The flavour combination in this raspberry macadamia scrolls recipe first came about when I was workshopping a bundt made from sweet yeasted dough. The filling includes my low sugar raspberry jam that brings a super bright burst of fresh raspberry along with a very Queensland macadamia marzipan. I thought I’d ease you into this flavour combo with a scroll rather than the more challenging construction of a yeasted and filled bundt.
And, correct me if I’m wrong, when topped with some pretty décor that channels the filling and a swish of raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting, these scrolls are calling out ‘eat me’ in a very pretty voice.
This raspberry jam scrolls recipe is the third in a trio of recipes built on my foundation sweet dough recipe, including Cardamom Orange Knots and Blueberry Cheesecake Kolaches. And which are the most delicious use of your time, you ask? You’ll need to bake all three and report back to me. But these raspberry macadamia scrolls are a good place to start.
Let me step out my it for you.
Ingredients
Foundation sweet dough
Tangzhong:
- 35g all-purpose flour
- 120g full cream milk
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Dough:
- 60g white sugar
- 2 oranges
- 350g full cream milk
- 1 large egg
- 575g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 115g unsalted butter
Raspberry jam and macadamia marzipan filling
So, as I’ve laid out my ingredients list below and looked back at my ingredients image, I have found an interloper! Some unsalted butter appears to have wandered into the shot with the other ingredients.
Please note the ingredients list is correct and the image is wrong, no butter in the filling or frosting, it’s only in the dough!
Raspberry jam and macadamia marzipan filling:
- 1 cup low sugar raspberry jam
- 300g roasted & salted macadamia nuts
- 100g pure icing sugar
Frosting:
- 150g couverture white chocolate
- 250g original Philadelphia cream cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons raspberry jam
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Décor:
- 100g fresh raspberries
- ¼ cup freeze dried raspberries
- 2 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts
- 25-50g couverture white chocolate
Egg wash:
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons cream or milk
What to make ahead
Low sugar raspberry jam
Yes, you can use store bought jam for these raspberry macadamia scrolls. Will you regret it? Probably.
Using my low sugar raspberry jam results in a filling that tastes like you’ve used fresh raspberries but stays put as a filling should.
The full jam recipe makes about 1 litre of jam. I don’t recommend making half a batch as it won’t save you any time. You’ll have enough for four batches of raspberry jam scrolls or to slather over your breakfast toast or scones. Or reserve the extra jam so you can try out one of my other recipes that feature it, like the super simple Gluten Free Chocolate Raspberry Cakes or one of my recipes that’s absolutely worth your time, my S’mores Tart – Chocolate Raspberry Marshmallow Tart.
Foundation sweet dough
You can absolutely make the foundation sweet dough on the day you want to make this raspberry macadamia scrolls recipe. But that’ll prove to be a long day of baking and isn’t conducive to serving them up to your brunch guests before noon. All in all, better to start the dough the night before you want to bake.
For a detailed discussion of my foundation sweet dough method and its origin story, you can find that on the Foundation Sweet Dough recipe.
In a rush?
If you don’t want to make the dough the night before and refrigerate it overnight, you can instead leave the kneaded dough on the bench at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size, and then proceed with shaping the scrolls.
Macadamia marzipan
I’ve been served a lot of marzipan in my lifetime, and I have no fond memories of it. I hated Christmas fruitcake solely because it was always topped with sticky sweet marzipan. If you’d have told me as a child that marzipan was made with nuts, almonds, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’d have believed you if you’d said it was made with almond essence. That was the only flavour in the marzipan I was served.
It was only when I started exploring recipes for my signature sweet yeasted loaf for the Great Australian Bake Off in 2023 that I discovered just how delicious marzipan can be.
It’s all about the ratio of nuts to icing sugar. Commercial and homemade marzipan commonly use 1:1, equal almonds and sugar, which is sweeter, firmer and easy to roll, not to mention cheaper. Traditional marzipan uses 2:1 almonds to sugar.
I’ve used a 3:1 nuts to pure icing sugar ratio for the macadamia marzipan, which works with the raspberry jam to create the filling for the scrolls. The result is a low sugar marzipan that tastes like macadamias, not sugar. And the nutty flavour is amplified by using roasted and salted nuts.
