Friday, February 12, 2010

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!

30 comments:

Joanne said...

that is a genius idea to stuff the beet buns with cheese! I wish I had thought of that. They look great!

I agree with you about the bread. I liked the apple strudel bread infinitely more. I think this chocolate bread would make a great bread pudding though!

Pam said...

I can't believe your husband doesn't like the flavor of coffee! The chocolate cinnamon bread looks especially delicious.

NKP said...

Yum - I especially love the beet bread!

Jenn said...

Beets in bread? Interesting. Well, there's cheese in it, so I'll give it a go.

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Did you tell your son he was eating beets after he ate three of those beet buns? They're interesting sounding but I'm kinda like your son a little leery of anything too veggie like. :)
~ingrid

theUngourmet said...

Both of your breads turned out great. I haven't been to sure about the beet bread but you've convinced me to try it...sometime. I really want to try the recipe from this book!

Donna-FFW said...

That chocolate cinnamon bread is just like screaming my name. Looks so perfect for this household. Nice substitution with the cinnamon !!

Michelle said...

I just made my Red Beet Buns tonight and we loved them. And I'm with you, this is my favorite bread so far...delicious. Love the idea of stuffing the beet bread with cheese too!

Cinnamon is a great substitute for the espresso in the Chocolate Espresso Bread. I was excited to try the Espresso Bread but I really liked the Pumpkin Pie Brioche much better.

Sophia Lee said...

Gosh, Teresa!! Those buns look absolutely DELIGHTFUL! Oh wow!

Debbie said...

Nutella and strawberrie will make anything better!!! lol.....

Alissa said...

Beets huh?! Sounds crazy enough that I think I like it!!!

Coleens Recipes said...

I wish my Hubby was an adventurous eater, but unless it looks like something that June Cleaver would make, he won't even taste it. Since there's just the two of us here, it makes experimenting hard to do. Thats why I "live through" bakers like yourself...you go girl!!

Katy said...

We love beets..but do we love beets in bread. We love cheese. Hmmm... I might be persuaded to give this a try. The addition of the cheese was inspired! The bread sure looks mighty good.

Not much of a chocolate bread person, I'm afraid. The idea sounds interesting, but I'm with you, I think it might not have a whole lot of chocolate flavor, the way a cake would, for instance. Good effort though, and certainly worth the experiment. Glad you tried it and shared your thoughts on it.

You are so groovy!

Wishing your cup of love is overflowing today!

Kim said...

"Your eating beets little boy" - LOL! That statement just cracked me up! Sounds like you had a wonderful idea to roll the beet dough with cheese and your chocolate bread looks really pretty. I ran out of time and didn't get around to my breads.

Anonymous said...

I just joined that group and need to get started on making some bread - although today I am going to start with the classic bread and move on from there.

And pretty sure cheese makes everything better!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Erica said...

owwwwwwww- two delicious breads- cheese and chocolate? Awesome! Both are just perfect for Valentine's day! I hope you are enjoying the day

Ezzie said...

Great job on these. It's so funny that you and I had opposite ideas on these breads! I wouldn't make the beet bread again...but love the chocolate breads! I'm so glad that Michelle had us try two diverse recipes like these!

chow and chatter said...

love what you did with these gave it Teresa's special touch great job
Happy Valentines

Rebecca

Petra said...

I saw the picture of your beet bun and sad to myself it looks like there is cheese in it. I kept on reading and sure enough, cheese! what a great idea.

I am curious to hear how others feel but I did not taste one bit of coffee flavor in that chocolate bread. Only intense chocolate flavor.

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

Love that you did the beets, but i would have found an excuse

looks great though

Elwood said...

wow, cheese in the beet bread, nice idea. I liked both the breads, but like you I think the chocolate bread has a lot of possiblities for dessert.

Lynn said...

Nutella and strawberries on your chocolate bread -- brilliant! I haven't had a whole lotta luck with chocolate breads myself. Same as you, I guess, they're never quite chocolatey enough for me. My best attempt so far was canned crescent rolls, each one rolled up with a little square of chocolate in it. Not exactly a healthy breakfast ;) but chocolatey enough for this girl!

And beet buns! Wow, I'm impressed that you tried them. And even more impressed that they were good.

Bonnie said...

You were so creative with those breads. They looked delicious.

Cristie said...

I wish I had thought of using cinnamon instead of the espresso- it sounds wonderful. I loved your post.

Judy's Bakery & Test Kitchen said...

Wow, cheese! Weren't you the person who added cheese last time? What a wonderful addition.

Unknown said...

omg...your cheese addition is brilliant!! Wish I had thought of that. Maybe it would've hid some the beet flavor (that I can't stand LOL)

Guff said...

CHEESE! Great idea. The only thing better would have been cheese and bacon.

Cathy (Bread Experience) said...

What a great idea to stuff the beet buns with cheese. I liked them, but I think they would've tasted even better with cheese.

I also think the chocolate bread would be good as bread pudding. We crumbled the tangerine bars on top of ice cream. Yum!

Megan said...

Love the savory cheesy rolls. Brilliant! Funny you didnt care for the chocolate bread. I loved it! I was thinking it would make a fun French Toast!

Jenny said...

You got creative with the beet bread and it looks great!
~Jenny~