Coffee Peanut Butter Sweet Rolls Recipe

Why This Recipe?

Y’all these peanut butter sweet rolls are really delicious! Plus, they’re not hard to make.

Here’s what to love about this recipe. Then you can decide if you want to make them yourself.

• The dough is soft and beautiful, plus there’s coffee in the dough, so even if get a bite that doesn’t have glaze, you’ll still get great flavor
• Two toppings! These sweet rolls are topped with both peanut butter streusel and a thick coffee glaze, so you get double peanut butter and double coffee in (almost) every bite.
• After refrigerating, the dough is very easy to work with and won’t stick to your counter, even when rolling it out without flour.

What You’ll Need

The ingredients for these coffee rolls are pretty straightforward. Note that if you don’t have specialty coffee flavors, you can use “regular” coffee and things will work out just fine!

• large eggs
• egg yolks: I add extra yolks for extra richness. If you think these guys will be rich enough without, you can leave them out, although you may have to add an additional couple of teaspoons of liquid to the dough
• brown sugar: you can use either dark brown or light brown sugar. If you don’t have brown sugar, you can substitute white sugar. If you own molasses, add a teaspoon or so of molasses to get the brown sugar flavor. If you don’t, these rolls will still be delicious using just white sugar
• melted butter
• kosher salt
• bread flour: you can use all purpose flour as well, although you may have to reduce the amount of liquid just a little bit. Do not substitute any low protein flour such as pastry flour or cake flour. That kind of flour does not have enough gluten in it to give you a nice rise, and you will end up with sweet rolls with more of a cakey rather than bready texture.
• instant yeast: I like using instant yeast because you can just stir it right in with the rest of your ingredients. If you have active dry yeast, you can use that as well in the same amount. In that case, proof it beforehand in some of the cooled coffee.
• strong brewed coffee: the coffee makes up the bulk of the liquid in the dough. It also gives the dough a lovely golden/tan color and of course adds coffee flavor.

• peanut butter: you can use smooth or crunchy, although the smooth kind will make your filling easier to spread on your dough.
• cream cheese: I use it for bulk and for subtle tang. And with cream cheese, you could also get away with calling these guys peanut butter cheesecake sweet rolls. Sort of.
• brown sugar: provides just enough sweetness to the filling. There’s plenty of sweet going on in the glaze and streusel, so the filling doesn’t have to be super sweet. You can also use regular granulated sugar if you prefer
• melted butter: provides some richness and makes spreading the filling a bit easier
• kosher salt: even though there is salt in the peanut butter, it gets diluted by all the other ingredients, so the salt is there to bring out the nuttiness in the filling
• coffee extract (optional): if you want to add an additional layer of coffee flavor, coffee extract is the way to go here. You can also use vanilla extract or leave it out entirely.

Streusel

This is a very delicate streusel. Most streusel is made with flour, and this one only uses powdered sugar for the dry ingredients.

That means that it bakes up into melting little pillows of peanut buttery goodness and not crunchy pebbles. You’re really going to like it, I think!

• peanut butter: again, smooth or crunchy is fine. Crunchy will give you a bit of extra textural contrast.
• powdered sugar: for sweetness and also to allow the peanut butter to magically turn into little crumbles for sprinkling
• salt: again, the salt really is necessary to bring out the nutty flavor. You don’t need much, I promise.
• coffee extract: optional, but this does give you another way to add coffee flavor

Glaze

At this point, it might be obvious to you that you don’t really need glaze.

If you don’t find that obvious, you are my kind of person! I mean, what self-respecting sweet roll doesn’t have glaze, right?

Now that we have that out of the way, here’s what you’ll need:

• cream cheese
• butter: I like to use a combination of cream cheese and butter for the fat in my glazes. Glazes without fat seem fairly flat tasting to me, since they’re really only made up of powdered sugar and a liquid. The butter gives it richness and the cream cheese adds a subtle tang
• powdered sugar: adds bulk to your glaze as well as providing sweetness. There really is no sub for powdered sugar here.
• strong coffee: this is really the only liquid in the glaze, so this is what will dictate the texture. If you like a thinner glaze, use a touch more coffee. If you like yours thick, you may only need 2 teaspoons or so

Making the Dough

This dough is a straight dough, which pretty much means that all the ingredients go into the pool at one time.

I do make a couple of concessions about the order I add things, though.

