Fresh strawberries and prepared strawberry preserves are rolled up and baked in sweet yeast dough. Topped with swirls of light and fluffy cream cheese frosting. It's the perfect spring brunch pastry!
Heat the milk, 1/2 cup sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar melts and a few small bubbles appear at the edges of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm.
Meanwhile, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in very warm water (90°F to 110°F) in the bowl of a standing mixer (or a large bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer). Stir the mixture with the paddle attachment or a wooden spoon until well blended. Let stand for 5 minutes or until the mixture foams and bubbles.
Beat the eggs into the yeast mixture. Stir in the lukewarm milk. Switch to the dough hook then add in flour a little at a time until a shaggy dough forms. Mix in the melted butter then add in more flour until the dough is elastic and pulls away from the sides of the mixer. Note: you may not have to use all the flour. Do not add so much flour that the dough does not stick to your hands.
Set a timer and mix with the dough hook for 5 minutes. If you are kneading by hand, work the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a buttered bowl and turn it over to coat the entire surface. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled.
Punch down dough and turnout onto a lightly floured surface. Knead a few times and cut into two pieces. Roll out each piece to roughly 1/8-inch thickness, about 15x12-inch rectangles.
Filling
Stir together the strawberry preserves, vanilla extract, and food color, if using.
Evenly spread 1/2 cup of the preserves onto one of the dough pieces. Scatter 1 cup of the quartered strawberries across the dough. Starting at a long end, carefully roll up the dough. Trim away about 1" of the tapered ends to even the roll (discard). Cut the dough into 12 buns using light sawing motions with a serrated knife. Wipe the blade with a damp towel between each cut. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling ingredients.
Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with flour-based baking spray. Place 12 slices in each pan, just touching. Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes or until well puffed.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°.
Bake rolls for 22-26 minutes or until golden on top. Keep a close eye on them so they don’t over-bake! Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before frosting.
Frosting
Beat the butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until just combined. Add the vanilla extract and beat again. Turn the mixer to high and beat until light and billowy, about 3 minutes with a timer set. Spread the frosting over the warm sweet rolls in the pans. The frosting will melt slightly.
Serve warm.
Notes
Rolling up the dough: Usually, when I roll up filling into the dough, the ends of the roll are tapered slightly. I always trim this away on each end so the roll is more even before I cut it into buns. If this happens, you can do this too, and still easily get 12 buns from each roll. Preserves: Bonne Maman is an excellent purveyor of delicious high quality strawberry preserves. If you have homemade preserves, all the better! You may want to pulse chunky preserves in a blender so that will spread easily. I add a drop of red food color, which really makes these buns beautiful, but it’s completely optional.Baking tips:The preserves may bubble out and slightly overflow 9x2 inch round cake pans (I had a drip or two), so place a foil-lined pan on the bottom rack under the rolls to catch drips. Alternatively you may use 9x3 inch springform pans, or even 10 inch cast iron skillets, which have a 9-inch base and measure 10-inches across the top. The springform pan has high sides and the cast iron skillet has flared sides, which will provide more room and prevent drips. Bake time for the cast iron skillet may be reduced by about 5 minutes.If you're a perfectionist - the row of buns closest to the edge of the pan always brown on top first. Usually by the time the time sounds, everything is golden except the middle bun. It will be cooked through, just a little paler than the buns on the edges. Place foil over the buns around the edge of the pan so only the middle buns are exposed. Broil 2 minutes to brown.