These coffee rolls with coffee cream cheese are a true coffee treat. With their soft and fluffy texture and aromatic coffee flavor, these rolls make a lovely variation to the classic cinnamon rolls or cinnamon buns.
With coffee in the dough, the filling and the glaze, these coffee rolls are perfectly coffee-flavored. And the delicious coffee aroma that fills the kitchen as these delicious coffee treats bake is absolutely inviting!
The rolls are adapted from my easy yeast rolls recipe. I added instant coffee to the dough resulting in a mildly flavored coffee dough. I also added coffee to the filling which is made by mixing brown sugar with instant coffee. To add more coffee flavor, I included coffee-flavored chocolate chips to the filling. And to complete the coffee rolls, I made cream cheese glaze flavored with more coffee.
All in all, these rolls are great coffee-based treats. You can easily adjust the amount of coffee to add to these rolls, as well as omit it from the dough, or the filling, or the glaze as you wish.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- This is an easy recipe with simple ingredients.
- The recipe is easy to follow and makes the best cinnamon rolls with delicious coffee flavored dough, filling and coffee-flavored cream cheese filling. It's a great variation to the classic cinnamon rolls.
- It makes absolutely delicious coffee cinnamon rolls with coffee cream cheese frosting, perfect for coffee lovers.
- Freshly baked, these warm rolls are not only great to be enjoyed with your morning cup of coffee, they make delicious treat for anyone with a sweet tooth too.
Like this recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream
- Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Easy Coffee Jelly (An Easy Homemade Coffee Dessert)
- Coffee Flavored Cake with Coffee Buttercream Frosting
- Instant Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chunks
- Ube Rolls (Soft and Fluffy Twisted Buns)
- Coconut Rolls with Coconut Glaze
- Strawberry Rolls with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling
- Easy Yeast Rolls for Beginners
📋Ingredients
Dough
- All-purpose flour + salt - salt cannot be added directly to yeast, hence best added with the flour.
- White sugar - sweetens the dough. Can use both coarse sugar or granulated sugar.
- Instant dry yeast - this is different from active dry yeast. With instant yeast, you need not activate the yeast by mixing it with liquid and then wait for it to froth, unlike active yeast where activation by mixing with liquid and waiting for the yeast mixture to froth is required.
- Whole milk - if using instant yeast, can be at room temperature. If using active yeast, use lukewarm milk.
- Instant coffee powder or instant coffee granules.
- Eggs - use large eggs.
- Butter - can be salted or unsalted butter. Butter should be firm but soft.
Filling
- Butter - I use salted butter, but unsalted butter will work fine.
- Brown sugar - either dark brown sugar or light brown sugar.
- Instant coffee - best to use powder form instead of granules as it dissolves more readily.
- Coffee flavored chocolate chips - either regular sized or mini chips.
Glaze
- Cream cheese - use room temperature cheese for best results.
- Powdered sugar - best sifted before using as powdered sugar tend to be lumpy.
- Salt - enhances the taste of the glaze. Use fine salt.
- Instant coffee powder or instant coffee granules.
- Whole milk - helps with the consistency of the glaze.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- All purpose flour can be replaced with bread flour.
- Whole milk can be replaced with skim milk.
- If you prefer a stronger coffee taste, you can always increase the amount of coffee indicated in the recipe. Alternatively, if you would like milder coffee tasting coffee rolls, you can choose to omit the coffee in either the dough, the filling, or the glaze as you wish. There is no need to adjust any other ingredients.
- Coffee flavored chocolate chips are optional and can be omitted if you like. You can also replace them with dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips if you like.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Mixing the dough
- Start by measuring milk into a cup. Add instant coffee and mix until coffee is dissolved. If the milk is hot, let the coffee solution cool down to a warm temperature at least.
- Pour it into a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast.
- After that, add the sugar and eggs, flour, and salt into the wet ingredients.
- Mix all the ingredients (with a dough hook attachment) until they come together into a dough ball. This should approximately 2 minutes with a mixer and longer if kneading by hand.
- Add softened butter and continue kneading until a smooth and non-sticky dough forms. This should take about 7 to 8 minutes. If mixing with a mixer, you can add all the butter at once. If kneading by hand, adding the butter in about 4 increments will make the kneading more manageable. You have to knead it for a longer time too.
- Turn the soft dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand to form a smooth ball (about 30 seconds).
Proofing the dough
- Place the dough in a large bowl (grease the sides of the bowl with oil or cooking spray). Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap for its first rise.
