Lemon sweet rolls make a delicious summer breakfast

Move over, cinnamon rolls. There is a new queen of the breakfast table, and this lemon roll is as light and fresh as a summer day.

Lemon sweet rolls are the perfect breakfast pastry for the summertime: Tangy, bright and gently sweet, these flaky pastries are best enjoyed with a side of sunshine and a cup of coffee. Find the full recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction.

To make these lemon sweet rolls, you will need to first mix up the dough (flour, sugar, water, salt, butter, milk and yeast) and the filling (butter, sugar, lemon zest and real vanilla from a vanilla bean). Roll out the dough and sprinkle the filling all over, then put the rolls into a warm oven until they have nearly doubled in size. While the rolls rise, you can prepare the filling.

After your rolls rise, you will cover them with a sweet cream cheese frosting made from powdered sugar, cream cheese, lemon juice and lemon zest. You can spread on the frosting while the rolls are still warm and then serve immediately.

You can cut down on your morning prep time by making the dough and the filling the night before, then letting the rolls come to room temperature for about an hour before baking. After that, all you have to do is mix up the cream cheese frosting and spread it on top of the warm rolls … then try to keep from devouring the pan in one sitting!

We also like this variation on lemon rolls from Yossy Arefi at The New York Times. The dough for these rolls calls for buttermilk, and the addition of cardamom brings a warm depth to the sweet, tangy pastry.

For this recipe, you can even let the rolls rise in the fridge overnight as opposed to allowing them to rise in a warm oven before storing them in the fridge. This helps to further cut down on prep time and ensure you can hit the snooze button on a weekend morning and still wake up to fluffy, flaky lemon rolls for breakfast.

No yeast? No problem! If you don’t want to make the dough by hand, take this shortcut for Easy Lemon Sweet Rolls from Crazy for Crust. Dorothy Kern uses store-bought crescent rolls for her dough base, then tops the warm rolls with a lemon-sugar glaze.

Or take a cue from Love from the Oven and use store-bought lemon cake mix for your rolls. You will need to add salt, vanilla, yeast and flour to the cake mix and allow the dough to rise. Her filling calls for lemon flavor instant pudding mix, and the icing is made with cream cheese, milk, confectioner’s sugar and lemon extract.

If you have lemon curd on hand, this recipe for Lemon Curd Sticky Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze from Dinner then Dessert is extra-sweet and creamy.

Can’t fully abandon your loyalty to cinnamon rolls? Try this option for Lemon Cinnamon Rolls from Completely Delicious. The inclusion of cinnamon, as well as a touch of honey, makes these rolls sweet and fragrant.