Forget Cinnamon Rolls, Make These Blueberry Rolls Instead
Cinnamon rolls have always been my all-time favorite sweet bread. I have been making my super fluffy sourdough cinnamon rolls at least twice a month on a regular basis, just so I will be able to have them for breakfast whenever I want. As much as I love cinnamon rolls, it’s good to change things up a bit sometimes. That is why I created the Double Chocolate Babka Rolls recipe. It’s literally the same concept, but with different flavored dough and fillings. As I made some blueberry jam the other day, why not use it as a filling and make some sourdough blueberry rolls? ☺️
Purple Bread is the Prettiest Bread 💜
After my creation of the Blueberry Cheesecake Sourdough and the Blueberry Focaccia, I rediscover my love of purple color in baked goods. In fact, there are multiple ways in which you can color your dough with natural colors. The most popular and common way is to add mashed purple sweet potato. Ube (aka purple yam) and black rice are also two common ingredients to use when it comes to natural coloring. I have tried adding purple sweet potato to sourdough before. However, I didn’t find much difference in terms of flavor. Although aesthetic is important, to me, the flavor is equally, if not more predominant, when it comes to baking. So for this sourdough blueberry rolls recipe, I decided to add some freeze-dried blueberry powder in the dough, paired with some homemade blueberry jam as fillings.
Yudane Method
Similar to my Sourdough Cinnamon Roll recipe, I used Yudane method in the dough of these Sourdough Blueberry Rolls to make it extra moist and fluffy. Yudane method is the secret to make a soft and fluffy Japanese style bread. In order to bake using this method, you simply mix an equal portion of flour and boiling water. The effect of adding boiling water to flour is that it gelatinises the starch. The gelatinised starch will allow the starch to absorb more water, and thus enhancing the sweetness of the bread.
Yudane method is in fact similar to the Tangzhong method I used in my sourdough milk bread recipe. Unlike the 1:1 flour-to-water ratio in Yudane method, the Tangzhong mixture is made by heating up a mixture of flour and water in the ratio of 1:5 to 65°C.
Stiff Starter
In this recipe, I used lievito madre (aka a stiff starter) at 40% hydration I made from my Panettone experiment. You can easily convert your sourdough starter to 40% hydration by feeding your starter in a starter : flour : water = 1 : 1 : 0.4 ratio. The reason why I used a stiff starter is to eliminate the hint of sourness in this bread. Chocolate doesn’t go well with the sourness from 100% hydration sourdough starter unless you add a ton of sugar in the dough.
To learn how to make your own sourdough starter, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Baking.
Ancient Grains In Sweet Dough
For almost every sourdough I bake, I will usually add 10-30% of ancient grains in my recipes. And spelt is my favorite grains to use. Some people might be reluctant to use whole grain flour in sweet bread, as whole grain bread are usually tough and dry. Fortunately, as I use both Yudane and sourdough in this recipe, making them not only moist and fluffy, but it also with a hint of nuttiness and earthy flavor. The ancient grains provided a more varied and complex flavor profile, hence greatly improved the depth of flavor of these rolls.
Sourdough Blueberry Rolls (Vegan)
Course: BakeryCuisine: American, JapaneseDifficulty: Medium8
servings30
minutes35
minutesForget Cinnamon Rolls, Make These Blueberry Rolls Instead!
Ingredients
- Stiff Levain (40% hydration)
35g sourdough starter (40% hydration)
60g bread flour
24g water
- Dough
180g bread flour
20g spelt flour
25g sugar
130-140g plant milk
5g salt
100g stiff levain from above
25g vegan butter
- Blueberry Jam Filling
2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 Tbsp orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
- Egg Wash
2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp water
- Yudane
60g boiling water
60g bread flour
Directions
- Build Your Levain
- First build the stiff levain and leave it to rise to peak (tripled in size). Mine take about 4 hours at 28 °C.
- Yudane
- Mix 60g of boiling water with 60g of bread flour and leave it aside until cooled.
- Dough
- Once the stiff levain has risen to peak. Add the stiff levain to all the ingredients (except butter) into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until everything is incorporated and gluten has slightly developed (around 5-6 mins).
- Add butter gradually and slowly. Continue kneading the dough until it reaches the window pane stage (around 10-12 mins).
- Let the dough rise at room temperature for around 3 hours or until it doubles.
- When the dough has almost finished its bulk fermentation, prepare the filling.
- Blueberry Jam Filling
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, sugar and orange juice . Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat to low and continue to cook until the blueberries begin to break down.
- In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch and water together. Now, add it to the blueberry mixture. Cook for another minute or two until it thickens. Remove from heat, stir in cinnamon and vanilla extract. Set aside for later use.
- Shaping The Rolls
- Using floured fingertips, flip the dough over, give it a nice pat to degas it a bit. Gently roll into a rectangle (around 16″ x 12″). If you find it hard to roll, let it rest for 5-10 minutes before trying to roll again. Gently spread the filling evenly on the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges.
- Again, using floured fingertips, carefully roll the long side of the dough. I find pressing it down while rolling makes it easier. Once you get to the end, roll the dough so that the seam side is facing down.
- Line a baking tray or in this case, I’m using a cast iron pan. Cut the dough into 8 rolls using a dental floss.
- Place the rolls on the pan, cover and let it rise for 3 more hours until almost doubled in size.
- Mix 2 tablespoons of sugar dissolved in 3 tablespoons of water to make the “egg” wash.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Brush the rolls with “egg” wash. Bake them for around 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
