Today is alllll about meyer lemons, y’all! As far as I’m concerned, they’re the queen of winter citrus. If you’ve never tried them, they’re what happens when you cross a mandarin orange with a lemon. This goes without saying, but they’re very, very good in baked goods.
Exhibit A: these Meyer Lemon Sweet Rolls!
These tall, fluffy rolls make excellent use of meyer lemon juice and zest. They’re bright and tangy and just a little bit sticky, but in the best sort of way.
These rolls get three doses of meyer lemon flavor. The first is in the filling, which is simply a paste made of meyer lemon zest, sugar, salt and melted butter. It’s spread onto the dough before it’s rolled up, sliced, risen and baked.
Next up: a glaze! I got the idea for painting on a glaze from last year’s Meyer Lemon Drizzle Cakes and I regret nothing. This simple syrup is made of meyer lemon juice and a few tablespoons of sugar, and brushed onto the rolls right after they come out of the oven. It makes them a little sticky and a little glossy and I am very much here for it.
It’s all rounded out with a layer of meyer lemon icing. Ohhhh, the icing. It’s the crowning glory of this whole operation! To make it, just whisk a couple tablespoons of meyer lemon juice and a pinch of salt into a cup of confectioners sugar, and then spoon/pour/drizzle/spread it all over the tops of the rolls so that they’re absolutely impossible to resist.
And then eat the dang rolls and bask in the sunshiny goodness that is the union of perfect winter citrus and fluffy pastry. Bask, I tell you.
Meyer Lemon Sweet Rolls
makes 12 rolls
Dough:
2 2/3-3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast (I use Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast)
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large eggs, beaten, room temperature
Filling:
2 tablespoons meyer lemon zest (about 2-3 meyer lemons)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Glaze:
1/4 cup fresh meyer lemon juice (1-2 meyer lemons)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Icing:
1 cup confectioners sugar
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2-3 tablespoons fresh meyer lemon juice (1-1 1/2 meyer lemons)
Grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish or rimmed baking pan. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, sugar, instant yeast, and salt. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat whole milk and butter until hot to the touch, about 110F.
Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to fold milk mixture into dry ingredients , followed by beaten eggs. Add more all-purpose flour in 2 tablespoon increments until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Knead 5-6 minutes before forming into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes (you may do this in a bowl, but I just do this on my surface).
Make the filling. In a small mixing bowl, use your fingertips to rub meyer lemon zest into sugar. Add salt and melted butter and stir with a fork until a paste forms.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12×18-inch rectangle. Drop filling over the dough by the spoonful. Use an offset knife or the back of a spoon to spread filling mixture over the dough, keeping a 1/2-inch perimeter on all sides. Starting with the long edge closest to your body, tightly roll filled dough away from you, smoothing any seams with your thumbs. Slice dough into 12 rolls. Place rolls close together in prepared pan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Place covered pan in a warm, draft-free place for 60-90 minutes, until rolls have doubled in size. Remove pan from oven.
Preheat oven to 375F. Uncover rolls. Bake 25-30 minutes (mine took 27), tenting the rolls with foil if anything begins to brown too quickly.
While rolls are baking, make the glaze. In a small bowl, use a fork to stir together meyer lemon juice and sugar. Microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between, until the sugar has dissolved (45-60 seconds total).
Remove rolls from the oven. Let cool 1-2 minutes, then use a pastry brush to paint glaze all over all exposed pastry. Use all glaze. Let sit 5 minutes while you make the icing.
Make the icing. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together confectioners sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons of meyer lemon juice. Add more juice by the teaspoon (up to 3 teaspoons) until icing is thick, but pourable.
Spoon/pour icing over the rolls and use an offset icing knife or the back of a spoon to spread icing over the rolls as desired. Serve.
Meyer Lemon Sweet Rolls are best served the day they are made, but will keep covered at room temperature for a day or so.
I’ll never forget the first time I found meyer lemons in a regular grocery store. It was 2010, and I was doing a last-second rush for supplies before a blizzard. I have no idea what I shopped for that day (my then-oven ran at least 150F cool, so options were limited), but I remember seeing a display of meyer lemons and thinking they were so…exotic. I had heard of meyer lemons, of course, but never seen them in the wild (er, Cobble Hill grocery store). Out of curiosity, I put a couple in my cart. I couldn’t begin to tell you what I did with them, but that is the probably-tedious story of how I came to love meyer lemons.
Fast forward nine years and I have used meyer lemons many, many times. I see them in every store this time of year, and while I no longer think of them as exotic, I always look forward to adding their orange-lemon flavor to my bakes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I only have one lone meyer lemon recipe in my 
Well, consider that oversight rectified. Today’s Meyer Lemon Drizzle Cakes celebrate everything that is wonderful about this winter citrus. There’s meyer lemon zest in the batter, the cakes are soaked in a sticky meyer lemon syrup, and the cakes are topped with a thick meyer lemon icing drizzle. Yesssss.
This recipe is based off the 
But before we get to icing, let’s talk syrup! After baking, these cakes are soaked with a meyer lemon simple syrup. To make it, just combine equal volumes of meyer lemon juice and granulated sugar over low heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves. Easy.
While the cakes are still warm, poke ‘em full of holes. I like to use a thin, flexible knife to keep them inconspicuous, but a skewer will work. Whatever you use, poke it through to the bottom. Then pour over that syrup. You’ll think it’s too much, or that it’ll make your cakes soggy, but it won’t. It’ll just make them extra moist and dense and outrageously delicious. This is the good stuff.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the drizzle. It’s a just a simple icing—two ingredients, one bowl, no mixer—but it’s the crowning glory on these tea cakes. Once the soaked cakes are cool, set them on a cooling rack and pour the icing down the center. The cakes’ slight domes should help the icing to “spread” itself, but you can coax it with the back of a spoon, too. It’ll drip down the sides a bit, but should be thick enough that most of it stays on top. The icing will set quickly, which is a good thing because you’re going to want to dig right in.
Meyer Lemon Drizzle Cake is good on the first day. Very good, even. But if you have the patience, you should wait a day or two to have a slice. The cakes become even more tender and the orange-lemon flavor intensifies over time, making those day-old slices absolutely heavenly.
I, however, have no patience around Meyer Lemon Drizzle Cake.
e2 bakes brooklyn 