Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls

We all love cinnamon rolls, but these blueberry cinnamon rolls take this home cooking classic to the next level. It's simple, delicious and fresh take on your childhood classic.

The base recipe is adapted from The Joy of Cooking's recipe for cinnamon rolls with some tweaks to make these modern and refreshing.

Jump to:

• Ingredients & Substitutions
• How-To & Time Saving Tips
• Tips for Perfect Results Every Time
• More Recipes You'll Love!
• 📖 Recipe

Ingredients & Substitutions

Don't be overwhelmed by the long list of ingredients. Many of the ingredients are repeated through multiple steps of the recipe. There's only 13 unique ingredients and most of them other than the cream cheese, lemon and blueberries are household staples.

Substitutions

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls? Although I've never made cinnamon rolls vegan, I 100% trust Minimalist Baker and here is her recipe. Add the blueberries before baking on the filling and then make the berry sauce as written in my recipe and add it to her sauce.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Rolls? This recipe from Mama Knows Gluten-Free is a great base to work off. For this recipe, you can use my blueberry frosting and blueberry filling recipes as is with the dough recipe from Mama Knows Gluten-Free.

Frozen vs Fresh Blueberries - If needed, you can use frozen blueberries for both steps of the dish. If you're going to use frozen berries, make sure that you thaw them by running them under lukewarm water and then drying them completely.

There are some ingredients you can leave out if needed - if you don't have a lemon you can skip the zest and juice in the blueberry sauce. Replace it with an equal amount (1 tablespoon) of water instead of lemon juice and prepare as normal. I like the addition of lemon juice and zest because I don't like overly sweet desserts.

If you don't want to use blueberries, you can make this recipe as normal cinnamon rolls but then it's essentially just the classic recipe from the Joy of Cooking.

How-To & Time Saving Tips

The Dough

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In a stand mixer with a dough hook, add in ¼ cup of water and 2 ¼ teaspoons of active dry yeast. Let sit until the yeast is bubbly - about 5 minutes.

Add in the ½ cup of All-Purpose Flour, ⅓ cup Sugar, ¼ cup milk, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix on low speed until completely combined and then gradually add in 2 - 2 ¼ cups of All-Purpose Flour. Mix for 1 minute or until the dough has come together.

Once mixed, let the dough stand for 15 minutes, then knead on medium-low speed for 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticks to hands.

TIME SAVING TIP! While your dough is resting, you can wash the dishes you've made so far and wipe down the stand mixer. We're also done with the milk, eggs, flour and yeast - so put those away to clean up your work station.

Add in 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter (85g) that's very soft. Knead the butter into the dough until it's smooth and not slimy. Transfer to a large greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.

The Filling & Assembly

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While the dough is almost done rising, in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together 1 stick of Unsalted Butter (115g), ½ cup of packed Brown Sugar, 1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon of Salt. Set the filling aside.

Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 16 x 12 inch rectangle. Spread the dough with the filling and place 1 cup of Fresh Blueberries over the filling.

Starting with the long side, roll up the dough into a tight cylinder. Cut cross-wise into 12 equal slices. Place the cinnamon rolls cut side up in the buttered baking dish and let rise for 1 hour while covered with plastic wrap or a towel or in the refrigerator overnight.

Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 25-30 minutes if they're room temperature or for 40-45 minutes if baking straight from the refrigerator. Let cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.

Frosting

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TIME SAVING TIP! While the buns are baking, combine 1 cup of Fresh Blueberries, 2 tablespoons White Sugar, ½ tablespoon of Lemon Zest and 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook over medium heat until the blueberries have burst and the sugar has melted. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, combine 4 ounces of Cream Cheese, 3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, 1 teaspoon of Vanilla, 1 ½ cups of sifted Powdered Sugar until smooth. Once combined, add in the cooled blueberry sauce and process until smooth.

Once the buns are cooled, spread the blueberry cream cheese frosting over the cinnamon buns. Serve warm.

Tips for Perfect Results Every Time

The best way to make sure you have perfect results from any recipe is to read the recipe over at least once in full before you start to make sure you have all the ingredients and that you know when you'll be multi-tasking (if you want to save time).

This recipe isn't hard and has very little hands on time but the resting time totals about 2 and a half hours - make sure that you've set aside enough time to finish the recipe.

Make sure you properly knead and rise your dough! The key to delicious and fluffy cinnamon buns is just enough kneading and proper rising time. Here's a guide on how to know when dough is properly kneaded.

This recipe makes more frosting than you need - don't throw away the excess. It's delicious as a fruit dip but it also freezes well! Store it for your next batch (or just halve the recipe). If you love frosting and sweets, you can put it all on but it really does make quite a bit.

It's important to use your judgement when deciding the rolls are done. A good time estimate is 25-30 minutes if room temperature or 40-45 minutes if coming right from the refrigerator. They should look golden brown like the image below.

Don't have time to wait for the rise? Try these speedy cinnamon roll biscuits.

Do you love recipes with a twist? Be sure to check out my jalapeño simple syrup or my maple curry penne for more fun takes!

More Recipes You'll Love!

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