Pink Cinnamon Buns

In case you haven't already decide what you are making for Valentine's day, might we suggest some pink cinnamon buns?

They are very tasty, fairly easy, and very, very Valentine-y. 

These would even be a great choice for breast cancer awareness month. 

Pink power!

We basically took our Portuguese sweet bread recipe, added some pink food coloring, and *voila* pink cinnamon buns. 

This would work very well with pretty much any bread recipe so, if you have a favorite, you could give that a try too! I just love the sweetness and texture of the Pao Doce. 

Pink Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients

Bread

1 Recipe Pao Doce (Portuguese Sweet Bread)

1 Tbsp pink food coloring

Filling

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 - 1 cup sugar

1 - 2 Tbsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Drizzle

4 oz cream cheese, room temp

1 cup icing sugar

2 - 3 Tbsp milk

Directions

When making the dough for the Portuguese Sweet Bread follow instructions as per the link - except, you want to add in the 1 Tbsp of pink food coloring when you are adding the milk and eggs to the dough. This will make the color easier to distribute throughout the bread. Continue to follow directions for the Portuguese Sweet Bread up to the point where it has risen for 2 hours. 

After the dough has doubled in size, punch down and place on a floured work surface. 

Roll dough out to a rectangle with about 1/4 inch thickness. 

Spread the butter over the surface of the dough to within an inch of the borders.

Sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon.

Roll up, jelly roll style. Pinch edges to seal. 

Cut into approx 1 inch slices. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about one hour.

After an hour, preheat oven to 350.

Bake buns at 350 for approx 30 minutes, until tops are going a golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cool. 

Prepare cream cheese drizzle - In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, and milk. (You want to add just enough milk to make it the consistency that will drizzle off the end of a spoon - alternately, you can place the cream cheese mixture in a plastic baggy and snip the corner off. )

Drizzle over the buns.

You may lose one or two to quality control.....

This is a little bit different than a "normal" cinnamon bun in that you use white sugar instead of brown sugar. I did this so the filling wouldn't be too dark and take away from the pinkness of the bun. This way, you still get all the cinnamon bun goodness of the sugar and cinnamon but you also get the Valentiney color. 

It's win-win.

Stop by these great blogs for more links - Feeding Big, Memories By The Mile, Anyonita Nibbles, Chef In Training, and Table For Seven.