Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls are a perfect indulgent lemon summer dessert. Filled with gorgeous and luscious lemon cheesecake filling and covered with lemon cream cheese glaze, they are the ultimate way to celebrate any summer occasion!

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It’s been a year since I first started creating Instant Pot No Knead Bread recipes. In fact, making no knead dough in Instant Pot was the catalyst that turned me from an Instant Pot nay-sayer into a huge fan of Instant Pot and pressure cooking.

If you are still not sure about whether Instant Pot is for you, then read my article on 7 Things You Need to Know About Instant Pot (and why you might not want to buy it).

I am not going to claim that no knead bread dough made in Instant Pot tastes the same as the regular knead version. The texture is definitely different, especially on the second day but it’s no less delicious.

Instant Pot No Knead Dough is wonderful and beautifully delicious when the buns are just baked. But they usually get a little less fluffy and more doughy the next day. Yet, they are still perfect to have with a cup of coffee or to split to use in a sandwich.

With all my love for all things simple and easy, I keep making Instant Pot No Knead Rolls all the time. It’s just so much easier to mix all the ingredients with a spoon and forget about them for an hour or so.

These Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls sound complicated but because the dough is made in Instant Pot, they are actually not too difficult (although a bit messy) to make. They are a perfect indulgent, sweet summer dessert. Filled with gorgeous and luscious lemon cheesecake filling and covered with lemon cream cheese glaze, they are the ultimate way to celebrate any summer occasion!

Why make Instant Pot No Knead Dough

Traditional dough usually needs to be done in a few stages:

the dough needs to be kneaded (by hand or mixer) for about 10-15 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic,
then the dough needs to proof at room temperature (or just above room temperature) for about 2 hours until it’s doubled in size,
next, depending on the recipe, sometimes the dough is kneaded for a minute or two and then it rises again for another hour.

The whole process is by no means complicated but it takes a lot of time.

Instant Pot No Knead Dough is a lot easier and simpler to make:

you mix the dough right in Instant Pot just until it comes together, you don’t need to knead it for 15 minutes, you don’t need to have a big KitchenAid mixer to do so,
then you use yogurt function on your Instant Pot and let the dough rise for 30-60 minutes.

That’s it. Faster, easier, simpler. No need for specialized equipment like KitchenAid mixer.

Ingredients for Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls

Besides lemon curd, most ingredients you most likely already have in your fridge and pantry. You can use store-bough lemon curd or homemade lemon curd. My Small Batch Instant Pot Lemon Curd recipe makes exact amount that you would need for this recipe (for both lemon cheesecake filling and lemon cream cheese glaze).

No Knead dough ingredients:

Butter
Milk
Sugar
Yeast
Lemon juice
Lemon zest
Yogurt or sour cream
Flour
Salt
(Optional) Pure lemon extract

Lemon cheesecake filling ingredients:

Cream cheese
Lemon curd

Lemon cream cheese glaze ingredients:

Cream cheese
Lemon curd
Milk

How to make Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls

These Lemon Cheesecake Rolls aren’t too complicated to make but they do have a few steps and require a bit of patience. They are also a bit messy. But they are also super delicious and you will be impatiently waiting by the stove to have one (or two) of them when they come out from the oven.

1. Make the Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Dough:

Melt butter on saute mode in Instant Pot
Add cold milk and a bit of sugar
Make sure that the butter-milk mixture isn’t too hot, then add yeast and let it activate and bubble for a few minutes
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until all the flour disappears and the dough comes together
Let it rise on Yogurt function for an hour

2. While the dough is rising, make the Lemon Cheesecake Filling

In a large bowl, whisk together the softened cream cheese and lemon curd until smooth
Test your willpower and try not to devour it with a spoon (one of the more difficult steps in the process!)

3. Once the dough is done, make the rolls

Take the dough out of Instant Pot and knead a few times
Roll into a big rectangle (about 11×16 inches)
Spread about 2/3 of the lemon cheesecake mixture onto the rolled out dough
Roll the dough into a long log
Cut the log into 10-12 pieces. This is where it gets messy as the lemon cheesecake filling will start to ooze out a bit, don’t worry about it.
- If you’d like, you could chill the log for a few hours before slicing, this way the filling will harden but you’ll also need to let the dough come to room temperature after slicing, so the whole process will take a few extra hours which kinda defeats making the dough in Instant Pot with no kneading
- Also, and I feel silly for not thinking about it the other few times I made these rolls, but most likely you could also chill the filling before spreading it on the dough to form the rolls. I feel really silly not thinking about while I was developing the recipe.
Arrange the cut up rolls onto a roasting pan
Spread the leftover lemon cheesecake mixture over the top
Bake until golden brown

4. While the Lemon Cheesecake Rolls are baking, make Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

In a small food processor (or a blender), combine the soften cream cheese, lemon curd and mix until smooth
Add a little bit of milk to get the glaze to the desired pouring consistency

5. Glaze the Lemon Rolls

Pour the Lemon Glaze over the hot Lemon Cheesecake Rolls
You want to do it while the rolls are still hot so that it absorbs into the rolls a little bit. If you prefer the glaze to not absorb much, then glaze the rolls once they are cooled.