This macadamia marzipan is crumbled over the raspberry jam filling, so it doesn’t need to hold up to being rolled. And the macadamia nuts have enough oil that no binder, like egg white, is needed to bring the mix together.
Process 300g roasted and salted macadamia nuts in a food processor, using the pulse button, until the nuts turn into a fine crumb. Add 100g pure icing sugar and continue pulsing until just combined and lumps are starting to form. The goal is not to form a paste, as the macadamia marzipan will be crumbled over the rolled-out dough and low sugar raspberry jam.
Refrigerate the marzipan in a sealed container until required.
On the day you bake
Get organised
Before pulling the foundation sweet dough out of the fridge to start forming your raspberry macadamia scrolls, you need to get your pan organised and decide what proving environment you’re able to set up in your kitchen.
I use a 26cm x 37cm x 6cm baking pan for the scrolls.
Will my pan work?
While I have specified a 26cm x 37cm x 6cm baking pan, the most important aspect of the baking pan size is that it needs to have sides that are at least 5cm high. Also, using an extra deep pan is not ideal, as it can prevent the scrolls from turning golden brown.
One of the most common baking pan sizes is a 23cm x 33cm x 5cm pan, and while smaller than my pan, it’ll work just fine. The scrolls will be closer together and will bake slightly taller than in a larger pan.
Commercial bakeries have purpose-made proving cabinets with precise settings for temperature and humidity to achieve perfectly risen dough. Proving in a sealed environment also prevents moisture evaporating and airflow causing a skin to form over the dough. I have a dough setting on my oven and set it to 30°C. This higher temperature helps the dough that comes out of the fridge get going faster than if it’s sitting on the bench at room temperature. Unless of course it’s January in Australia, then the bench is fine!
While proving the dough, I place the baking pan on a larger baking sheet with a silicone mat on top. This is entirely optional, but it helps keep the pan from slipping around. To help create a moist environment in the oven, I’ve used a very large, sturdy plastic bag (70cm x 80cm) that can hold the baking pan on a tray.
As I seal up the bag with the tray inside, I blow up the bag with a hair dryer and seal it with a bag clip. If you can’t find a large enough plastic bag, the scrolls will be fine in a warm oven. If you want to add a bit of humidity, you can add a bowl of just-boiled water in the corner of the oven.
Odds are you don’t, like me, have fifty 70cm x 80cm plastic bags tucked up on the top shelf in the pantry. Have we had the Sandra-is-a-hoarder conversation yet? No bother, another method used by home bakers is proving their bread in large sealed plastic storage containers on the kitchen bench.
So make your plan and assemble your proving equipment before taking the foundation sweet dough out of the fridge.
Assembling the raspberry macadamia scrolls
Remove the risen dough from the fridge. It doesn’t need to come to room temperature. You want to work with chilled dough. It’s a good idea to clear a shelf in your fridge so the dough can be returned to the fridge if it becomes too soft to manage as you assemble the scrolls.
Grease the baking pan. I prefer to use spray oil, but butter works as well.
The first step in shaping the raspberry macadamia scrolls is rolling out the risen dough. The dough is not ‘punched down’ or kneaded at this stage. Rather, the dough is handled gently and shaped into a rough rectangle, then lightly rolled into a 30cm x 45cm rectangle.
The equipment I use to roll out the risen dough includes a large silicone mat (at least 45cm x 30cm), a large rolling pin (at least 35cm long), a measuring tape, a flour shaker, and a pastry brush.
If you don’t have a silicone mat this size, you can roll the dough out on baking paper instead, though it can be a bit tricky to manage. You may need to tape two pieces together to get a sheet large enough, and some shops do carry extra-wide baking paper. I wouldn’t recommend rolling straight on the bench unless you’re working quickly and it’s a cold day.
Before you start rolling, generously flour the silicone mat. Make a routine of brushing away the excess flour as you go. Gently shape the dough into a rough rectangle and start rolling it out. The end result will be around 8mm high. I carefully lift the dough and flour the silicone mat again to ensure it doesn’t stick. Flour the surface of the dough and your rolling pin as needed.
Turn the dough a quarter turn between each roll and measure as you go. And if one side gets a bit too wide, you can gently nudge the dough back in line with the rolling pin.
