flour: all-purpose
Strawberry Jam: use homemade strawberry jam recipe or use store-bought. Any jam works here, so feel free to use what you have.
Icing: powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. I keep mine rather thin. My reasoning here is that I still want to be able to see the beauty of the swirl on a shaped bun. It makes me sad when I see a sweet roll that’s been completely drowned in icing, covering over that beautiful swirl that the baker worked hard to make. If you’re a thick icing person, just use less milk.

Tips to make perfect strawberry jam rolls

Don’t add more flour: slap your hand away if you must. If you chill the dough per the recipe, you’ll only need a sprinkle of flour to keep the dough from sticking as you work it.
Spread on the jam thinly but not too thinly: these are Goldilocks rolls. Because of how we shape them, too much jam and the jam will ooze out the edges as you shape them. Use too little jam, and you won’t get that lovely contrast or jam flavor. In general you want a thin layer you can see visually on the surface without any depth to it.
Keep your work area clean: the jam will come out the sides of the buns. It’s inevitable even if you carefully do not spread too much jam on the dough. No worries; just keep a damp cloth handy and wipe up any stray jam between shaping each roll. You’ll feel better too now that your work area doesn’t look like a crime scene.

Overnight Strawberry Jam Rolls

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 8 hours 40 minutes
Yield: 16 rolls

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Description

Cinnamon rolls never get old, but sometimes they do get boring. When that happens, it’s time to make these jam rolls instead. Filled with fresh strawberry jam, these are bright vanilla flecked buns to greet the day.

Ingredients

Scale

6 ounces strawberry jam, homemade or store-bought

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 all-purpose flour (390 g)

Vanilla Glaze

2/3 cup powdered sugar (90 g)
2 Tablespoons whole milk (30 mL)
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

Egg Wash

1 large egg
1 tsp water

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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 milk in a small pan on the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Cut up the butter and add it to the pan to melt.
Crack your eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter and milk mixture, then add in the sugar, salt, and vanilla, then stir to combine. 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 10 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic sticky dough that forms into a ball around the dough hook.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to rise overnight or 4 hours minimum.

Assemble the rolls:

Cover 2 half sheet pans with a piece of parchment paper.
Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface.
Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough, then roll it in to a rectangle that’s a little less than 1/4″ thick. It should be about 17″ X 15″.
Check periodically if the dough is sticking by scraping under it with a bench scraper. Add a tiny bit more flour under the dough where it was sticking.
When the dough is rolled out, cover it with a thin layer of strawberry jam, using a large offset spatula to spread it out evenly. Be careful not to spread it too thickly anywhere as it will ooze out the edges when you make the rolls. You may not need all the jam listed, but it depends on how large you roll out your dough.
Fold over 1/3 of the dough onto itself along the long edge, covering the jam. Fold the top edge over that to make one long skinny rectangle.
Use a pizza cutter to cut pieces about 1″ wide along the long edge. You should get about 16 pieces.
Sprinkle a little flour dough and set down one of the 1″ wide strips. Cut the strip down the length almost all the way to the top. It’ll look like a tiny pair of pants.
Twist the strips around each other, exposing the jam as you twist.
Quickly fold the twist back in on itself like a snail. Tuck the uncut edge under the bun.
Set the finished bun on one of the prepared sheet pans.
Wipe up your work space after each roll as stray jam is probably making everything look like a crime scene.
Repeat the shaping with the rest of the strips.
Cover the buns with oiled plastic wrap to rise for 45 minutes.
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
Right before the rolls go into the oven, beat together 1 egg with 1 tsp of water to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash on the buns. As you do this, try to brush with the cut edges instead of across them to avoid smearing the jam.
Bake the buns for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and set.
Let the buns cool for a few minutes while you prepare the icing.

Add the icing:

Mix together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla into a pourable glaze. Drip the icing off the tines of a fork in a back and forth motion across each buns.
Let the glaze dry as the buns cool.

Serve your strawberry rolls with a strong cup of coffee. They are best the day they’re made.

Notes

Does the dough have to rise overnight?: No it doesn’t, though you’ll find that the dough is stickier, and your buns might not be as neat looking. Sometimes I’m pressed for time, and I’ll work the dough at room temperature too. If you do so, let the dough rise for 1 hour at room temperature until double in bulk. After that, assemble your rolls, using perhaps a tiny bit more flour than if the dough were cold. Room temperature buns then only need 25-30 minutes to rise before baking.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Additional Time: 8 hours
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Category: Morning breads
Cuisine: American