Blueberry Cinnamon Roll Pull-Apart Flower

Start by making the sweet dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add warm milk and yeast. Whisk to combine.

Add in sugar, eggs and melted butter. Mix until well combined.

Next, stir in flour and salt until a dough begins to form.

Mix in the stand mixer on low speed with a dough hook for 5 minutes. The dough should not be sticking to the sides of the bowl. If the dough starts to stick to the bottom of the bowl, add more bread flour, one tbsp at a time, until it no longer is sticking to the bottom. Your dough should not stick to your finger when you touch it. After 5 mins, I like to pinch off a piece of dough and hold it up to a window and stretch it until I can see the light come through. If you can do this without the dough tearing apart, it’s done kneading.

Push dough to the side, add in a little olive oil, roll the dough in the oil, cover and let it rise for 2 hours, until it’s doubled in size. It can really rise for 2-3 hours, or overnight. If you want it to sit overnight, first allow it to rise for 2-3 hours, then wrap it tightly and store it in the fridge. Let it come to room temp on the counter for about an hour before you plan to use it the next day. Here is how my dough looks after rising.

To make the blueberry compote, add the blueberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once the pot is simmering, reduce the heat to medium low and allow it to continue to simmer until the mixture thickens up and becomes jammy. Be sure to stir the pot occasionally so that the compote doesn’t stick or burn to the sides or bottom of the pot. The compote takes about 20 mins from the time that you put it onto the stove until it’s done. Set it aside and allow it to cool. It will continue to thicken as it cools. I wasn't sure how much compote I would need, so the photo below shows a double batch made with 2 c of blueberries.

To make the compound butter, combine the softened butter, cinnamon and brown sugar in a small bowl. Mix until smooth.

Once the dough has risen, split it into two equal pieces on a lightly floured pastry board. Mine were 18 oz each. You will work with one half of the dough at a time, so be sure to keep the dough that you're not working with covered so that it doesn't dry out.

One at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each section of dough into a circle of about 13-14 inches in diameter.

Place a piece of parchment paper down on a surface that you can cut on (I use a wooden pastry board) and lay one of the dough circles down on the parchment. The parchment paper will make it easier to transfer the pastry from the board to your rimmed baking sheet once you're done cutting and twisting it. I always grab the top and bottom of the parchment paper, or opposite corners, and move the pastry that way.

Spread the compound butter evenly over the dough.

Spread the blueberry compote over the compound butter.

Next, carefully place the other circle of dough on top and do your best to match up the edges so that they are all lined up.

Use a small cookie cutter to mark the center of the dough, This will help to guide your cuts. I used a small flower cutter.

Now it's time to make the cuts. I always start with the top and bottom first (12:00 and 6:00). You want an even number of cuts so that you have an even number of strips of dough. You want to be able to pair up two strips of dough to make each petal. I made a total of 14 cuts. I like to use my knife to very faintly mark off where I will make my cuts so that I can make sure they are all fairly equal in size.

To twist the dough you will work with two strips of dough at a time. For each set of dough strips, you will twist the dough strip on the right clockwise and the dough strip on the left counterclockwise. I twisted each strip two full turns and then brought them together and pinched the ends to keep them from pulling apart. The video down at the bottom is probably the most helpful to demonstrate the twisting process. This is how it looks all twisted up:

This is when I usually move the pastry to a rimmed full size baking sheet. The full sheet gives the pastry plenty of room to rise and to expand while baking. I move it using the parchment paper, then cover the pastry and allow it to rise a second time. I like to let it rise for about 45 minutes for this rise.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place a rack in the center.

Once the dough is done rising, you will notice that it has puffed up a bit.

You can now place it into the preheated oven to bake. Ovens will vary, but what worked for me was to bake it for 20 mins and then to cover it with foil and bake it for 5 more minutes. The foil will help it to not get too brown. I also turned my baking sheet 1/2 turn at around 15 minutes. Once the pastry is done, it will be golden brown.

While the pastry is cooling, make your glaze. You don't want to add it right to the pastry while it's hot, or it will melt right off. This is a really simple glaze, I used Whipzi vanilla flavored powdered sugar and milk. If you are using plain powdered sugar, add about 1/4-1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. The glaze just needs to be whisked until smooth.

Once the pastry has cooled a bit, add the glaze. I like to use a whisk and drizzle it all over.

To finish it off, I like to dust just a little bit of powdered sugar over the top!

Serve warm and enjoy! Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container on the counter.