Blackberry Cream Cheese Sweet Rolls

By cwyorkiex3

These easy little sweet rolls are like a lazy man's version of cinnamon buns. No swirling or rolling involved. Little mounds of soft, sweet dough are topped with cream cheese and blackberries, baked until golden, then iced to perfection. This recipe very much reminds me of the bread pudding Elizabeth Taylor's family dished up to Mickey Rooney in National Velvet. It's not the same thing at all, but go grab that movie anyway, eat blackberry rolls as you watch, and melt into a nice memory.

Ingredients

• For rolls:
• 2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
• For the rolls:
• 2/3 cup nonfat instant dry milk
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 eggs
• 6-7 cups flour
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• For the filling:
• 2 (8 ounce) blocks cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 3-4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
• 2 tablespoons flour
• For the Icing:
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4-1/2 cup cream

Preparation

Step 1

In very large bowl whisk together the water and milk powder. Whisk in the yeast, then sugar, salt, egg, and 3 cups of flour. Use a wooden spoon to mix all of these ingredients together until well mixed. Add 2 more cups of flour, then continue to stir until the ingredients are well combined and beginning to form a thick dough. Add just enough additional flour to make the dough soft and pliable but not sticky. Go slow! You don't want to over-add flour here!

Add the softened butter and nutmeg to the dough, then knead the butter throughout the dough multiple times, until the dough becomes elastic and resilient to the touch. (I just do all of the kneading inside my bowl so as to contain the mess that in inevitably created when bread making. If you need some space for your kneading, turn the bread out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead away!) Cover with plastic and allow to rise in warm place until double in size, about 45 minutes.

Prepare the filling. In a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese and egg and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Beat until smooth and creamy. Dust the blackberries with the remaining sugar and flour but gently stirring them until coated.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 4-9" cake pans, pie tins, or two 13x9-inch pans with nonstick cooking spray. Start pulling golf ball sized hunks of dough and smoothing them into little balls. Place them into your greased baking sheet. Don't place the balls right next to each other, but close enough that when they rise they'll be pretty cozy in there.

Allow the dough to rise 15-20 minutes, then spread dollops of the cream cheese filling all over the creases of your rising balls of dough. Top with blackberries spread randomly across the top of your rolls. Allow to rise 20 minutes more, then bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or just until the rolls are golden brown and cooked through. Don't overcook your rolls! Pull them out of the oven before they become overly brown.

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and cream. Transfer to a ziplo bag, snip off the corner, and pipe all over the top of your warm blackberry sweet rolls. Enjoy!