'Pink Velvet' Cinnamon Buns

'Pink Velvet' Cinnamon Buns

These cinnamon are delightfully pink thanks to some beetroot puree in the dough, but don't worry, you can't taste it at all, and after all, it's just adding to your 5-a-day right? Or at least that is my excuse!

Ingredients:

Pink buns:

• 130g cooked beetroot
• 65ml warm whole milk
• 7g (1 sachet) of fast action yeast
• 50g caster caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 60g melted butter
• 400g bread flour
• 1 tsp salt

• 55g dark brown sugar
• 1.5-2 tsbp ground cinnamon
• 30g very soft butter

• 120g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
• 2 tbsp whole milk

Method:

1. In a blender, blitz the cooked beetroot with the warm milk until completely smooth. 
2. Pour the puree into a large mixing bowl and scatter over the yeast and sugar, add in the melted butter, egg yolk and egg and give it all a thorough mix. 
3. Add in the bread flour and salt and use a wooden spoon or spatula to bring it together, before using your hands to form it into a dough. 
4. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead for at least 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. 
5. Roll into a ball, and leave to rise in a covered oiled bowl for an hour (or until doubled in size).
6. Meanwhile, make the filling. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and make sure your butter is very soft, but not melted. 
7. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, and transfer to the floured work surface again. 
8. Roll  and stretch out the dough out until it is roughly 14x9 inches in size.
9. Use a pastry brush to spread the butter over the dough, you don't want a thick layer, just enough so that the sugar will stick! 
10. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over the dough and ensure that you don't go right up to the edge on one of the 9 inch sides as you want it to adhere to the other side of the dough. 
11. Starting with the other 9 inch side, carefully roll the dough up nice and tightly. 
12. Cut the ends off as these will likely be untidy, and then cut it in half, and divide each half into 4 or 5 pieces depending on how thick you want your buns to be! 
13. Carefully reshape the pieces into circles, and place them in a lined baking tin. Here I used a 10 inch loose bottom cake tin, but you can also use a rectangular one. You should ensure that there are gaps between each of the rolls to give them room to prove and expand in the oven.
14. Cover and leave the rolls for another 35-45 minutes, or until they have doubled in size (hence why it is important there is a gap between each roll!)
15. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C fan.
16. Bake for around 20 minutes until a light golden brown. Do make sure you watch these buns as there are only a few minutes between under baked and over baked! These are best when they are soft in the middle! 
17. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. 
18. Meanwhile make the frosting. In a small bowl, mix the icing sugar, melted butter, vanilla and milk until smooth. 
19. Once the buns have cooled slightly but still warm, drizzle the frosting over the buns.
20. Enjoy!