If the dough gets too soft to handle, return it to the fridge to firm up. Once you’ve rolled it out into a 30cm x 45cm rectangle, slide it onto a baking tray or other solid flat surface that is big enough to hold the dough flat.
Return it to the fridge and let the dough firm up for 10-15 minutes before spreading out the filling. Each time it is returned to the fridge, I slide it onto baking sheet to keep it flat.
Spread the low sugar raspberry jam across the rolled dough using a silicone spatula. Avoid pressing firmly on the dough as you do not want to flatten it as you go. Stop about 5mm shy of the edge of the dough on all sides. The recipe calls for one cup of jam, don’t be too precise about it. You want a nice even coverage of jam about 3mm thick.
Crumble the macadamia marzipan evenly across the jam, breaking up any large lumps with your fingers. You’re not aiming for full coverage like the jam but try to distribute the marzipan evenly.
Return the dough to the fridge to firm up again for about 10-15 minutes.
Start rolling from one long side. Use your fingers to turn the first edge over into a tight core, this centre roll sets the spiral, so take your time getting it snug. Once the core is started, lift the edge of the silicone mat and let it carry the dough over on itself, rather than pressing down with your hands, which would flatten the dough and push out the filling. Keep rolling the length of the rectangle. You’re aiming for just enough tension that there are no gaps between the layers, but not so tight that the jam squeezes out the ends. A loose roll leaves holes in the spiral; too tight and you lose the filling, somewhere in between is what you want.
Check the length of the roll, it should be about 45cm long. You’re going to slice twelve 3.5cm-wide scrolls, which needs a 42cm roll, leaving about 3cm for offcuts.
Return the rolled dough to the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm up.
While the dough roll is chilling, grease the baking pan and line it with baking paper. And make sure you have some dental floss handy (not dental tape).
Remove the dough roll from the refrigerator and mark out twelve 3.5cm scrolls with a small sharp knife, don’t cut through the dough.
Cut a long piece of dental floss. Then gently lift the roll and slide the floss into position directly under your first marked cut. Cross the floss over the top of the roll and pull both ends so it cuts cleanly through, forming the first scroll.
Gently reshape the scroll into a neat circle and place it in the prepared baking pan, leaving a gap between the scroll and the edge of the pan. Repeat for the remaining eleven scrolls, spacing them evenly so they are lined up three scrolls by four.
Place the pan on a large baking sheet lined with a silicone mat and slide it inside a large plastic bag, billowing the bag as you go so it doesn’t catch on the dough. Twist the bag almost closed and blow it up into a dome with a hairdryer on the cool setting. Seal the bag with a clip. This goes onto the middle rack of the oven set at 30°C. Alternatively, use the proving setup you have available in your kitchen.
Proving time will depend on your setup and the ambient temperature. You’re aiming for the raspberry macadamia scrolls to be just under doubled in size. My method takes 25-35 minutes. And remember the dough started cold from the fridge, so the yeast will take a while to get going.
Meanwhile, prepare the egg wash by beating 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons cream or milk together in a small bowl.
Preheat the oven to 165°C fan forced (note the temperature is turned down to 155°C fan forced immediately after the scrolls go into the oven). Have the rack in the top third of the oven.
Baking the raspberry macadamia scrolls
Gently brush the risen raspberry scrolls with egg wash. I use the side of a silicone brush to evenly cover each swirl of dough, while avoiding the filling as I go. Brush all twelve scrolls with a thin layer of egg wash, then start again.
Bake the raspberry jam scrolls in the top third of the oven preheated to 165°C fan forced, and immediately turn the temperature down to 155°C fan forced.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees at the 15 minute mark.
I am an advocate for the certainty of an instant read thermometer. The target internal temperature for the scroll itself is 88°C to 91°C. If you don’t have an instant read thermometer, remember that the raspberry jam scrolls in the centre of the pan take longer to cook than the ones on the perimeter. When they start turning a deep golden on top, take them out and using a knife push open the middle scroll to see if the dough is fully baked.
Leave the raspberry macadamia scrolls to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then, holding onto the baking paper, lift them out of the pan to cool completely on a non-stick cooling rack while you prepare the frosting and décor.
