These sweet, cake-y, cinnamon-sugary, berry-filled rolls are the sticky buns of summer. The eggy dough is reminiscent of brioche. It winds around a filling of fresh blueberries spiced with a hint of nutmeg. Once the rolls come out of the oven, puffed and golden and dripping blueberry juice, they’re brushed with butter and tumbled in cinnamon sugar. Yes, please.
The dough I use for these Blueberry Dirt Bomb Sweet Rolls is the same one I use for sticky buns, adapted from my grandmother’s recipe. It’s rich with butter, whole milk and eggs, and so soft and silky it rolls out smooth and thin. When you smear the dough rectangle with the butter/sugar mixture, and sprinkle it with the blueberries, make sure to go all the way out to the edges, so every roll has plenty of filling.
When the rolls come out of the oven, smelling warm and buttery and oozing with juice, let them sit in the muffin tin for ten minutes. The blueberry filling will thicken as it cools, so more of it stays in the rolls instead of leaking out into the pan.
You could stop right there. These rolls are delicious just as they are, straight from the oven. If you like your breakfast treats a little less sweet, or you want to save time, just tear one open and eat it warm, maybe with a little butter melted into the rivers of syrupy blueberries in the center. (You should also stop here if you don’t plan to serve these rolls the day they’re baked. Without the sugar topping, they’ll keep for a day or two at room temperature, tightly wrapped, or for a couple of months in the freezer.)
But if you really want to do it right, give them the full dirt bomb treatment. The sandy texture and warm cinnamon flavor of the sugar coating contrasts with the pillow-y soft bread and tart juicy blueberry filling – think jelly doughnut meets cinnamon roll, and you’re on your way to imagining how amazing these Blueberry Dirt Bomb Sweet Rolls taste.
The original Dirt Bomb is a muffin. I don’t know its origin – I’m sure there are versions of the Dirt Bomb all over – but I came to know them on Cape Cod, first at the fantastic Cottage Street Bakery in Orleans, then at other bakeries and farm stands around the region, where they’re sometimes referred to as Nauset Dirt Bombs.
I’ve enjoyed the muffin version from the bakery and made them at home and they are amazing, but also amazingly rich. The muffin is large, dense and filling, soaks up butter like a sponge, and attracts such a thick layer of the cinnamon sugar topping…let’s just say that to eat a whole one takes commitment. When I got the idea to try the dirt bomb treatment on these little sweet rolls, I was thrilled with the result. Yeast rolls form a crust that’s less permeable than a muffin, so they absorb just a light kiss of butter and pick up a dusting of cinnamon sugar that adds sweetness, spice, and a satisfying sandy crunch without overpowering.
As much as I love the cinnamon sugar dirt bomb, I also have a hard time saying no to frosting. Since these rolls are close cousins of the cinnamon roll, I’ve also made them with a classic glaze of confectioner’s sugar mixed with orange juice. Orange is such a great combination with blueberries – dust the top of the frosting with grated orange zest for extra flavor and color. A platter of these rolls, half with the dirt bomb topping and the other half glazed, would make a beautiful centerpiece for a special brunch.
This recipe makes 12 muffin-sized rolls and uses half a recipe of the dough for Mamie’s Rolls. Use the other half of the dough to make dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, or a loaf of brioche-like bread for making excellent toast, French toast, or bread pudding. Whatever it is that you’re making, if you plan to bake it at the same time as the blueberry rolls in the same oven, position your oven racks in the upper and lower thirds and swap the pans from upper to lower halfway through cooking. If you don’t plan to use it right away, after the first rise put the extra dough in a plastic bag with some extra room around it and freeze it for up to one month.
Making these rolls ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- The rolls can be baked one day ahead. If you know you’re not going to serving them until the next day, wait until the day of serving to add the butter and sugar topping. If you’ve already added it, the sugar coating on the day-old rolls might be slightly soft and moist, but it will still be great. Either way, store the rolls tightly packed (but not squished) in an airtight container just big enough to hold them.
- Once the rolls have been coated in cinnamon sugar, don’t try to re-warm them, or the sugar will melt. Just enjoy them at room temperature.
- If you want to freeze these rolls, freeze them plain without the sugar topping. Wrap each roll individually in plastic wrap, then pack them (without squishing) into freezer-safe zip-lock bags. Thaw the rolls for a couple of hours at room temperature, then coat with the butter and sugar coating.
- Or skip the coating and use leftovers to make an out-of-this world Blueberry Bread Pudding.
Blueberry Dirt Bomb Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
- ½ recipe of dough for Mamie’s Rolls
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus additional for the pan, at soft room temperature
- 6 tablespoons plus ¾ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1 1/3 cups fresh blueberries
- 2¼ teaspoons cinnamon
Directions
- Step 1 Make the dough for Mamie’s Rolls. Near the end of the first rise, generously butter a 12-cup muffin tin with soft butter.
- Step 2 Make the smear. In a small bowl, blend together 4 tablespoons of the soft butter with 6 tablespoons of sugar and the nutmeg. Smash the butter and sugar together with the back of a spoon until the mixture makes a smooth paste.
- Step 3 Divide the dough in half on a floured board, using a dough scraper or sharp knife. Reserve half of the dough for another use. Roll out the remaining dough into a rectangle approximately 16 by 9 inches, with one of the long edges facing you. Spread the smear over the dough in an even, thin layer, making sure to cover the dough all the way out to the left and right borders, and all the way to the near edge facing you. Leave a 1-inch border of un-smeared dough at the far edge. Scatter the blueberries evenly over the smear, making sure to cover the dough all the way out to the left and right edges.
- Step 4 Lift up the near edge and roll the dough away from you to form a log. Use a serrated knife to slice the log into 12 equal slices. Cut carefully, sawing back and forth gently without pressing down, letting the knife do the work so you don’t compress the roll. Place each slice in one of the prepared muffin cups, lying on its side with a cut side up showing a spiral of blueberry filling.
- Step 5 Cover the muffin tin with a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise until they’re puffy and risen above the edges of the tin, about 45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes of the rising time, preheat the oven to 325 degrees with a rack in the center position.
- Step 6 Bake the rolls for 25 minutes. Remove the muffin tin to a cooling rack and cool the rolls in the tin for 10 minutes, then carefully pry each roll out and transfer it to a rack to cool. Blueberry filling will likely have seeped out the bottom of the rolls. Scoop up any filling left behind in the muffin cup with a spoon, invert the roll onto the cooling rack with the bottom side up, and dollop the blueberry filling back into the bottom of the roll. Let the rolls cool completely.
- Step 7 Melt the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, or in the microwave. Combine the remaining ¾ cup of sugar with the cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Step 8 Using a pastry brush, brush each roll generously with the butter, covering the entire surface of the roll. Toss the roll in the cinnamon sugar, lifting the sugar and pouring it over the roll with your fingers to coat the roll generously with the sugar. Repeat with the remaining rolls, butter, and cinnamon sugar. If you have any cinnamon sugar left after tossing the last roll, sprinkle it over the tops of the rolls.
