Happy Independence Day! Today is all about the red, white, and blue. I wanted to have a nice food photo of something with those iconic colors that hopefully will make the rounds on Pinterest today (thanks for stopping by, Pinners!). I need a blue food. Of course blueberries came to mind. What could be more American? Blueberries are native to our land. They were growing here back on the fateful day in 1776. Although they do turn more purple when cooked, it's close enough. For something red, why not strawberries, especially considering I have a batch of strawberry jam made from fresh Michigan berries. And what's my favorite baked treat - the cinnamon roll. Only today to celebrate this great day in American history, I am going to replace the cinnamon sugar filling with some homemade jam.
This recipe is enough for 18 rolls. I put 12 of them in my largest glass baking dish, alternating between strawberry and blueberry filled. The other 6 I used in a round cake pan. For those I filled with some pluot jam I made but you can use more strawberry or blueberry. Raspberry or cherry jam would also fit into the Fourth of July color scheme.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 cups very warm water not too warm to burn your hand though
- 2 tablespoons dry yeast
- ⅔ cup instant nonfat dry milk
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup softened butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 4 to 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
For the filing
- 2 cups combined of strawberry raspberry, or blueberry jam
For the icing
- juice of 1 half lemon
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- water for thinning
Instructions
- Start by combining the warm water and the yeast. Give the yeast about 5 minutes to proof. You should easily be able to smell the yeast.
- Add the dry milk, sugar, and salt.
- Then add the butter and egg. Fully incorporated.
- Then add the flour about a cup at a time until you have a soft dough that isn't too sticky.
- Knead the dough either by hand or with a stand mixer.
- Cover with a clean towel and allow to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size. Finding the warmest spot in your kitchen to place your dough will give you the quickest results.
- Now cut the dough into three equal pieces. I like to do this with a bench or pastry scrapper.
- Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle.
- Spread the 1 type of jam out, leaving some room around the edges. You don't need to go super thick.
- Then roll the dough up tightly forming a log. Cut the log into 6 equal pieces. Repeat with the other 2 pieces of dough, using a different jam in each dough or the same one twice. I estimate about 2 cups of jam will be needed. I didn't actually measure it out when I made them.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place the rolls into a baking dish that you have sprayed with a bit of oil.
- Allow the rolls about 20-30 minutes to rise before baking them. Bake time is about 15-20 minutes. The edges should turn brown and sound hollow if you tap on them.
To make the icing
- Mix the lemon juice with the powdered sugar. Slowly add water until you get the desired consistency.
Leave a Reply