- Let it proof until doubled in size. This can take anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 or 3 hours, depending on the temperature where you live.
Making the coffee filling for the rolls
- Once the dough has proofed, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and press to remove air bubbles.
- Using a large rolling pin, roll it into a large rectangular shape measuring about 25cm by 30cm. There is no need to knead the dough anymore. Simply turn it out and roll.
- Brush softened butter all over the rolled dough.
- In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and instant coffee powder.
- Sprinkle it all over the brushed melted butter on the dough. Use a spatula to level the filling.
- Next, sprinkle the coffee-flavored chips all over.
Shaping the rolls
- Start rolling the dough on the long side. As you roll, try to make it as tight as possible.
- Pinch the ends together to seal the roll to a tight log.
- Next, divide the dough log into 9 pieces. To do this, start by cutting the log into 3 with a sharp knife.
- With each of the 3 sections, divide them into 3 sections each.
- That should give you 9 sections of the roll.
- Arrange and place rolls in a well-greased square baking tin.
Baking and glazing the coffee flavored rolls
- Cover the tin with a kitchen towel and let the rolls proof until at least doubled in size in a warm place.
- Bake the coffee rolls for about 20 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius until they turn golden brown.
- To make the coffee cream cheese glaze, mix instant coffee with 1 tablespoon of warm milk. Stir to dissolve. Pour it into a medium-sized bowl. Measure cream cheese and icing sugar in.
- Beat all the ingredients until well combined and smooth.
- Fill the glaze into a piping bag.
- As soon as the rolls are baked, turn them out onto a wire rack. It is advisable to remove them from the tin as soon as they bake as it is easy to remove them while they are still hot. Once cooled down, the coffee filing that has oozed to the bottom of the cake tin will make your rolls stick to the tin, hence I prefer to remove mine while they are still hot. Cut a small hole in the piping bag filled with the cream cheese glaze. Pipe the glaze all over the top of the rolls. Use a spatula to smoothen it out.
🍽️Serving & storage
- Let the coffee rolls cool to room temperature before serving. The rolls are delicious when they are still warm too.
- The baked coffee rolls are best consumed on the day they are made. Leftovers are best kept in the fridge due to the cream cheese glaze. Reheat in an oven before consuming.
💡Expert Tips
Instant Yeast
- This sweet roll recipe uses instant yeast. Instant yeast is slightly different than active yeast. They are both dried yeast but instant yeast does not require activation. Activation is a process of mixing the yeast with lukewarm liquid (either milk or water) and let it rest until it turns frothy before adding other ingredients.
- Instant yeast does not require activation which means you need not wait for the yeast to turn frothy. You can if you want to test if the yeast is still alive, but it's not necessary. Mix the yeast with liquid, stir until it dissolves and add the rest of the ingredients in.
Proofing the dough
- This coffee roll recipe requires 2 stages of proofing, one immediately after kneading the dough and the other after shaping and cutting the rolls. In both stages, allow the dough to proof until it has at least doubled in size.
- The proofing time depends on the temperature of where you are staying. The dough will proof at a much faster rate in warm temperatures and can take up to 2 or 3 hours in cold temperatures. Keep the dough near a warm spot like the stove (after you have just cooked something) or keeping the dough in an oven with just the light on might help.
Coffee
- I used instant coffee in this recipe. Instant coffee comes in both powdered form as well as granules form. While it is ok to use the granules for the dough and the cream cheese glaze, it is best to use the powder form when making the filling. This is so that the coffee is finely mixed with sugar and you don’t end up with small bits of bitter coffee as you eat your coffee rolls.
- This recipe requires coffee to be added to the dough, the filling as well as the cream cheese glaze. All these are mildly flavored with coffee.
💭FAQs
The coffee roll dough is adapted from my easy yeast rolls recipe. This dough can be refrigerated and even frozen. Refrigeration is good for use within 24 hours, but if you wish to keep it longer, freezing is recommended.
To refrigerate the dough, form it into a ball and place it in a large bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with cling wrap and place it in the fridge. The dough will continue to rise in the fridge and when you are ready to make your rolls the next day, if the dough has not proofed enough, simply let it do so at room temperature, before rolling, filling, and baking it. If it has proofed well, proceed to roll, fill, cut, and bake as usual.
