Chocolate Sweet Rolls

Suddenly it seems I have a mountain of things I feel the need to share with you Right.Now.  Soooo many things!  How do I pick?!  I’m all a’-tizzy, what to do?!  How about these Chocolate Sweet Rolls.

And I apologize, there’s not much healthy about these.  shrug  I suspect you’ll forgive me.

These are hands down, probably the most insane thing I have ever baked.  After alllll these years, after alllll the baking I’ve done, after everything, this is, yeah, probably it.  (Oh but I am not done trying, oh no.)

In.Sane.  Like super insane.

I’m not sure how I found these but it was recent.  An inadvertent discovery while searching for something unrelated no doubt.  What a joyous accident.

And since it was Mike’s birthday, ahem, better known as the Week of Mike or gosh I’m sorry, the Month of Mike, I wanted to check these out.

Problem being though, Mike is not a chocolate person.

Hm. 

But. 

But.  I couldn’t help myself.  I mean, come on, cinnamon rolls but instead of ooey gooey oozing cinnamon roll stuff, a chocolate filling?!  What what?!  Uuuuugh. 

This recipe is from Wood and Spoon and it is, I mean, I am kinda quite speechless…they’re pretty unreal.

And here I thought that Gargantuan Cinnamon Roll was the most nuts thing ever, wait ’til you try these.  Wow.

Every year I ask Mike if he wants a birthday cake and nope, he never does.  I don’t get that.  To me birthdays aren’t complete without cake.  Mike’s more of a birthday pie guy really.  He requested my chocolate cream pie instead.

So these rolls were a bonus.  And holy crap, what a bonus.  Bigger bonus:  he took the Week of Mike off of work so I figured having something snacky around would be a good thing.  Boy did I underestimate the power of these.  My bad, sheesh.  I’ll be more careful next time.

I know I’ve discussed my love of cinnamon rolls in the above aforementioned Gargantuan Cinnamon Roll recipe.  And Mike’s.  This is one recipe genre that I’m continually seeking perfection, The One.

And here, I think this might be it.  You can use this dough, which was gloriously astounding by the way as you’ll see, with both this chocolate filling as well as a cinnamon roll filling of your choice.

That’s one of the things about baking that I love.  Surely you can do it in regular food cooking too and I’ve tried and failed because bleech, cooking.  But you can mix and match quite easily in baking.

Want to use a cake recipe but the frosting doesn’t sound appealing?  Sub in a different one.  Or the frosting sounds great but the cake, eh?  No problem, pick a different cake.  Add in this layer of something, combine aspects of several recipes into one, toss in nuts or whatever.

Mixing and matching in baking is the path to greater enlightenment, heh, I believe, if you will, heh heh heh.  It sounds dorky and I’m totally not phrasing this properly and yeah it sounds basic and simplistic, but mixing and matching opens doors to baking genius you never knew were there.

Anywhooooo……so I made these Chocolate Sweet Rolls.

After reading through the recipe, the whole thing, which is what you should do with every baking recipe even if you’ve made it a few times already, I opted to make a few adjustments.

Ideally, you should always make the recipe as written the first time to see what it’s about.  Honestly it’s a rare occasion that I do for one reason or another; an ingredient I don’t have or meh don’t like or an idea to tweak it are typically the reasons.

Here I left the main premise intact, just made it less sugary and left out the espresso powder originally called for, replacing with cinnamon instead.  I’ve left the powder out of the recipe below too but feel free to click through to the original if you’d like to include it.  

Not a coffee fan see, and despite the multitudes of epiphany singers over “just a little bumps the chocolate flavor, you can’t even taste it” just a little coffee in there ruins it for me, I can taste it.  There’s only one single recipe I use coffee for which you’ll see in the fall.

But to each their own!  Right?  Right!  Feel free to add it.

And truly, this recipe is easy, not complicated at all, so do not be afraid to try it.  You will not screw this up, really.  And my goodness, pfffttt, this recipe is so worth it, just try it anyway.

Pour your warmed milk into the bowl of your mixer,* add half the sugar, stir that around, then sprinkle on your yeast.  I found just sprinkling it atop was nope, not working, so I mixed it in.  

Yeast in ‘da bowl, people  Yes I bought the restaurant industrial size package of yeast.*

Wait five minutes or so until you see some action in there (if nothing’s going on, you’ll have to start over; boo I know, but do, don’t give up), add some flour, stir.

