These melt-in-your-mouth buns are baked in the oven and tossed in melted butter and dusted with sugar and lemon zest, for an irresistible breakfast treat!
I’ve got some hot buns.
Not THOSE kind of buns, although my husband would kindly say otherwise. He’s been trained that way and after 20+ years of marriage, he knows what side his bread is buttered on.
But these yeasty bites have no need for butter to spread. Because they’ve already been tossed, toiled and drizzled with the melted golden goodness.
Butter. It’s the eau de parfum of springtime buns.
I’ve seen a flurry of cinnamon rolls of late. And citrus.
Blood Orange Cinnamon Rolls. Lemon Cinnamon Rolls. These are the flavors that get me going.
I’m a cinnamon roll making virgin. It’s on the list but I haven’t quite made the leap. But sticky buns in 1/10th the time? THAT I can do.
Sugar + butter. In food speak that’s the makings for a delicious caramel glaze. Sweet, lemon infused, and sticky with each and every bite. A mini pull apart treat.
Shortcuts Are Perfectly Okay
This recipe comes by way of one of my mom’s long time friend, Ruth. My mom says she’s famous for her rolls and buns. After one bite, it’s obvious why.
Following Ruth’s lead, I took a shortcut with these buns and used bake and serve frozen rolls.
Sure, I could have made a from scratch version, but honestly? The clock was ticking and this mama needed a break and just wanted her buns. Where’s the shame in that? Not here. And besides, my favorite brand is local so I’m all good.
About the Recipe
If you’d prefer to make all in one pan, you could easily make this recipe in a 9 X 13 pan. I wanted to play with the shape so I decided to make cloverleafs in a muffin tin. Except there are only two leafs. Not quite a clover, but you get the idea.
This time around I didn’t have the patience to wait for the buns to thaw so I jumped to another short and did a quick thaw in the oven. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F, boil some water and place on the bottom rack of the oven, then place the buns in a sprayed muffin tin and put them in the warm oven for about ½ hour or until they’re softened.
The buns are cut into two, rolled into their own little orbs then tossed in melted, naturally made butter tagged with the REAL® Seal logo and a lemon zest infused sugar. Use one hand for transfer, and one hand for buttering and sugaring. Otherwise you are a sticky mess too.
Two mini rolls go into each tin. Be sure to generously spray each muffin tin so extraction comes with ease. Allow the rolls to barely cool then run a knife around each tin and pry the rolls from the tin. If you wait too long, the caramel will set and it’s a lot harder to get those little jewels out of the tin and into your mouth.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Sweet and Sticky Glazed Lemon Buns
Ingredients
- 1 dozen frozen bake and serve rolls
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2-3 lemons , zested and juiced
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon REAL® Seal butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar , sifted
Instructions
- Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray (spray really well) and place the frozen rolls into the tins. Thaw the rolls until softened on the countertop covered with plastic wrap for 1 hour, or, place the rolls in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes with a pan of hot water.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Melt ¼ cup of the butter and place in a small bowl. Mix the granulated sugar and zest of two lemons in a small bowl.
- Cut the softened rolls in half and roll into two balls. Dip each ball into the butter then roll in the sugar and lemon mixture and place two balls into each muffin tin. Repeat with the remaining balls.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes.
- While the rolls are baking, melt the butter and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the sifted powdered sugar until smooth then raise the heat to high and bring to a boil, whisking continuously.
- Glaze the rolls immediately after coming out of the oven. Zest a bit more lemon on top of the rolls. Cool for 1-2 minutes then sse a slender knife to circle around the rolls in each of the tins and transfer to a cooling rack. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Nutrition
More Sweet Breakfast & Brunch Dishes to Try
- My Favorite Cinamon Rolls Recipe
- THE BEST Dutch Baby (German Pancake)
- Gwyneth’s Blueberry Muffins Recipe
- French Toast Casserole with Maple Bacon and Pecans
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Pull-Apart Cinnamon Pecan Rolls
We send good emails. Subscribe to FoodieCrush and have each post plus exclusive content only for our subscribers delivered straight to your e-mail box.
Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter for more FoodieCrush inspiration.
As always, thank you for reading and supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you. There may be affiliate links in this post of which I receive a small commission. All opinions are always my own.
Holy crap! One of each please!
These look so addicting!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
I’ve never made anything like this in my kitchen before, and I love how simple it is to make it work! Definitely gonna have to try these Sweet and Sticky Glazed Lemon Buns sometime soon because holy cow, what a perfect breakfast!
Love all these sweet rolls, so many flavors to try :) These lemon ones look delicious!
These buns are gorgeous, love that sweet lemon glaze!
Haha those are some hot buns! Love that opening paragraph. Pull-apart makes these extra fun. Like when you’re a kid and eat everything with you hands. Great way of turning basic frozen dinner roles into a unique recipe like this.
These almost bite sized treats are tantalising. Glaze zesty buns are almost donut like but not. The frozen dough texture works so well with the lemon.
Delicious! Great for a brunch with the ladies. I personally love the shortcut with frozen dough.
Well these sound absolutely scrumptious. I’m all for shortcuts sometimes, especially in a scenario like this. I’d rather these be in my mouth sooner than later.
These look positively wonderful! Love that they’re sticky…yum!
I’ve made a whole lotta cinnamon rolls, but can you believe I’ve never made a sticky bun? (I don’t think, anyway…) These look like spring in sticky roll form – I’m pinning!
I’ll trade you lemon roll for lemon roll. These look fab!
Umm wow, I love these…must make soon! Hope you’re doing well, Heidi!
ummm all I could think was “come to mama” lol! Is that so wrong?! If that’s wrong then I don’t want to be right because that sounds incredible!! These look spectacularly delicious!
Oh these look amazzzzing! Glazed sticky buns are the ultimate brunch food to me!
Love all these great recipes and the great “shortcut” for the gorgeous glazed lemon buns…(and glad he knows what side his bread is buttered on.)