To freeze the dough, once you have finished kneading it, form it into a ball, and instead of placing it in a bowl and wrapping the bowl, you wrap the dough itself tightly with clingwrap. Place in the freezer. It is best to move the dough to the fridge section at least overnight before using it. When ready to bake, remove from the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes (to stop condensation), and then remove the cling wrap. Place the dough in a large bowl and let it proof (covered in a kitchen towel). Roll, fill, cut, and bake as usual.
Yes, you can but it will take a longer time to knead the dough by hand and a lot more energy too.
Depending on how well you knead, the dough should ideally pass the windowpane test (where you are able to gently stretch the dough into a thin film without tearing it). Being able to stretch it thin is an indication of the development of gluten in the dough which helps with the light and airy structure of the baked rolls.
These rolls do contain caffeine as there is coffee in the dough, the filling and the glaze.
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📖Recipe
Coffee Rolls with Coffee Cream Cheese Glaze
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
Dough
- 280 g all purpose flour
- 125 ml milk room temperature
- 4.5 g instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder (or granules)
- 25 g sugar
- 40 g butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling
- 30 g butter
- 50 g brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
- 30 g coffee flavored chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Glaze
- 100 g cream cheese
- 100 g powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder (or granules)
Instructions
Dough
- Add instant coffee to milk and stir until coffee is dissolved. If using hot milk, let the coffee mixture cool down to room temperature.
- Pour the coffee mixture into a large mixing bowl and add yeast to it.
- Add the egg and sugar. Stir salt into flour and add both into the liquid ingredients. Mix at medium speed for approximately 2 minutes until the dough comes together. Dough will be sticky at this stage.
- Add the softened butter and continue to mix on medium speed for another 7 to 8 minutes until the butter is all incorporated and the dough becomes smooth. The dough will be soft and lightly sticky at this stage.
- Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a smooth ball. Place the dough in a deep bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let it proof until double in size.
Assembling the Coffee Rolls
- While waiting for the dough to proof, make the coffee filling. Mix sugar and instant coffee until well combined and set aside.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Press to remove air bubbles and roll in into a rectangle measuring 25 cm by 30cm.
- Spread butter all over. Next, sprinkle the sugar-coffee filling all over and smooth it with a spatula.
- Sprinkle the coffee flavoured chocolate chips after that.
- Roll the dough tightly into a log along one of the longer edges. Pinch the ends.
- Cut the log into 9 equal sections and arrange them into a well-greased 7 inches square tin or baking dish.
- Cover and let the rolls proof until double in size.
- Bake the rolls in a preheated oven at 175°Celsius for 25 minutes.
Making the coffee cream cheese glaze
- While waiting for the coffee rolls to bake, prepare the glaze.
- Dissolve the instant coffee with milk. Pour this into a medium sized bowl. If the milk is hot, let it cool down after mixing with the coffee.
- Add cream cheese and powdered sugar and cream all the ingredients until smooth. Fill the glaze into a piping bag.
- Once the coffee rolls are baked, remove them from the oven. Let them rest in the tin for a minute and then turn them out onto a wire rack.
- Snip the end of the coffee cream cheese glaze filled piping bag and pipe the glaze all over the hot coffee rolls. Spread it with a spatula.
- Let the rolls cool down further before serving.
Notes
- This sweet roll recipe uses instant yeast. Instant yeast is slightly different than active yeast. They are both dried yeast but instant yeast does not require activation. Activation is a process of mixing the yeast with lukewarm liquid (either milk or water) and let it rest until it turns frothy before adding other ingredients.
- Instant yeast does not require activation which means you need not wait for the yeast to turn frothy. You can if you want to test if the yeast is still alive, but it's not necessary. Mix the yeast with liquid, stir until it dissolves and add the rest of the ingredients in.
- This coffee roll recipe requires 2 stages of proofing, one immediately after kneading the dough and the other after shaping and cutting the rolls. In both stages, allow the dough to proof until it has at least doubled in size.
- The proofing time depends on the temperature of where you are staying. The dough will proof at a much faster rate in warm temperatures and can take up to 2 or 3 hours in cold temperatures. Keep the dough near a warm spot like the stove (after you have just cooked something) or keeping the dough in an oven with just the light on might help.
- I used instant coffee in this recipe. Instant coffee comes in both powdered form as well as granules form. While it is ok to use the granules for the dough and the cream cheese glaze, it is best to use the powder form when making the filling. This is so that the coffee is finely mixed with sugar and you don’t end up with small bits of bitter coffee as you eat your coffee rolls.
- This recipe requires coffee to be added to the dough, the filling as well as the cream cheese glaze. All these are mildly flavored with coffee.
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