Making the raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting
Melt 150g couverture white chocolate gently in the microwave on medium power. Use bursts of 30 seconds to start, then 10 seconds as the chocolate begins to melt, stirring between bursts. Leave to cool (cooled but still fluid).
The recipe uses 250g original Philadelphia cream cheese chopped into small pieces. Don’t bring the cream cheese to room temperature, it should still be chilled. Place the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on low until smooth. Add the cooled chocolate and beat again on low until almost combined.
Finish the frosting by hand. Add 1-2 tablespoons raspberry jam, ½ teaspoon lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon table salt. Adjust the lemon juice and salt to taste. Refrigerate until required.
Use cold cream cheese
Using the cream cheese straight from the fridge and finishing the frosting by hand is counterintuitive but purposeful. Cream cheese frosting is notorious for turning runny and disappointing just when you want to decorate your bake.
The experts generally advise you not to overwork the frosting, which is good advice but a bit hard to follow, since it isn’t frosting at all until the ingredients are beaten into a smooth emulsion. Still, the rationale is sound: overbeating room-temperature cream cheese breaks down its structure and leaves you with a runny mess.
The solution is to use cold cream cheese, which holds up to being beaten longer than room-temperature cheese. But you still need to be mindful. Finishing the frosting by hand keeps the structure of the frosting intact.
Preparing the décor
These raspberry macadamia scrolls are absolutely delicious naked, and even more so frosted with raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting. But if you’re planning to make a show of them, why not up the prettiness with some décor that tells the scrolls’ story.
Once frosted, I decorate the scrolls with about 100g torn fresh raspberries, ¼ cup crumbled freeze dried raspberries, 2 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts and white chocolate curls. The easiest way to make the curls is with a smooth vegetable peeler and a good-sized piece of white chocolate bar. Hold the bar with its narrow side facing you, then run the peeler along the side of the bar to form the curls.
If you’re planning to freeze the baked raspberry jam scrolls, I recommend freezing them unfrosted and without décor. Cool them completely, then wrap each scroll well and freeze for up to two months. To serve, thaw at room temperature, then warm briefly in a low oven to bring back the soft crumb before frosting and decorating. The frosting can be made ahead and frozen too, if you wish.
Raspberry Macadamia Scrolls
Equipment
- Large silicone mat (at least 45cm x 30cm)
- Large rolling pin (at least 35cm long)
- 26cm x 37cm x 6cm baking pan (or 23cm x 33cm x 5cm)
- Food processor
- Stand mixer
- Digital kitchen scales
- Instant read thermometer
Ingredients
Foundation sweet dough
Tangzhong:
- 35 g all-purpose flour
- 120 g full cream milk
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Dough:
- 60 g white sugar
- 2 oranges
- 350 g full cream milk
- 1 large egg
- 575 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 115 g unsalted butter
Raspberry jam and macadamia marzipan filling:
- 1 cup low sugar raspberry jam
- 300 g roasted and salted macadamia nuts
- 100 g pure icing sugar
Frosting:
- 150 g couverture white chocolate
- 250 g original Philadelphia cream cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons raspberry jam
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Décor:
- 100 g fresh raspberries
- ¼ cup freeze dried raspberries
- 2 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts
- 25-50 g couverture white chocolate
Egg wash:
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons cream or milk
Instructions
What to make ahead
Make the tangzhong:
- Weigh 35g all-purpose flour and 120g full cream milk into a small pan and add ½ teaspoon table salt.
- Heat over medium low heat while whisking until the mixture forms a thick paste.
- Remove from the heat, transfer to a small bowl or container and chill until slightly cold.
Make and knead the foundation sweet dough:
- Weigh 60g white sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and zest 2 oranges over the bowl using a Microplane.
- Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium for 2 minutes until zest is well incorporated into the sugar.
- Add the tangzhong, 350g full cream milk, 1 large egg, 575g all-purpose flour, and 1 tablespoon instant yeast.
- Mix on low with the dough hook until combined.
- Increase speed to medium and knead for at least 5 minutes to develop the gluten. You want it to stretch and not tear immediately if you test a small piece of the dough.
- Turn the speed back to low and add 115g slightly chilled unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces, a couple of pieces at a time. Wait until each addition is incorporated before adding more. This can take up to 10 minutes.