Tips and tricks for making No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls in Instant Pot

Yeast

You must make sure that the butter-milk mixture isn’t too hot before you add the yeast. If it is too hot then you’ll kill the yeast and the dough will not rise.
If the yeast didn’t foam after 8-10 minutes then it is either too old or the butter-milk was too hot and you killed the yeast. How to fix this:
- If you know that your yeast was too old, then buy new yeast and start from scratch.
- If the yeast wasn’t too old, then you could still start from scratch.
- If you know your yeast isn’t old and you don’t want to waste the ingredients, then add more yeast to the existing mixture and let it rise, the dough will taste a bit more yeasty since you use double the amount.

Yogurt or sour cream

Sour cream tastes better in this recipe. It’s tangy and it works beautifully in this slightly lemony dough.
Plain yogurt will work also.
Alternatively, you can add an egg, or omit this ingredient altogether, although you might need to use a bit less flour.

Lemon

When developing this recipe I was worried that the lemon juice would not work in bread dough. So, I did some research and it turned out that lemon juice actually helps with dough rising and helps creates sturdier dough. However, recommendation was of 1 tablespoon for 4-5 cups of flour. I use less flour and more lemon juice in this recipe. It still worked but I was afraid to use more lemon juice for extra lemon flavour.
Lemon zest is used to subtly flavour the bread dough.
For even more lemon flavour in the dough, feel free to add 1-2 teaspoons of pure lemon extract.

Lemon Cheesecake filling

Depending on the thickness of your lemon curd, the lemon cheesecake filling could be quite soft. So, when you roll and cut the individual rolls, the filling will ooze out of the rolls. It is expected. It will be messy.
Just scoop the filling that came out and plunk it on top of the rolls, they will be covered with the leftover filling anyway.
If you really prefer not to deal with the mess, then you can chill the roll before cutting in the fridge for a couple of hours. But then you’ll need to get the rolls come to room temperature again.
- Just as I was preparing to publish this post, it occurred to me that you could also chill the filling before spreading it on the dough. I feel silly not thinking about it earlier and not testing it. If anyone tried, please let me know!
Alternatively, you could use less lemon curd, so that the filling is thicker.

Baking

Because these Instant Pot No Knead Lemon Cheesecake Rolls have a lot of liquid components, they take quite long to bake through. I’ve tried to different baking temperatures and they both are delicious but the results are slightly different.
350F for about 45-50 minutes: this creates really soft and still mostly white rolls.
400F for about 40-45 minutes: this creates firmer and beautifully golden rolls (this is the version you see in this post and video).
I prefer the softer rolls and my husband likes the firmer rolls, so choose your favourite way.

Baking and Instant Pot

Every few weeks I receive a question about whether it is actually possible not only to make the dough in Instant Pot but also bake the bread in Instant Pot. The answer isn’t that simple. Most people will say No but there’s actually a way although it may not work for your particular model of Instant Pot

Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker. In simple terms it works by bringing liquid inside the pot to above boil, creating a lot of steam inside the hermetically sealed pot and thus creating pressure. So, most “baking” recipes actually don’t bake anything, instead doughs and batters are usually “steamed” inside a different baking form in Instant Pot.

However, I am a big proponent of doing a “hack” to actually “bake” in Instant Pot. The hack doesn’t work for all models and the results are not always what you would expect if you baked in the oven but often it works just as well as regular baking.

Here’s how to bake in Instant Pot without water:

Use non-stick ceramic insert
Use low pressure
It only works with the models of Instant Pot that do not easily display burn notice and stop working right away. This is my model where it works well
The hack is that you use the heating element of Instant Pot to bake, it will not come to pressure but the heat from the heating element will cook and bake whatever is inside

I have done this technique for baking Russian cheesecakes, cornbread, and brownies. I also baked my Instant Pot No Knead Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls this way but they weren’t as fluffy as if baked in the oven. So, if you decide to try this method, please let me know but it may not work for you.

I actually have two other Instant Pot recipes where I used this technique for baking: Instant Pot Cornbread with Real Crispy Crust and Instant Pot Brownies (baked right in Instant Pot insert)

More Instant Pot No Knead Bread Recipes:

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