Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls with Lemon Glaze

“You should paint again,” a woman told me recently during a Downtown Bangor Artwalk. I was talking about the small bit of painting I did with my grandmother as a child, remembering the heavy block of paper she preferred to work with — the one that’s still sold today. My kids were happily painting, nearby.

I smiled, nodded gently, unsure that I would.

Of course, I’d already bought canvases, paints and brushes, planning to paint with my kids this summer. My son loves art and my daughter loves to paint, so I thought it would be a fun thing to do — creating something that we could hang in our home and enjoy in the future. But when I fell down the rabbit hole of remembering, I almost didn’t want to do it anymore. I’m not the artist, my grandmother was. I don’t have the vision or techniques she did. It was never my strength.

But after dinner one night I had the kids clear the table. We cleaned it, laid out paper, then the canvases and paints.

Setting to work, the smooth glide of my paintbrush across the small canvas reminded me how relaxing painting can be. It felt so natural, though my paintings were a little abstract. Seeing how my kids concentrated — my son creating scenes and my daughter creating something with a more modern flare — I was happy we did it.

My grandmother, whose artwork hangs throughout my house, loved to paint. She entered her work in juried shows and belonged to an art group. It was her creative outlet.

Writing is my creative outlet. Cooking, too. There’s something wonderful about taking a bunches of pieces — whether they are colors of acrylic paints or ingredients in a dish — and blending them to create something fresh and new.

And sometimes, it doesn’t take much. Like in this recipe. With only a few ingredients and a quick prep time, Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls with Lemon Glaze are perfect for making the morning special when you’re short on time.

Seriously, these sweet rolls are so simple to make. Using puff pastry dough — readily available in the grocery freezer section — these take minutes to prepare before baking to perfection.

Filled with strawberry jam, strawberry lovers will enjoy this fruity take on sweet rolls. Bonus points if you use homemade jam.

And then they’re glazed with a sweet-tart lemon glaze that adds a pleasant complexity to the recipe.

Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls with Lemon Glaze
Author: 
Serves: 3-4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
  • 3 tbsp strawberry jam
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8x8-inch glass pan with butter or oil.
  2. Spread the puff pastry out on a cutting board and top with jam. Spread the jam to the edges (keep it thin at the edges). Roll into a spiral.
  3. Cut the dough into six pieces -- about 1-inch thick each. Place in the prepared pan.
  4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven.
  5. In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle over the sweet rolls.
  6. Enjoy immediately.

Sarah Walker Caron

About Sarah Walker Caron

Sarah Walker Caron is editor of Bangor Metro magazine and senior features editor for the Bangor Daily News. She is the author of "The Super Easy 5-Ingredient Cookbook," (Sept. 2018, Rockridge Press) and the co-author of "Grains as Mains: Modern Recipes Using Ancient Grains" (March 2015, DK). Her recipes have appeared in the BDN, Betty Crocker publications, Glamour.com and more. She also writes about food at www.sarahscucinabella.com.