Don't let the name fool you into thinking these are a health food: these rolls are the definition of decadent. In fact, I highly advise baking them in containers you consider acceptable to give away (like foil pie pans) because you will be equipped to purchase all sorts of social favours with the help of these babies. They take everything you could want in a sweet roll and everything you already love about red velvet and combine it into a treat that could pass for breakfast about as easily as Reece's Puffs cereal.
The inspiration for these rolls came from a couple of different places. The Pioneer Woman has been a longstanding resource for everything cinnamon-bun-esque for me for years now, much to the enjoyment/chagrin of my coworkers since I usually bring them in to share. (As much as I love baking, I've grown past the days where it's remotely acceptable to think about crushing an entire cake myself over a weekend.) A few years ago when Red Velvet was becoming a big deal worthy of proper nouns, I tried my hand at it and was promptly disgusted at the prospect of using an entire bottle of red food colouring for one batch of cupcakes...and then realized that's very likely what all commercial bakeries are doing whenever I choose Red Velvet over, say, run-of-the-mill chocolate with cream cheese frosting.
I put off making my own Red Velvet baked goods for years partly due to the immediate apprehension I felt at consuming so much Red #5, but somewhere in my internet perusals I read an urban legend that before food dyes became widely popular, the birth of red velvet involved using beets to obtain that signature deep red colour. Filling that tidbit in my brainmeats for later, I finally remembered to pick up some beets on my most recent run to the grocery store. I started playing with the idea of a red velvet sweet roll, and finally took the plunge. Since starting this blog with Paige, I have tried some awful baking experiments that have never been published for various reasons, including coating the oven with a layer of caramel. And to be honest, I was so excited that these were turning out I skipped a step that will be addressed in the step-by-step photos so that you can learn from my mistakes. Thankfully, these treats are one afternoon away from making you the most popular person in the neighbourhood with minimal kitchen disasters involved.
Red Velvet Sweet Rolls
Author: Amanda, inspired from The Pioneer Woman's Sweet Rolls
Difficulty: easy
Serves: approximately 24 sweet rolls (about 3-4 standard size foil pie pans)
Ingredients
Dough
- 1.5 cups milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) yeast
- 1 cup pureed beets (about 3 medium beets, peeled, diced, boiled, and pureed)
- 1/4 cup raw or Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup additional all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter, melted, for pans
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 oz dark baking chocolate
- 1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- dash salt (optional)
- 1/2 standard brick cream cheese (4 oz), softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk plus additional to thin as necessary
- 1.5 cups powdered sugar
Directions
For the dough: combine milk, oil, sugar in a medium pot and bring milk to a scald. Allow to cool until not hot to touch. Add yeast and allow to bloom for approximately five minutes. Add beet puree to mixture and stir well. Sift cocoa into first cup of flour and add flour and stir. Cover and allow to sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour. After dough has risen, add additional flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Roll into a 10x30 large rectangle on a well floured surface.
Prepare the ganache by allowing butter to melt into a small pot or saucepan with milk, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, and optional salt. Allow mixture to barely bubble, and set aside to cool until dough is rolled out. Measure out 1 cup of ganache (recipe makes approximately 1 1/4 cups) and spread over rolled dough. Carefully roll dough towards you starting from the furthest side using a "typing" motion with your hands. Pinch the dough together at the seam. Use a knife to make roughly 1 1/4 inch slices along the dough. Spread melted butter into pans and place rolls into pans, leaving some room for rolls to rise. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place for an additional 30 minutes. Bake rolls at 375F for 15-18 minutes, or start to appear darker brown at the edges.
While the rolls are baking, prepare icing by whisking with a stand mixer together softened cream cheese and butter until well blended and fluffy. Add 1/4 cup milk, vanilla, and approximately 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Continue to whisk in powdered sugar in increments. Add additional milk as necessary to thin icing to a pourable consistency. Pour icing on rolls as soon as they come out of the oven, and gently spread around icing as necessary to ensure rolls are coated evening. Allow to cool for approximately 15 minutes before serving.
