Blackberry Sweet Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

The softest blackberry sweet rolls with blackberry jam inside soft, tender, enriched bread. They are topped with thick blackberry cream cheese frosting. They are like blackberry cinnamon rolls but without the cinnamon sugar. Instead, they’re filled with juicy blackberry filling.

About these blackberry sweet rolls

They use a lightly enriched dough that’s super fun to work with. It makes a really tender and soft bread. I use the same dough for lemon poppy seed rolls and blueberry cinnamon rolls.

It can be worked with by hand or in a stand mixer. It’s not quite as enriched as brioche dough or these brioche cinnamon rolls, but the soft dough still has amazing texture and flavor and doesn’t use quite so much butter! If working by hand, know that it does start off as quite a sticky dough. Just keep slapping and folding it until it becomes elastic and strong.

The dough will rise twice, once as a large dough ball and the second time as the shaped buns. The first dough rise can happen at room temperature for same-day blackberry sweet rolls or it can rise slowly in the fridge overnight. Letting the dough have a cold rise will give it extra flavor. It would then have its second rise at room temperature.

The blackberry filling

The blackberry filling can be made with frozen or fresh blackberries. It’s sweetened with a little granulated sugar and enhances the flavor with lemon juice. The filling is a chunky, thick sauce like a fruit compote, full of pieces of juicy blackberries.

Unlike a traditional compote, this blackberry mixture is thickened with cornstarch. This makes it a bit thicker so it is easier to roll up in the dough.

The frosting

The finished rolls are topped generously with a thick blackberry cream cheese frosting. The frosting uses a little bit of the blackberry filling, along with cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. The blackberry filling gives it the most beautiful purple color.

Equipment

Stand mixer – This dough can be made by hand, but a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook makes things a lot easier.

A 9×13 inch baking pan – Or similar sized pan.

The ingredients

Find the actual recipe amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. For this blackberry cinnamon roll recipe, you will need –

The dough ingredients

• All-purpose flour. A strong all-purpose flour with a protein level of at least 11%. You can use bread flour too, but this will make a chewier bun.
• Yeast. Active dry yeast or instant dry yeast. The yeast used in this recipe can be instant yeast or active dried yeast. Instant yeast will rise faster than active dried yeast. Whichever one you use, it needs to be viable. Usually, the instant yeast sachets are pretty full-proof, but sometimes active dried yeast can lose viability.
• Granulated white sugar – The dough itself doesn’t make overly sweet rolls, as the main sweetness comes from the filling and topping.
• Eggs – 2 larger eggs
• Salt
• Whole milk
• Butter – Just enough to bring some richness to the buns. This can be salted or unsalted butter.

The filling

• Blackberries – Fresh or frozen. It’s a very similar filling to what’s used in this blackberry crumble pie recipe.
• Lemon juice and salt – enhances the blackberries flavor.
• Granulated sugar – Provides more sweetness.
• Cornstarch – The thickener.

Baker’s schedule

Here are two examples of baking schedules you can follow. Feel free to adapt these times to suit your own schedule.

Option 1 – same day sweet rolls

• 9:00 am – Mix the yeast, sugar, and warm milk. Add in the flour, egg, and salt. Knead, add in butter and knead for 10-15 minutes. Form into a smooth ball.
• 9:25 am – Place dough in a greased bowl and let the dough rise until doubled.
• 9:30 am – Make the blackberry compote. Cover and let it chill in the fridge until needed.
• 10:30 am – Roll dough into a rectangle. Spread on the blackberry filling, but keep 3 tablespoons separate for the frosting. Roll it up and slice. Place slices in the baking pan and let rise until doubled in size.
• 11:45 am – Bake for around 25 minutes until golden brown. Make the frosting while the rolls are baking.
• 12:15 pm – Frost the sweet rolls while still warm. Serve

Option 2- Overnight sweet rolls

• 7 pm – Mix the yeast, sugar, and warm milk. Add in the flour, egg, and salt. Knead, add in butter and knead for 10-15 minutes. Form into a smooth ball.
• 7:25 pm – Place dough in a greased bowl and wrap it tightly. Let it rise slowly overnight in the fridge (up to 16 hours.)
• 7:30 pm – Make the blackberry compote. Cover and let it chill in the fridge until needed.
• The following day 8 am – Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll dough into a rectangle. Spread on the blackberry filling, but keep 3 tablespoons separate for the frosting. Roll it up and slice. Place slices in the baking pan and let rise until doubled in size.
• 9:30 am- Bake for around 25 minutes. Make the frosting while the rolls are baking.
• 9:55 am – Frost the sweet rolls while still warm. Serve.

Method

The dough

In a small saucepan, warm the milk to around 95-104°F / 35-40°C and pour it into a bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over the milk. If using active dry yeast, let this sit for around 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy, if using instant yeast this step can be skipped.

Add in the flour, salt, and eggs. Fit the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.

Add in the softened butter, a few cubes at a time, and keep mixing on medium speed for around 10 minutes until the sweet roll dough pulls cleanly from the sides of the bowl and it is soft and strong.

Kneading by hand

Alternatively, knead the dough by hand. Use a wooden spoon and mix the dough until it forms a shaggy dough ball. Once it forms a dough ball, pull it onto a floured surface and knead in the butter, a few cubes at a time.

Knead by hand for around 10 minutes until it becomes a strong and smooth dough. If you need a break, take it. The dough responds well to resting time.

Once kneaded, form the dough into a dough ball. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased large bowl and cover with compostable plastic wrap or beeswax wrap.

Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, around about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The exact rise time will depend on your room temperature.

You can create a warm spot for rising by placing the dough in a turned-off oven next to a mug of boiled water.

If making overnight blackberry cinnamon buns, the dough can be covered tightly and refrigerated for up to 16 hours.

The blackberry filling

While the dough is rising, make the filling so it has time to cool.

Add the blackberries, cornstarch, sugar, lemon juice, and salt to a saucepan over low heat. Keep stirring until they begin to break down. Use a spoon or rubber spatula to mash them up a bit as they heat.

Once they have broken down more and released their juices, turn the heat to medium and let the mixture come to a boil, stirring the whole time. As the mixture boils it will thicken and become jelly-like.

Once thick, remove from the heat and scrape into a bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Cover it and place it in the fridge until it’s needed.