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Raspberry Whole Wheat Sweet Rolls

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These Raspberry Whole Wheat Sweet Rolls are ooey gooey perfection and honestly taste just as good or better than sweet rolls made with only white flour!

raspberry whole wheat sweet roll on a blue plate with fresh raspberries on the plate raspberry sweet roll on a blue plate with raspberries

How to Make the Softest Fluffiest Sweet Rolls with Whole Wheat Flour

It can be hard to get homemade whole wheat baked goods as soft and fluffy as when you use bread flour or all-purpose flour.

The reason why whole wheat baked goods end up so dense is because whole wheat flour has a lot less gluten compared to all-purpose and bread flour. Gluten is important for giving the dough structure. Without it, baked goods tend to end up flat and dense.

Tips for Using Whole Wheat In Baking:

  1. Use vital wheat gluten in your recipe. It is like a super charged flour that is mostly just gluten and will add more elasticity and better texture to your doug. Add one tablespoon of vital wheat gluten for every 2-3 cups of flour in your recipe. You can find it at most grocery stores, or on Amazon.
  2. Add all-purpose or bread flour to your recipe. Even just a little white flour will give it enough gluten to give the dough better structure.
  3. Let your dough rest for about 20 minutes before kneading. This gives the flour time to absorb the water and softens the grains of whole wheat. 
  4. Add any of these ingredients to your recipe to give you a softer texture. potato flakes, honey, milk (replace some of the water), and butter.
glass baking dish of raspberry rolls with vanilla glaze

It is also good to experiment with different whole wheat flours.  Lucky for us, my town is famous for being the home of Lehi Roller Mills (famous because it’s where they filmed Footloose!! Remember that awesome movie?)  They literally have the best whole wheat flour. If you keep getting a dense and heavy product when trying to make whole wheat breads and rolls, try different kinds of whole wheat flour until you get the texture and density you desire.

How to Make the Raspberry Filling

For this recipe, I like to use frozen raspberries. They hold their structure better than fresh, and fresh usually make way too much juice and can make your sweet rolls soggy. Plus you can make these any time of year with frozen even if raspberries aren’t in season!

The filling is incredibly easy. Just stir your cornstarch, sugar and raspberries together until they are coated. Then you are read to spread on your dough!

The sweet rolls will need to rise in the pan, and as they are rising the raspberries will release their juices. This is actually a really good thing!! The bottom of your pan will be begin to glow with sweet red raspberry juice. The juice will be absorbed in the baking process and turn into an incredible sticky raspberry glaze. I was worried it would make the rolls soggy, but it didn’t at all!

unbaked raspberry rolls in a baking dish

How Long Should I Let My Raspberry Rolls Rise?

The ingredient that makes bread rise is yeast. When you use commercial yeast, it feeds on sugar and releases carbon dioxide and alcohols. This causes air bubbles to form in the dough and then the dough to rise.

The rise times in a recipe are specific to what you are making so that your end product turns out delicious fluffy with an amazing flavor. If you let your bread rise too long, you will have too many bubbles. Too many bubbles means the bread will end up very porous with a dry, crumbly texture, and lots of large holes. It can also change the flavor of your bread. Yeast releases alcohols during the rising process and if this happens for the correct amount of time, this gives bread that nice, earthy flavor. If left to rise too long, that flavor will become really strong and can even taste sour.

single raspberry roll on a blue plate next to a bowl of raspberries

For this recipe, you will let the dough rise twice. The first time you will want to let it rise for 1-2 hours or until double in size. The time variable is based on the temperature in the place you are letting it rise. If it is a really warm environment, it will be close to the one hour time. If it is a cooler environment, then it will be close to 2 hours. It is a good idea to try and find a warm place for it to rise in your house either way.

The second rise is when the rolls are cut and in the pan. You will let them rise again for 1-2 hours or until the rolls have double in size. The same idea applies with the air temperature on this rise also. We

baking dish or raspberry rolls with vanilla glaze

Are Raspberry Rolls Healthier than Cinnamon Rolls?

The biggest difference between raspberry rolls and cinnamon rolls is that raspberry rolls have a lot less sugar. Instead of the filling mainly consisting of sugar, the filling in raspberry rolls mainly consists of fruit. There is very little added sugar in this recipe, and so if one of your health goals is to eat less sugar, then it is safe to say that this recipe definitely fits the bill!

If you choose to ice these, then that is where the majority of the sugar will come from. You can definitely use less icing and still get the sweetness from it.