Step-by-Step Photos
First things first, you will probably need to make the beet puree. This can be done the night before (which I did, and took no pictures since the lighting was crap) and left overnight in the fridge. I peeled and diced four medium beets, and boiled in enough lightly salted water to cover until very fork tender, which was about 20 minutes. Then, I piled them in a blender and added enough of the boiled-beet-water to allow to blend until it reached a puree consistency. Easy peasy. Maybe a total of 15 minutes of hands-on time altogether. You can probably get about a cup of pureed beets with 3 medium beets. Isn't that colour just gorgeous?
Once you have your beet situation under control, allow some milk, oil, and sugar to come to a scald on the stove on medium heat. Scalding means about-to-boil-but-not-boiling-yet, so you should keep an eye on it. Turn off the heat and allow to to cool until hot but not too hot to touch, which is super scientific and not at all open to interpretation. You'll also want to choose a pot large enough to allow the dough to rise, unless you're planning on dirtying another dish.
Once the milk mixture is somewhat cooled, stir in one package of yeast. After about five minutes, it should bloom like this.
Stir in the beet puree.
Add the cocoa and flour to the mixture and stir until combined with a wooden spoon. I naively added my cocoa separately without sifting, and had to work out a few lumps that could have been avoided by sifting the cocoa into a bit of flour, which is correctly reflected in the directions. Raw cocoa or Dutch processed cocoa is necessary here, as regular cocoa powder will compete too much with the red colour from the beets. Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place until double in size. I like to turn on the oven for a couple minutes, turn it off, and then let the dough rise there away from any potential drafts.
While the dough is rising, you can prepare the chocolate ganache filling if you wish. Simply melt butter, sugar, vanilla, milk (or heavy cream), and dark baking chocolate into a small pot on medium-low heat. Stir consistently and bring it to bubble for just a couple of minutes before turning off the heat. As it cools it will start to firm up, so you may want to warm it up slightly once the dough is risen and rolled out. Good quality dark chocolate makes a big difference here, so don't be apprehensive about using the good stuff.
Isn't that a happy looking dough? It was this step where I made my not-so-fatal flaw due to being so excited that the red colour was persisting so beautifully, and I forgot to stir in the additional flour/baking powder/baking soda/salt. Learn from me. This will help the dough firm up a little bit and make rolling it so much easier.
On a well floured surface, turn out the dough and roll it into a large rectangle - approximately 10 inches by 30 inches.
Measure out one cup of prepared ganache and pour over the rolled out dough. What to do with the leftovers? Sinfully garnish the rolls, use it as ice cream topping, eat it out of the pot with a spoon...there are a few options to choose from.
Use a spatula to spread the ganache around the rectangle evenly.
Carefully roll the dough towards you, moving from one side to the other with a typing motion with your fingers, pulling as you go. Warning: this will get messy. You will have hands covered in chocolate. That isn't a bad thing. My roll ended up not as pretty as it could have been if I supplemented with the rest of the dough ingredients, but thankfully this recipe is forgiving. (Thank you, Pioneer Woman! She has fantastic pictures and a likely better description of the dough rolling process if my explanation isn't enough.)
Pinch the seam together as you approach the end of the roll. Hopefully your roll of dough and chocolate is less floppy.
Use a knife to make slices about an inch thick. How many slices you make out of the roll will determine how many sweet rolls you end up with.
Melt about 1/4 cup of butter and spread it along the bottom of your baking dishes. I used this pan plus two foil pie pans (not pictured).
Place the rolls into the buttered pans for another rise. (The floppiness of my rolls is the worst here - again, you shouldn't have this problem if you remember the additional flour and add-ins.)
Allow for a second rise of about 30 minutes in a warm, draft free place (like the oven!). Bake at 375F for 15-18 minutes.
While the rolls are baking, make the icing. Use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment to cream together the butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add vanilla, milk, and a portion of the icing sugar. Whisk together, and slowly add additional icing sugar until 1.5 cups total is added. If necessary, scrape down sides with a spatula and add additional milk to thin to a pourable consistency.
Pull the baked rolls out of the oven.
And promptly smother them in frosting. Frosting hides the imperfections and makes all life problems go away.
Try to wait 15 minutes before serving to help the icing set and not burn your fingers off. These rolls are fantastic - rich, sweet but not too sweet, and decidedly "Red Velvet-y" without an entire bottle of food colouring.
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