Yeast does not like salt, so I make sure to put the salt in first with some of the wet ingredients (eggs, egg yolks, and melted butter, in this instance), dump all the flour on top, and sprinkle the yeast on the flour before pouring in the coffee.

Yes, coffee. I usually like to use buttermilk in my sweet rolls, but this time, I used double strength coffee from one of our sponsors, Door County Coffee.

They have a ton of different flavors, and their “Peanut Butter Crunch” flavor inspired me to make what was going to be cinnamon rolls into peanut butter sweet rolls!

At any rate, just add all the ingredients to your mixer in the order I specify, and you will be good to go. Promise!

Rising and Rolling

Once you have your sweet dough all beautifully made and kneaded, form it into a ball, spray the top, cover it, and let it rise very slowly in the fridge for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.

It will have gotten noticeably bigger, but it might not be doubled in size.

In the photo above, you can see the risen dough, and then the next three steps:

1. turning out the dough onto a clean work surface and pressing out all the gases (otherwise known as “punching down.”)
2. starting to roll out the dough into a rectangular shape, and
3. the finished rectangle, about 18″ long and maybe 14-16″ tall.

How to Mix And Spread the Filling

The filling is very easy to make. Just mix all the ingredients together until evenly combined.

That’s peanut butter, brown sugar, softened cream cheese, melted butter, a pinch of salt and some optional coffee extract.

You can see how I just dotted the surface of the dough with the filling and then spread it out from edge to edge, keeping about 1 1/2″ clear at the far end.

After rolling the dough up, just pinch the seam together as well as you can.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t completely seal. They won’t unroll because all the rolls will press on each other as they rise and bake.

How to Cut Twelve Even Rolls

I have used both dental floss and a good serrated knife to cut cinnamon rolls and sweet rolls. Either will work.

This time, I used a serrated knife and was perfectly happy with the results. The chilled dough stands up well as long as you saw with the knife and don’t press it straight down.

Here’s how I cut mine to get the most even slices I can:

1. First, I cut off the two ends, which aren’t very even.
2. Then I cut the log of dough in half, and the halves in half so I have 4 even pieces of dough.
3. Cut each quarter of the log into 3 even slices, and voila! 12 rolls!
4. Place them evenly in your non-stick pan. You do not have to grease the pan.

Secrets to a Good Rise

My favorite way to ensure the sweet rolls rise beautifully is to make them a cozy place in the microwave.

Here’s how to do it:

1. fill a mug with water.
2. Bring it to a boil in the microwave.
3. Carefully move the mug over to the side, and then slide in your covered pan of rolls and close the door.

And that’s how you make a homemade proof box!

If the second rise takes over an hour, you may have to remove your rolls for a minute so you can reheat the water to keep your proof box nice and warm and humid.

Streusel and Baking

The streusel was my friend Brandy’s genius idea. She is the mind and cook behind Nutmeg Nanny, and her Amish Peanut Butter Pie uses little peanut butter and powdered sugar “nuggets.”

She suggested I give it a try, and I was all in.

I really love the way the nuggets bake up into sweet, slightly crunchy, peanut butter streusel. They’re much more delicate than regular streusel, which is made with sugar and flour.

The peanut butter “streusel” is very easy to make in a mixer or with a hand mixer. Just mix up peanut butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and a tiny bit of (optional) coffee extract.

Sprinkle the sweet peanut buttery nuggets all over the tops of the rolls. If some falls down in between the rolls, that’s completely okay.

Bake the rolls for about 35 minutes and just look how gorgeous they are and how much they rise in the oven!

Let them cool, and then glaze them. You can let the glaze set up for a couple of hours, but if you can’t wait, I won’t blame you. I mean, look y’all. If these aren’t the perfect peanut butter sweet rolls, then maybe I’m in the wrong business:

Q & A

A Note About Measurements

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Peanut Butter Sweet Rolls Recipe

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Jennifer Field

These peanut butter sweet rolls are made with sponsor Door County Coffee in the dough and in the glaze. The filling is a gooey mixture of brown sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese, and melted butter. Feel free to add some cinnamon to your filling to make peanut butter cinnamon rolls. You'll love the sweet little nuggets of peanut buttery streusel on top, and you won't want to miss the cream cheese coffee glaze.

The long, slow overnight rise–which you can push to 24 hours if necessary–gives to plenty of down time to do other things. After you pull the dough from the fridge, roll it out, spread on the filling, roll, slice, add the streusel, bake, and then glaze.

