Red Velvet Rolls - Guest Post

I want to welcome my friend, Lisa to my Entertaining Kitchen!  She graciously accepted my invitation with excitement when I asked her to share a recipe! 
 I hope you enjoy her Red Velvet Rolls, they are delish!
Thank you Lisa for joining us!

I am writing this on the first day of daylight saving's time "Spring Forward".  As I peer out my window, I see the ever hopeful green tops of my lilies looking for warmth and sun.  But, sadly, they are slowly being surrounded by the white of the 

falling freezing rain and 34 degree temperatures.

What to do on such a cold dreary day?  BAKE!  When I was telling my daughter that my friend at "In Between the Sunsets of Life" asked me to write a guest post, she immediately said, "I would really love a Red Velvet Roll right now."  

Red Velvet Rolls it is!!

Do not think these rolls are cinnamon rolls though.  There is no cinnamon in them, and they are a bit denser than cinnamon rolls.  But, they are a warm, gooey roll of comfort food on a dreary day like today.  I found the recipe at my favorite cooking spot, Tablespoon (sharing joyful noms).  Here is a link to the recipe.  

And here is a picture of some of the ingredients.

As rolls go, these are pretty easy and not too time consuming.  I like to make 2 recipes of the dough and a double recipe of the cream cheese icing.  I have found that staggering the dough recipes works out great.  (I always seem to have problems with the final dough if I try to double a dough recipe.)  It takes about 30 minutes to whip up the dough and that 30 minute separation between the two batches works great for the rest of the process.  OH! I almost forgot!  As with all Red Velvet recipes, it calls for red food coloring.  I have a child with all kinds of food allergies, and food coloring in general is considered taboo in some circles, so I don't use the full 1/2 tablespoon the recipe calls for and I usually make a recipe without any at all even though they aren't as visually pleasing as the red ones. 

Non colored dough rising

Dough with filling

This recipe also has the absolute best cream cheese icing I have ever tasted!!  And, it is the perfect consistency for making "pretty" rolls.  Now, I am a trained cake decorator, but I like to use zip top bags for icing things like rolls or cupcakes.  Why go to the trouble of dragging out the pastry bags and the clean up after?  I just cut the tip of the bag off, insert a decorator tip (which is completely optional) and pipe the icing.  If you don't want to use a decorator tip, just be aware of the amount of plastic you snip off the end of the bag - the bigger the snip, the more icing will come out.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these rolls!  
Thanks, Jules for asking me to guest write!!

Lisa