These Raspberry Sweet Rolls are the perfect recipe for special occasions – Birthday Breakfast, Christmas Morning Breakfast, Easter Brunch……..I could go on! So next time you are in the mood for a sweet roll, change things up from the traditional cinnamon and make these!

single raspberry roll on a blue plate in front of a dish of raspberry rolls
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3.9 from 119 votes

Raspberry Whole Wheat Sweet Rolls

These Raspberry Whole Wheat Sweet Rolls are ooey gooey perfection and honestly taste just as good or better than sweet rolls made with only white flour!
Prep Time3 hours
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time3 hours 35 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12 rolls

Ingredients

Rolls

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp yeast active, dry
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 4 tbsp butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups bread flour can use all-purpose
  • 1 tsp salt

Filling

Glaze

Instructions

  • To start the dough, warm the milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat until lukewarm.  Pour the warm milk into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the honey and yeast and mix for just a few seconds.
  • Let the mixture sit until the yeast is bubbly, about 5 minutes. On low speed, beat in the softened butter until it is slightly broken up. Next add the eggs, and then the salt. Mix.
  • Gradually add the flour one cup at a time and mix between. Once it is all added, mix on medium speed until a soft dough forms. Continue to knead until the dough is very soft and the gluten has really started to form. This should take about 8-10 minutes.
  • Remove the dough from the mixer and shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly greased bowl. Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours.
  • Spray the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Remove the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll into a 12×18 inch rectangle. You will want to make sure the dough is evenly thick so that all your rolls are close to the same size.
  • Next you will make the filling. In a medium bowl, gently mix the frozen raspberries with the sugar and cornstarch until they are all coated. Spread the the mixture evenly over the dough.
  • Beginning at one of the short ends, roll up the dough to form tight roll. Cut into 12 even slices. Arrange them in the prepared baking pan, cut sides up. Cover the rolls and let them rise in a warm place until they have almost doubled in size. This will take 1-2 hours depending on how warm your house is. The berries will release their juice at the bottom of the pan – this supposed to happen and will soak into the rolls while they bake.
  • Once the rolls have risen, preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Cover the rolls with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes until they are golden brown on top and the berries are bubbling. Let the rolls cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
  • To make the glaze – in a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and heavy cream until smooth. You can use milk instead of cream if you would like. Add more liquid or powdered sugar depending how thick you want the glaze. Spread glaze over the rolls while they are still warm. Enjoy!

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Keyword : raspberry whole wheat sweet rolls

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Natalie Monson

I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.

Learn More about Natalie
3.85 from 119 votes (117 ratings without comment)

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28 Comments

Thought this looked like a good snack for this afternoon. Um.. YUM. The kids had fun helping too. thanks!

I had just flipped the switch to start my roll dough kneading when I wandered over to my computer and found…TA DA! Thanks for such a great suggestion. We had them for FHE treats tonight and will enjoy for breakfast tomorrow! 🙂

i read through this recipe kind of fast but what’s the glaze recipe? just like a normal glaze? they look yummy and my daughter wants to try them for her birthday breakfast in lieu of cinnamon rolls we normally have made.

Hi Anne-Marie,

The glaze is totally optional. I didn’t post it because the one I tried was, well- Less-than-healthy. I used a little powdered sugar, melted butter, and water. Not healthy, but it was really, really, good!

Good luck, and a happy birthday to your daughter!

Wow, these look delicious and their healthy too! Awesome job. I was just wondering though, how many rolls does this recipe make? 🙂

Does the white flour have to be regular all purpose flour or could the alternative organic unbleached version work with this recipe? Also, could wheat pastry flour be used? I can’t wait to try this! Thx 🙂

I am totally going to make these for my Christmas plates, because I am going healthy. So I am making them with the “Artisian Bread in Five Minutes a day,” bread to cut out all sugar and butter (well except the glaze haha). It is such a great idea and will be so delicious.

Hi Jackie,
We have only analyzed recipes that we enter on our meal planning site. The ones on the blog we don’t. Sorry!
You probably already know this, but you can enter the ingredients on nutritiondata.com and get nutrition data for the recipes we haven’t had a chance to analyze yet.

These are really good. They are in our regular Sunday breakfast rotation. I’ve made them with blackberries as well, which is also good. I think I might try to strain out the seeds next time I make them and see how that is.

I use my regular bread recipe (artisan bread in five minutes). I use 4 cups of white whole wheat flour and 2.5 white flour. (3 cups hot water, 1.5 T yeast, 1.5 T kosher salt). No point in adding fat and sugar to the bread, especially when they are iced with sugar and fat anyway. 🙂

Thanks for the great recipe!

3 out of 5 stars. Didn’t have a whole lot of flavor even with icing added. The whole wheat is overpowering and I LOVE whole wheat…

These sound delish and easy! I think I might use jelly for the middle of my teen’s favorite andpray my picky eater loves these!

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I made theses for my brother’s birthday and they came out horrible. They tasted doughy and really crunchy . Not interesting

4 stars
I really liked these and so did my kids. I added some orange zest to the dough and that was really good. I also chose to cook/mash the berries with the corn starch and make a jam for the filling instead of whole. But they were nice and soft and we all liked them.

So I’m not sure what I did wrong but my dough was way too sticky to roll out. I’m still going to try to bake my glob of dough and berries. ??‍♀️

5 stars
Not sure what I did but it was way too hard to cut and became a slop! They came up like a cake but equally delicious but not picture worthy!