All in all, these coffee peanut butter sweet rolls are rich, gooey, something a little bit different, and perfect to share for brunch or whenever a comforting peanut butter smackerel is necessary.

5 from 4 votes

Tried this recipe?Please give it a star rating!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Rise/Fridge Time 1 day d

Total Time 1 day d 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Sweet Yeast Bread Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 678 kcal

Equipment

• Door County Coffee Sampler Pack
• Coffee Extract
• Escali Primo Kitchen Scale
• OXO 9″ x 13″ Non-Stick Pro Cake Pan
• KitchenAid 6 quart Stand Mixer

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 oz brown sugar
• 4 oz unsalted butter melted and cooled to warm
• 1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt I use Morton’s
• 20 oz bread flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 6 oz double strength coffee cooled to warm (I used Door County in Peanut Butter Crunch)

For the Filling

• ¾ cup peanut butter creamy or crunchy
• 1 cup brown sugar
• heavy pinch of salt
• 2 oz cream cheese at room temperature 1/4 block
• 2 oz butter melted (1/2 stick)
• ½ teaspoon coffee extract optional

For the Peanut Butter Streusel

• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon coffee extract

For the Glaze

• 2 oz cream cheese at room temperature 1/4 block
• 1 oz butter at room temperature 2 Tablespoons
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 2-4 teaspoons double strength coffee or enough to make a glaze the consistency you like

Instructions

 

• For the Dough
• Place the eggs, yolks, brown sugar, melted butter, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk by hand until combined.
• Dump in all the flour followed by the yeast.
• Pour on the cooled coffee.
• Fit your mixer with the dough hook and mix on low until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.
• Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is soft and smooth and very stretchy, about 8-10 minutes.
• Form the dough into a smooth ball, place it back in the bowl, and spray the exposed dough with pan spray.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lint-free kitchen towel and refrigerate for 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
• To Shape and Bake
• Pull the dough out of the fridge, turn it out onto a clean work surface, and press out all the gases.
• Use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle about 18 inches on the long side and 12-14" on the short. Take your time.
• Spread out the filling evenly on the dough, leaving about 1 1/2" of dough clear on the long end away from you.
• Roll up the dough into a jelly roll. Use a bench knife for some help if you need it.
• Pinch the seam together as best you can.
• Cut off either end of the roll to even it up.
• Slice the remaining dough log into equal pieces by first cutting the log in half, cutting the halves in half, and then cutting each piece into thirds.
• Place in a 9 x 13 pan, 3 across the short way and 4 down.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until nice and puffy and almost doubled.
• During the last 30 minutes of the rise, preheat oven to 350F.
• Once the rolls are nicely risen, sprinkle evenly with the peanut butter streusel.
• Bake for 30=35 minutes until the rolls are deeply golden brown and well risen. The internal temperature in the center should be at least 195F.
• Remove from the oven. Cool to barely warm before glazing.
• Store at room temperature for up to 3 days. Microwave each roll for a few seconds before serving.
  
• For the Filling
• In a medium bowl, mix all the filling ingredients together until evenly combined.
• For the Peanut Butter Streusel
• Place all the ingredients together in the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a bowl and using a hand mixer) and mix with the paddle attachment (or your beaters if using a hand mixer) until you get soft crumbles.
• For the Coffee Glaze
• MIx the cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar together until smooth.
• Add the coffee, a bit at a time, and mix until you get a nice glaze consistency.
  

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Notes

Can I Make a Half Recipe?

If you only want or need 6 rolls, feel free to half the recipe, especially if you have a smaller 4.5 quart mixer.

You’ll be fine to simply cut each measurement in half, including the yeast.

Rising

Once you make the dough, you can refrigerate it for up to 24 hours if you need to. But give it at least 8 hours for a nice, cold rise.

Freezing

Cut the baked rolls apart and freeze on a sheet until firm. Then wrap each one individually in plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to a month.

Thaw at room temperature overnight or in the microwave on medium power.

For best results, freeze them before glazing. Allow to come to room temperature before glazing. Let the glaze set up for about an hour and then heat each roll for a few seconds in the microwave.

Nutrition

Serving: 1rollCalories: 678kcalCarbohydrates: 86gProtein: 14gFat: 32gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 107mgSodium: 468mgFiber: 3gSugar: 46g

Keyword coffee sweet rolls, how to make sweet rolls, peanut butter sweet rolls

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