Easy & Delicious Overnight Blueberry Rolls

These soft Overnight Blueberry Rolls are the perfect make-ahead treat for a special breakfast or brunch. Made with an easy brioche dough infused with orange, and filled with a simple homemade blueberry jam, these rolls rise overnight in the fridge for a fuss-free morning bake.

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I'm an all seasons kind of baker. I don't care if it's as hot as the sun outside and 95% humidity, if I want Blueberry Sweet Rolls in the morning, I will turn on my oven. Made with an orange infused brioche and blueberry orange jam, these rolls are moist and fluffy and gooey and everything you want when you're craving morning sweets. 100% worth turning on the oven, no matter what the calendar says!

But what if you don't want to make a huge batch of blueberry rolls? And what if you want them on a Tuesday morning? I got you! This recipe makes eight big fluffy blueberry rolls that you can mix and shape the day before and bake in the morning. Want them next Tuesday? No problem. You can freeze the unbaked rolls for up to a month!

(p.s. Want a big batch of sweet rolls for a big bunch of people? Hit the 2X button on the recipe card and bake in a 13 by 9 pan.)

(p.p.s. This is an update to my blueberry cinnamon rolls. I realized I already had three cinnamon roll recipes, my biscuit cinnamon rolls, a simple one-hour cinnamon rolls recipe, and traditional overnight cinnamon rolls, and I felt like having cinnamon in this recipe wasn't allowing the blueberries to shine. Oh, but they're shining now!)

Ingredients & Substitutions

When I have two separate components to a recipe, I find it less visually overwhelming if I take two ingredient photographs. First let's take a look at the ingredients for the blueberry orange jam and where you can make changes if you must:

• Blueberries - Making this quick refrigerator jam can use fresh or frozen blueberries. If you want to use store-bought blueberry preserves instead of making your own, that's not a problem, but I would still thicken it with the cornstarch for reasons I will describe below.
• Granulated sugar - I use regular granulated sugar, but you can use light brown sugar if you want a deeper flavor.
• Orange juice and zest - I know that the standard blueberry friend is lemon, but I absolutely love adding orange zest and orange juice to blueberry jam. Of course you can use lemon juice if you prefer. But for the second infusion of orange juice at the end, you can should substitute with water to mix with your cornstarch or the jam will be too acidic.
• Cornstarch - Speaking of cornstarch, I use it when making this jam because I want the blueberry layer to stay exactly where I put it. Without it, a lot of the blueberry jam would liquefy and seep to the bottom of the pan during the overnight rise. If you choose to use store bought jam or preserves, I still recommend warming it over the stove and thickening it with cornstarch and your choice of liquid.

Now let's go over the ingredients to make the luscious blueberry rolls and the frosting, including some of the jam you just whipped up like you're Ina Garten or something:

• All-purpose flour - Regular all-purpose flour is perfect for these soft blueberry rolls. If you have extra bread flour left over for making, oh I don't know... my croissant bread, you can definitely use it here.
• Milk - There is milk in this soft brioche dough, but you can use a plant-based milk if you'd like.
• Cream - I use cream to make the nice rich frosting, but you can use more milk if you'd like.
• Butter - I always use unsalted butter for cooking and for baking because there's no standard amount of added salt between brands. If you use salted butter, reduce the added salt in the recipe by half.
• Instant yeast - Instead of having to activate yeast in a warm liquid, I like to just toss into yeast in with my dry ingredients. If you only have active dry yeast, add it to your warmed milk and water, with a tablespoon of your sugar, and allow it to foam up before adding in your egg and melted butter.
• Blueberry jam - Of course we made our own blueberry jam, right? Whether you made your own, or are using store-bought, you'll need about a cup for the rolls and a couple of tablespoons for the frosting.
• Cream cheese - Of course I used full fat cream cheese in the frosting. You can use low-fat or even vegan cream cheese if you like. If you don't like cream cheese at all, you can switch it out from mascarpone cheese for a sweeter creamy flavor.
• Orange - I use orange zest and orange juice in both the brioche dough and in the blueberry jam. If you are not an orange person, feel free to replace it with lemon or lime or leave it out altogether. Just replace the orange juice with an equal weight or volume of water.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Quick Recipe Video

Step-by-Step Instructions

We have been conditioned to believe that making a brioche or homemade jam or any kind of cinnamon rolls in general is hard. I'm here to tell you it's not! I have the easiest brioche dough technique down pat. I use it for making my soft brioche bread, strawberry rolls, even my almond croissant rolls.

To make things even easier I'm going to break this down into three easy parts:

• First we will make our blueberry jam.
• Then we will make our dough and let it rise.
• Then we will bring the jam and the dough together and shape our rules, and then they're off for a good night sleep in the refrigerator overnight.
• In the morning you just have to bring the rolls to room temperature and bake. Let's get to it!

Make blueberry jam

Step 1: In a saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar, 1 tablespoon orange juice, and zest. Cook over medium heat until jammy, about 8–10 minutes.

Step 2: Whisk cornstarch into remaining 2 tablespoons orange juice and drizzle into the jam, stirring until thickened, 1–2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, chill completely, and reserve 2 tablespoons for the frosting.

Make orange brioche dough

Step 1: Rub orange zest into sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add flour, sugar, yeast, and salt; mix to combine.

Step 2: In a measuring cup, whisk milk, orange juice, egg, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix on low until a shaggy dough forms. 

Step 3: Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium until smooth and tacky, about 8–10 minutes. Add up to 2 tablespoons of flour if needed to bring it off the sides of the bowl.

Step 4: Place the sweet roll dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let dough proof until doubled, 1½ to 2 hours.

Making Dough by Hand
Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl, then add the dry (remember to rub the zest into the sugar first). Stir into a shaggy dough, then knead on a floured surface for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Shape your blueberry rolls

Step 1: Roll dough into a 10x14-inch rectangle. Spread with jam, leaving a small border at the end.

Step 2: Cut into 8 strips.

Step 3: Roll up and place in a greased or parchment lined 8-inch round or square pan.

Step 4: Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Bake and frost

Step 1: Let rolls sit at room temp for 1 hour while you preheat the oven to 350°F. For softer rolls, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of warm cream. Bake in preheated oven for 25–28 minutes, until they have a golden color.

Step 2: In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk or heavy cream, and reserved blueberry jam until fluffy and spreadable. Adjust thickness to taste with either more powdered sugar or more milk or cream.

Finish: Allow the rolls to cool just a bit while making the frosting, then add an initial coating of frosting on top of the rolls while  warm so it can ooze into all the seams and spirals. Add more to taste, because it's sooo tasty!!

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