Who wants breakfast? Recently, I filled my freezer with wild Maine blueberries — it is the season after all — Copeland Hill blueberries from family friends, The Warrens. And because I can’t just let an entire freeze of blueberries just sit there and tempt me, I made these “cinnamon roll” style blueberry swirls? And why “Milleswirlie”? Well, mille is thousand in Italian, and there are lots and lots of swirls — thus lots and lots of blueberries.
Blueberry Milleswirlie = Mille happy taste buds!
(PS: There is a little bit of store-bought blueberry jam in this recipe. It’s actually optional, but if you have ever baked with wild blueberries before, they can remain somewhat runny — in a gloriously delicious kind of way, but nevertheless a bit annoying when trying to roll the rolls. While I did use a corn starch slurry to help with binding, the pectin that is in the jam also helps.)
Ingredients
for the dough
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup (160 grams) ripe sourdough starter
1 1/4 cup milk, warmed to between 100-110F
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
for the filling
1/2 cup blueberry jam (store bought is fine)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon corn starch mixed with 2 tablespoons water, for slurry
2 teaspoons lemon juice
for decorating
powdered sugar (optional)
Directions
Combine flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Heat milk and butter, combine with your sourdough starter, and pour into the well. Add egg and mix until fully combined. Turn out onto a well-floured counter and knead until you have cohesive dough. It should be fairly soft and supple. Set aside in a warm, draft free place for a couple of hours in a greased bowl until it has doubled in size.
In the meantime, make the filling as it must be cold when assembling the log. In a sauté pan over medium heat, combine jam, blueberries, sugar and salt and bring to a low simmer. Th berries should pretty much fall apart, so you have a blueberry pudding. Add the corn starch slurry and bring back to a boil, to have it thicken. Remove from the heat, and add the lemon juice. Let cool completely, and it will thicken more.
Spray a pie dish or square/rectangular baking dish with baking spray.
Once the dough has risen, turn out from the bowl and divide in half. Roll the first half out on a lightly floured surface to a 9 x 14-inch rectangle. It should be very thin. Fill with half of the blueberry mixture and spread out evenly. It should be a thin coating. Roll up into a log from the short side — there should be a lot of swirls here — so at the end, you have an 9 inch log. Pinch together and set aside, seam side down so it won’t unroll. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into slices, about 1 1/2 inches thick and space the slices out on the prepared baking pan, approximately 1 inch apart. Ideally, you will have 8 or 9 swirls. Cover loosely with a clean dish towel and let rise for an additional 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400F. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 20-30 minutes before sprinkling with powdered sugar (optional). Best if eaten warmish.
