Hellobee

Several months ago, I took Lion out on a special outing and he wanted to buy some cream cheese brioche. We both took one bite and fell in love. The bread was soft and fluffy, it wasn’t sticky, and just the right hint of sweetness. I’d love to learn how to recreate that magical bread at some point, but for now, these sweet cream cheese rolls are a nice stand in. While the flavors of the cream cheese brioche were the primary inspiration for this recipe, I also took some inspiration from cinnamon rolls. They always look so beautiful, but I don’t like cinnamon, so these sweet cream cheese rolls are a way to combine the aesthetic I like with flavors I enjoy. Mr. Dolphin wants me to make these for Christmas.

Soft and sweet!

It’s a really easy recipe and you can probably substitute your favorite roll recipe for the bread in this; I use a basic Parker House roll recipe, with some slight modifications. You could also try other fillings, like apricot preserves. What I love is that it doesn’t require a lot of effort to knead, so I am happy to do it by hand if I don’t want to pull out the stand mixer of food processor, though both would make the work even easier. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the bread:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 stick butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2.25 tsp active dry yeast, or one packet of active dry yeast
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 heaping tsp baking powder
• 1 scant tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup additional flour

For the filling:

• 8oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Cream cheese filling! Delicious!

Instructions:

1. Combine the milk, butter and sugar in a saucepan until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool until above a lukewarm temperature (if you pull it off the heat as soon as the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved, it should only take 10 minutes to cool sufficiently).
2. Pour the milk mixture into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top of the liquid. Add in the four cups of flour and stir to combine.  Cover the bowl and place in a warm place for at least one hour.
3. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and additional 1/2 cup of flour. Knead the dough on a floured surface or in the bowl itself for eight minutes. Shape into a ball, cover and place in a warm place for at least thirty minutes.
4. Combine all ingredients for the filling and mix well. I just use a wooden spoon, but a hand mixer would help.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Divide dough in half. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness, into a rectangular shape. Spread filling over the surface of the dough, taking care not to get too close to the edge, then roll the dough up into a log. Cut one-inch thick slices of the log and place each slice into a muffin tin. The filling will leak out onto your surface, but more than enough will still be in the roll. Repeat with the other half of the dough, or reserve for other purposes.
7. Bake for 12-16 minutes. Enjoy!

Ready for the oven!

Notes:

This recipe makes a lot of rolls. Think, two dozen. I usually use half the dough to make anywhere between 9-15 rolls and then the rest I bake as regular rolls, sometimes brushing the other half with garlic butter.

The original Parker House roll recipe I used recommended 1/2 cup sugar. I find that to be a bit sweet, particularly because I use half of the recipe to make savory rolls.

I sometimes substitute up to 2 cups of flour with whole wheat. It does give a different texture and taste, but the rolls are still delicious.

There is more than enough filling, so Mr. Dolphin likes to use some of the extra to glaze the top of his rolls with when they come out of the oven.

The first time I made these, Mr. Dolphin and Lion devoured six within the hour.