After making some delicious cinnamon swirls from the Meyers Bageri cookbook, I decided to try the blueberry version of the pastries as well. The "Blueberry Swirls" recipe uses the exact same dough as the cinnamon swirls, but pairs it with a blueberry-almond filling.
I made the dough as I did for the cinnamon swirls except that I omitted the cardamom -- it just didn't seem like the cardamom would pair as harmoniously with blueberries as it did with cinnamon. There are two components in the filling, a blueberry syrup and a light butter filling. To make the blueberry syrup, you roast fresh blueberries with sugar in the oven, use a sieve to separate the fruit from the juice; and boil the juices with half of a vanilla bean until thick. The light butter filling is a mixture of equal parts of softened salted butter, marzipan, and sugar (I have no idea why it gets the "light" moniker because there is nothing light about it). You then mix the cooled blueberry syrup with the light butter filling.
You shape the rolls in the same way as the cinnamon swirls, except that you use the blueberry filling and sprinkle on the reserved roasted blueberries (that were strained out of the juice) before folding over the dough. When I cut the dough into strips and twisted it into rolls, blueberries fell out everywhere. I did my best to replace the fruit, which is why in the photo above you can see a lot of blueberries laying on top of the rolls. I have no idea how you can possibly keep blueberries inside of a one-inch wide strip of dough while you twist it into a swirl shape.
I shaped the rolls in the evening and left them in the fridge overnight so that I could bake them the following morning; I had used this process for the cinnamon swirls and it worked out great. When I pulled the pans of rolls out of the refrigerator the next day, blueberry juice had leaked out all over the pan. I did what I could to mop up the excess juices with a paper towel before baking, but even more juices leaked out of the rolls during baking and I didn't like the way the finished rolls looked. A few days later I made these rolls again and I didn't chill the rolls at all -- I shaped them, let them rise at room temperature, and baked them right away. I got the same result -- blueberry juice everywhere.
Blueberry and almond is a terrific flavor combination and I thought that these rolls tasted very good -- but I didn't like them as much as the cinnamon swirls. Part of it was that I didn't like their messy appearance with blueberry juice everywhere. But there is just something about a cinnamon bun that is irresistible. There's a reason why Meyers Bageri is known for its cinnamon swirls.
Recipe: "Blueberry Swirls" from Meyer's Bakery by Claus Meyer.
Previous Post: "Fresh Yeast Brings a Taste of Copenhagen Home: Cinnamon Swirls," March 30, 2019.
I made the dough as I did for the cinnamon swirls except that I omitted the cardamom -- it just didn't seem like the cardamom would pair as harmoniously with blueberries as it did with cinnamon. There are two components in the filling, a blueberry syrup and a light butter filling. To make the blueberry syrup, you roast fresh blueberries with sugar in the oven, use a sieve to separate the fruit from the juice; and boil the juices with half of a vanilla bean until thick. The light butter filling is a mixture of equal parts of softened salted butter, marzipan, and sugar (I have no idea why it gets the "light" moniker because there is nothing light about it). You then mix the cooled blueberry syrup with the light butter filling.
I shaped the rolls in the evening and left them in the fridge overnight so that I could bake them the following morning; I had used this process for the cinnamon swirls and it worked out great. When I pulled the pans of rolls out of the refrigerator the next day, blueberry juice had leaked out all over the pan. I did what I could to mop up the excess juices with a paper towel before baking, but even more juices leaked out of the rolls during baking and I didn't like the way the finished rolls looked. A few days later I made these rolls again and I didn't chill the rolls at all -- I shaped them, let them rise at room temperature, and baked them right away. I got the same result -- blueberry juice everywhere.
Blueberry and almond is a terrific flavor combination and I thought that these rolls tasted very good -- but I didn't like them as much as the cinnamon swirls. Part of it was that I didn't like their messy appearance with blueberry juice everywhere. But there is just something about a cinnamon bun that is irresistible. There's a reason why Meyers Bageri is known for its cinnamon swirls.
Recipe: "Blueberry Swirls" from Meyer's Bakery by Claus Meyer.
Previous Post: "Fresh Yeast Brings a Taste of Copenhagen Home: Cinnamon Swirls," March 30, 2019.
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