Forming the dough ball:
- Tip the dough onto the bench. Pick a side to be the top of the dough ball and keep it that way.
- Lift the dough off the bench, stretch it out and drop it back down, gathering it back into a ball with a dough scraper.
- Repeat until the dough becomes less sticky and more resistant.
- Then lift the dough about 30cm off the bench, letting it stretch into a tail, flip the tail forward as you land it, roll the dough over and tuck it in, keeping the top facing up. Tuck in around the base with the scraper and repeat a couple of times.
- The dough is ready when it releases cleanly from the bench and springs back when pressed.
- Lift into a greased bowl, cover with an oiled sealed lid or oiled plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate overnight, up to 12 hours.
Make the macadamia marzipan:
- Process 300g roasted and salted macadamia nuts in a food processor, using the pulse button, until the nuts turn into a fine crumb.
- Add 100g pure icing sugar and continue pulsing until just combined and lumps are starting to form. Do not form a paste.
- Refrigerate in a sealed container until required.
On the day you bake
Get organised:
- Set up your proving environment before taking the dough out of the fridge.
- Set the oven to 30°C.
- Grease the baking pan and line it with baking paper.
Assembling the raspberry macadamia scrolls:
- Remove the risen dough from the fridge. It does not need to come to room temperature; you want to work with chilled, not soft, dough.
- Roll the dough out on a well-floured silicone mat into a 30cm x 45cm rectangle, about 8mm thick. No mat this size? Baking paper works too, though it's a bit trickier to manage (refer to notes).
- If the dough gets too soft to handle, return it to the fridge to firm up.
- Slide the rolled dough onto a flat tray, return to the fridge, and let it firm up for 10-15 minutes.
- Spread about one cup of low sugar raspberry jam across the dough with a silicone spatula, stopping about 5mm short of the edges on all sides. Aim for an even layer about 3mm thick.
- Crumble the macadamia marzipan evenly across the jam, breaking up any large lumps with your fingers.
- Return the dough to the fridge to firm up again for 10-15 minutes.
- Starting from one long side, turn the first edge over into a tight core, then use the silicone mat to help roll the dough into a log, firmly enough that there are no gaps but not so tight that the filling squeezes out.
- Check the roll is about 45cm long and then mark out twelve 3.5cm scrolls
- Return the dough to the fridge to firm up again for 10-15 minutes.
- Cut a long piece of dental floss. Gently lift the roll, slide the floss under the first marked cut, cross the ends over the top and pull to slice cleanly through.
- Reshape each scroll into a neat circle and place in the prepared baking pan, spacing them evenly three by four, with a gap between the scrolls and the edge of the pan.
- Transfer to your proving set up and prove until just under doubled in size, 25-35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the egg wash by beating 2 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons cream or milk.
Make the frosting:
- Melt 150g couverture white chocolate gently in the microwave on medium power, in bursts of 30 seconds to start, then 10 seconds, stirring between bursts. Leave to cool but keep fluid.
- Place 250g chilled Original Philadelphia cream cheese, cut into small pieces, in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low with the paddle attachment until smooth.
- Add the cooled chocolate and beat on low until almost combined.
- Finish by hand: fold in 1-2 tablespoons raspberry jam, ½ teaspoon lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon table salt. Adjust the lemon juice and salt to taste.
- Refrigerate until required.
Bake:
- Preheat the oven to 165°C fan forced, with the rack in the top third of the oven.
- Brush the risen scrolls with a thin layer of egg wash, avoiding the filling. Repeat with a second thin layer.
- Place the pan in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 155°C fan forced.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees at the 15 minute mark.
- The internal temperature of the scroll should reach 88°C to 91°C. If you don't have a thermometer, the centre scrolls take longest, so when the tops are deep golden, push open the middle scroll with a knife to check the dough is baked through.
- Leave to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift out by the baking paper to cool completely on a non-stick cooling rack.
Decorate:
- Frost the cooled scrolls with the raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting.
- Decorate with about 100g torn fresh raspberries, ¼ cup crumbled freeze dried raspberries, 2 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts and white chocolate curls.
- For the curls, run a smooth vegetable peeler along the narrow side of a white chocolate bar.
