Cream Cheese Tea Roll
This easy, semi-homemade Cream Cheese Tea Roll is made with frozen bread dough and will capture your heart with your first bite! This recipe will be on rewind whenever you have weekend guests or a family brunch.
My mom found this Cream Cheese Danish Recipe on a package of frozen bread dough. Her artist’s eye was able to create a breakfast treat that was as beautiful as it was delicious!
Why You Must Make
- Using frozen bread dough makes it super easy! Semi-homemade recipes are definitely de rigueur.
- The sweet cream cheese filling and drizzle of icing create an unforgettable breakfast or brunch treat.
- If your family is like mine, they’ll go crazy for this recipe!!
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Sugar, Butter, Real Vanilla Extract, Powdered Sugar, Milk
- Frozen Bread Dough – Enough for one loaf, I use Rhode’s brand. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
- Cream Cheese – Have it at room temperature so it will blend smoothly.
- Fresh Lemon Juice – Tastes fresher than bottled. Helps balance the sweetness of the filling.
- Powdered Sugar – Sift if needed for smooth icing.
How to Make
My mom found this Cream Cheese Tea Roll Recipe on the back of a bag of frozen sweet dough many moons ago. Sara Lee cheese danishes were a special childhood treat and this semi-homemade bread elicited memories of those tender, cream cheese-filled pastries.
- To start, roll out defrosted bread dough into a rectangle. Use a little flour on the surface to prevent sticking.
- Next, spread the surface with a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. Leave a little space around the edges to help seal the bread after it’s rolled into a cylinder.
- After that, roll the dough up jelly-roll style. Pinch the two ends together to form a ring, then snip or slice the dough at intervals (without cutting all the way through) before rotating the slices about 45 degrees to expose the filling.
- Cover the roll and leave in a warm spot to rise for an hour before baking and icing.
- If you’re making this for a holiday brunch, garnish your cream cheese danish with some untreated evergreen fronds and fresh cranberries.
Recipe Tips
- I like to keep the juice of a lemon in a small container in the freezer. It’s perfect for those times you need a small amount of lemon juice. Plus, fresh always trumps bottled lemon juice.
- To frost this tea bread, scrape the frosting from the bowl into a large Ziploc bag. Snip off a corner and drizzle back and forth.
- To make this for a holiday brunch, you can press red and green glacé cherries into the frosting to garnish.
- I’ve made this for Mardi Gras, using purple, green, and gold sugar to sprinkle in sections over the fresh frosting so it will stick.
- The original recipe called for Rhode’s brand sweet dough. It appears this has been discontinued, so any frozen bread dough will work.
- This is the perfect recipe to welcome someone to the neighborhood, bring to parents of a new baby, add to a holiday breakfast or brunch, or serve to weekend company.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s best to cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. We leave it on the counter at room temperature, but to be extra cautious refrigerate it because of the cream cheese in the filling. Bring it to room temperature before serving.
It’s at its prime for about 3-4 days, but we always keep it until it’s gone.
Yes, homemade bread dough will work fine. Just use enough dough to make one standard loaf of bread. Look for a bread dough recipe that has a touch of sweetness whether from sugar or honey in the ingredients.
You May Also Like:
- Cherry Cream Cheese Danishes from Country Cleaver
- Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Bread
- Danish Twists with Cream Cheese Filling
- Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
- You may also like all my Breakfast Recipes, Brunch Recipes and Bread Recipes
Cream Cheese Tea Roll Recipe
An easy to make, semi-homemade breakfast bread filled with sweetened cream cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 pound frozen bread dough, defrosted in the refrigerator overnight
Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Roll the dough into a 14 x 8-inch rectangle. Spread filling on top. Roll up the dough as if making cinnamon rolls.
- Seal the ends together to make a ring.
- Make cuts every 1 ½ inches or so, about ¾+ of the way through the ring (from the outside towards the middle). Twist each ring on its side so that the filling shows.
- Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350º. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool before icing.
- Whisk or beat together glaze ingredients. Scrape the glaze into a Ziploc bag and snip off one corner.
- Squeeze the bag and drizzle over the bread.
Notes
Store covered with plastic wrap at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
I generally use Rhodes brand frozen bread dough.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 204Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 113mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 0gSugar: 21gProtein: 2g
18 Comments on “Cream Cheese Tea Roll”
Would it work to prepare this ahead of time and then bake in the morning? How would that work with letting the dough rise?
Hi, Elizabeth, Yes, I think it would work to prep, cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight. It might rise a little in the fridge, but it will need sit at room temperature in the morning to rise before baking. I hope that helps!
You can use this dough but I make my own,When you roll out spread with shredded apples, cinnamon,little sugar and nuts,rolls you did , drizzle vanilla icing over. My mom made this all the time
Oh, this sounds delicious, Barbara!! I can’t wait to try it.
What a gorgeous piece, i just love the look of snipping and turning dough like this. Using frozen bead dough sounds like a real time saver. I’m definitely going to save this for when we have friends over for brunch.
Gorgeous! A far cry from the whompum can of cinnamon rolls I had this morning… Bet it tastes amazing:@)
The tea roll sounds and looks excellent with cheese filling and the icing. Would be fantastic to enjoy as the breakfast or afternoon snack.
angiesrecipes
http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com
Made it for breakfast yesterday , it was so good! I refrigerated leftovers and going to eat it tmr morning too.
OMG!!! The family totally got excited when I pulled up this recipe. Seems its going to be a crowd pleasure.
Do you need to refrigerate this?
I never have, but if you went by the FDA guidelines, you probably should refrigerate.
This looks like a work of breakfast art to me!
Beautiful…
That looks really fabulous, beautiful!
Reminds me of the “coffee cake” march challenge in the daring baker’s 🙂
Thank you very for your kind comment on my blog!
🙂
Absolutely lovely!
🙂
ButterYum
Hi, Carrie! Aren’t you sweet! I’m drop you a line~
Yummy! Thank you for this great recipe, post and pictures. My name is Carrie, I work for Rhodes, we would love to send you a “thank you”, you can email me at carriew@rhodesbread.com
Thanks again and have a great day.
Lizzy, this looks delicious! I am going to have to make this recipe soon!