Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

- Henry Ford

The Recipe

Sticking with the classic, but I wanted to make blueberry cinnamon rolls. So, I found another recipe online and merged the blueberry part of that recipe with the cinnamon roll recipe I have been using. The site had an optional lemon glaze that I used as well.

Cinnamon Roll Recipe: Better Homes & Garden Cinnamon Rolls

Filling: Blueberry

Frosting Recipe: Lemon Glaze

The Attempt

I once had a blueberry cinnamon roll at Wheatfields in Omaha, and I thought it was great. The blueberries added a pleasant sweetness to the roll, without being overly sugary. However, I have not seen blueberry cinnamon rolls since that day and I have begun to wonder if it was just a dream, like that Nelly song. I decided to retry the classic cinnamon roll recipe since the last attempt with the recipe was much different than the first, and I wanted to see if I could get it right again. But with blueberries too.

I started to make the dough once the potatoes were mashed and the blueberry sauce was moved off the heat to cool. This part is getting easy now. I mixed up the dough, shaped it into a ball, and placed it in a greased bowl covered with a towel to rise. The dough felt flexible and tacky, but not too sticky. Easy-peasy, like a real chef.

I began cleaning while waiting for the dough to rise. I needed more fridge space and started rearranging some Tupperware containers full of sandwich cookies and s'more brownie bites. I lifted an egg carton to another shelf to clear space. Hang on a moment... This egg carton was supposed to be in the trash... I specifically remembered making a mental note earlier that I'd have more fridge space once I finished the dough since the last eggs in the carton would be used in the dough. My heart dropped when I opened the carton and saw the eggs remaining and my eyes transitioned to the oven where my egg-less dough was rising. Turns out, I'm not like a real chef yet.

Spoiler alert, there is no way to mix egg into the dough once it is coagulated together. This left me with two options: call it quits to retry another day or start over. Maybe was the plucky, persevering, Midwestern attitude ingrained in me. Maybe it was my vanity attempting to mend my bruised pride. Maybe my parents read me "The Little Engine That Could" a few too many times as a child. But I decided I couldn't give up. I had to try again now. Besides, I had the blueberry sauce sitting on the stovetop and I couldn't waste that effort.

Thankfully, starting over wasn't terrible. I had made more than enough mashed potatoes since I had planned ahead in case I created another batch later this week. I also had all the ingredients in stock still. Remember when I said one reason I committed to making cinnamon rolls was because the ingredients are simple and easy to keep in stock? Well, that very practical reason paid off in this situation.

The second attempt to create the dough once again went smoothly. And I was extra diligent to make sure I didn't miss any steps in the recipe. Although, I did lose track of how much flour I had added (becoming a trend), and the dough was still very sticky when I thought I had reached the desired amount. I added some more flour to get the dough's consistency to the spot where I think it should be - flexible but not sticking to my hands. I was going to have some very flour-y cinnamon rolls if this ended up being an incorrect decision.

The dough rose. The dough was rolled. I spread it with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I did double the butter specified for the filling since only about have the dough was coated with the initial amount. Sometimes you must go off book, you know? I did my best to spread out the globs of blueberry sauce over the dough, but it was a bit goopy making precision and unattainable goal. Let me tell you though, rolling dough with dollops of blueberry sauce is a major pain. If you roll too tightly, the blueberry sauce was typically just pushed along the seam of the roll without actually being rolled up. But if you roll too loosely, the rolls won't hold their shape. I pretty quickly gave up on trying to make the rolls tightly wrapped and I hoped for the best.

The rest of this attempt has fairly straightforward. I cut the rolls (resigning to blueberry sauce messily spilling all over the countertop), spread out the rolls on two baking sheets, let them rise again, and then tossed them in the oven to let heat take over. 23 minutes later I opened the oven and beheld at the product. I spooned the remaining blueberry sauce across the top, very quickly whisked up the lemon glaze, and drizzled it over the top.

The Review

I felt like a gourmet pastry chef when these rolls were topped off with blueberry sauce and lemon glaze. Who would have expected me to ever say "want to try these blueberry cinnamon rolls with a lemon glaze I made?" Not me. Maybe the cinnamon roll dough isn't the only thing doing some growing.

Things I appreciated about this attempt:

• The rolls were light and airy, but not too flakey where they feel like a croissant.

• I'm a fan of the blueberry. I think it's both aesthetically pleasing (that purple contrasts the golden crust and brown cinnamon sugar) and added a nice little sweet flavor that wasn't too sugary. 

• Shout out to perseverance for getting us here after messing up the dough the first time around.

• The lemon glaze complimented the blueberries well. I tasted like a summer-y cinnamon roll, which was helpful on a rainy, cold weekend. I was nervous if the lemon glaze would be too sour, but the cinnamon sugar, blueberries, and lemon glaze worked well together. Like a good system of checks and balances, this works as long as one doesn't become overpowering.

• The rolls raised in the oven again this time! Check out these before and after shots:

Things I learned from this attempt:

• Add eggs to the dough. Maybe turn the music down so it's less distracting.

• Thoroughly mash the potatoes. Making mashed potatoes the old-fashioned way is the best route to go. The dough was much smoother.

• Let the dough rise in a warm spot. I set the oven on to the lowest temp for a couple minutes, the turned it off, and then stuck the dough into the oven.  I just let the dough rise on the countertop on previous attempts, and I think this helped make the rolls more airy.

• I used a new trick for cutting cinnamon rolls from Kellon - use floss. I tried it this time and it made cutting the rolls much simpler, especially with the blueberry sauce seeping out everywhere. But the cinnamon roll sizes were all over the place since I haven't quite figured out how to keep the size consistent with the floss. It's harder than you'd think to get the floss underneath the cinnamon roll log at consistent lengths.

• Don't give the dough too much time to rise on the first rise. I think I made the mistake on the previous attempt. This attempt came out much butter by swelling while baking in the oven, while the last attempt stayed mostly flat while baking.

• Cut thick slices of rolls from the log. This also may have caused this batch to swell while baking.