Lemon Sweet Rolls – Delicious sweet rolls with a fresh lemon filling and topped with buttercream frosting! A quick and easy breakfast recipe perfect for spring!
Lemon Sweet Rolls
My favorite food is hands-down cinnamon rolls. I just think they are the greatest thing ever for literally every meal. Somehow, I have yet to actually make a post about them just because it’s either late at night and the lighting on photos would be horrible or what not. I ended up adapting my normal cinnamon roll recipe to be more of a simple lemon sweet roll because I thought it was time to branch out into sweet rolls. These lemon sweet rolls are really delicious and SO easy to make! You don’t need to knead any dough and they only take 30 minutes! Crazy, right? I topped the lemon rolls with a little bit of lemon zest for a pop of color which is totally optional but it adds to the overall aesthetic!
Looking for more breakfast ideas? Check out my Lemon Crumb Muffins, Raspberry Star Bread, and Vanilla Bean Scones!
Tips on lemon sweet rolls recipe
- Want even more lemon flavor? Sub fresh lemon juice for the vanilla in the frosting and a bit of lemon zest!
Lemon Sweet Rolls

Everything you love about a cinnamon roll, but with lemon flavors instead! They have a sweet, sticky lemon filling topped with a vanilla buttercream frosting!
Ingredients
Sweet Rolls
- 1 can pizza dough
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 tsp ginger
- 1/8 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Frosting
- 2 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and spray 8″ circular pan with nonstick spray.
- In a small bowl, mix together sugar, ginger, and lemon juice. Spread filling evenly across the pizza dough. Slice pizza dough into 6 pieces along the shorter side of the rectangular pizza dough. Roll dough slices and place into pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.
- While sweet rolls are baking, combine cream cheese, vanilla, and butter in a bowl and mix together using a hand mixer. Slowly add in confectioners’ sugar until combined.
- Take out rolls and let cool before frosting.
Love lemon recipes?
Make sure to check out these recipes from other bloggers:
Strawberry Lemon Yogurt Loaf from Who Needs a Cape?
Lemon Loaf Cake from Platter Talk
Lemon Meringue Pie from Seduction in the Kitchen
Megan @ MegUnprocessed
Love the pesto in there, so much extra flavor! Great pictures too!
Abby @ Heart of a Baker
Ohh I am all for anything lemons! Putting it in rolls would be even better!
Emily | Oat&Sesame
You can’t go wrong with pizza dough, cream cheese and lemon zest! It’s nice to be able to put these together so easily without all the kneading and rising.