HBi5: Red Beet Cheese Buns and Chocolate Cinnamon Bread

Happy Valentine's weekend! I really love Valentines Day. I love the aisles at the store that are full of pink and red. And I think it's great that we have a day to celebrate love, which according to John Lennon, is all we need!


The breads for this week were chosen wisely as they both reflect the holiday in different ways. The red beet buns were an obvious for their red color. I'll be honest, I wasn't that excited about this particular bread, but my curiosity kept me from skipping it. As it turns out, this has been my favorite so far! Of course the fact that I stuffed the buns full of cheese probably helped, but seriously, I loved the red "beety-onion-y" flavor of this bread. And the best part...my veggie/fruit hating son ate about three of these! (evil laughter...you're eating beets little boy!)

I made the dough per the instructions, and when it came time to bake them, I rolled the dough out to about an inch thickness, and spread garlic powder, Parmesan, mozzarella and sharp provolone. I rolled it up jelly style, sliced and baked. Pretty much like a savory cinnamon roll. The only downside is that the dough made my fridge smell pretty funky, but it was worth it. I'll be making this again!


The second bread was supposed to be a chocolate-espresso combination, but neither of us are coffee drinkers, and my husband finds the flavor of coffee abominable. So, instead I added a good helping of ground cinnamon for a nice subtle bite to the bread. Before baking the bread I worked in some extra chocolate chunks, the zest of an orange and some dried cherries and cranberries. It came out a very fun and pretty loaf of bread, but I wasn't too crazy about the taste. Since it's still a yeast bread, it never got too sweet and lacked a bit in flavor. It's basically something that you have to turn INTO a dessert. So I did what any sensible chocolate lover would do, smothered it in Nutella and strawberries. Now we're talking.

I think this bread has a lot of possibilities for a lot of fun desserts, however, I don't see myself making it again. I just think if I'm going to spend my calories making and eating a dessert, it's going to be something a little less...uh healthy!

Be sure to check out the other wonderful HBi5 entries here.

Have a wonderful Valentine's weekend my friends!

Lion House Orange Rolls

A while back I found this gem on Katy's blog Food for a Hungry Soul. Have you visited her yet? If not, you really must, she's always got such gorgeous pictures and recipes on her blog. So while I was wondering what I should make for Mother's Day brunch (that's right, I make my own brunch, I wouldn't appreciate being forced out of the kitchen on my own day!) these orange rolls came to mind. You can find the link to the recipe here.

Not only were these completely delicious, but they were so much fun to make. This was my first time doing any kind of pastry like this, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Since I did get a little confused at how we were supposed to cut them, I figured I'd take pictures of how I did it...after Glenn explained it to me. I loved rolling these up, it was like play dough for grown ups!



Definitely give yourself enough time if you plan to make these, as you do have to wait for the dough to rise etc. But I promise they will be worth every second! Thanks again Katy!

And hey, have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I wish sunshine, good company and great food your way!