Add the rest of the sugar, the egg, the salt, and baking powder.  Give that a blend and keep on keepin’ on.  My photo came out too blurry to share but it wasn’t terribly interesting anyway.

Flip your mixer onto low and start adding the remaining flour.  Once it’s all in there nicely combined bump the speed up to 3 (where I was at) or 4 (where the author was at) and begin adding the butter.

It does get weird here.  And sticky.  Give a bit of patience and time for the butter to be thoroughly mixed in.  If the dough doesn’t hold together, you can add more flour but I didn’t.

Give this a whirl for about four minutes at that same speed.

All the ingredients blended together into a sticky dough

Ease that dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise to double, about an hour and a half to two.

I have to say, I was thoroughly blown away by this dough when I peeled it ever so gently out of the bowl.  The webbing and air pockets and wow and wow.  It was, it was beautiful.  I nearly cried.  I didn’t want to roll it out it was, I mean, ……I’m running out of adjectives.

I mean, get me a whole box of tissues here, I’m tearing up. Look how unreal!

But I did roll it out because I very much wanted to stuff my face with baked goods.

So get it kinda close to a thirteen by nineteen rectangle...

...and smear on that luscious chocolate filling you made just prior to rolling. 

So simple to whip this up in the microwave, so do that.

An offset spatula* works wonderfully but a spoon or your hand, whatever.  Ahem.

 

Spread that chocolate filling edge to edge. If you can resist eating it straight up.

Oh, be sure to use some decent chocolate* here, a kind you enjoy eating right off the bar, that tastes good.  Do not get overly ridiculous and out of hand about it but get something yummy.

Honestly?  I used the 70% cacao bar from Aldi.  And it was stellar.  Don’t be afraid.

Right, now roll that bad boy up, slice it up, and place it in a pan….now see, here’s where I ran into trouble.  The recipe said 1.5” slices into two nine inch pans.  Yeah, that didn’t work.  I literally measured the slices for accuracy purposes.

Rolling rolling rolling. Actually, you can roll the dough out larger than 13″ and get more layers. Ahhhh, yessss, try that.

Neither did two eight inch pans.  Nor one nine nor one eight nor a combo thereof.  So into a generally close to 9×13* they went.  I dirtied up all my pans, darn it.  But I saved you the trouble.

Rolls in the pan on top. Rolls after a half hour rise/rest bottom.

Let those beauties rise for a half hour then into the oven to bake and oh my goodness….the aroma of baking dough and chocolate filling your entire house oh my gosh, you have never smelled anything as heavenly.

I did not bump up the saturation on this image. Yes they are that gorgeous.

Whip up the frosting, slather it all over the tops, and try to keep yourself from falling face first into the pan with a wide open mouth.  You have been double dog dared.  I tasted a small sampling that “fell off” and near passed out.  Truly.  Eyes into back of head, I mean, it was epically otherworldly.

Uhhhhh…..

These are best day-of but please, they’re still good the next or the next.  Just not as soft and pliable.  But who knows, you may not have any left and I would not blame you one bit.

Look at that.  Look.  Meet you in the kitchen next.

“Mike.  Babe.  I know you probably don’t want to try these…”

“Iiii dunno.”

“Just try one.  C’mon.  They’re ridiculous.”  I’m on the receiving end of a doubting “please” stare.

“Welllll.  Ok.”  This was two days after I made them.  He wouldn’t go near.

“Whoa.  Wo…wow, whoa.  Whoa.  That is good.  Oh.  Whoa.  Babe.  Wow.”

So he ate the chocolate rolls and loved them.  Not a chocolate fan, my rear end; I’ll get him there slowly.  Plenty of time.

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Chocolate Sweet Rolls

Yield

10 rolls

Prep time

45 Min

Cook time

30 Min

Inactive time

2 H & 30 M

Total time

3 H & 45 M

The most unbelievable rolls of our time: chocolaty, lightly sweet, softly doughy...heaven in a roll.

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 cup (227 ml) milk, warmed to 100°-110° F or 37°-43° C
• 1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (7 g) active dry yeast, one package
• 3 1/2 cups (420 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon (6 g) fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling

• 6 ounces (170 g) chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons (16 g) cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon (3 g) cinnamon
• 1/3 cup (38 g) powdered sugar

Frosting

• 6 ounces (170 g)cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons (85 g) butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 + 1/8 cups (158 g) powdered sugar up to 2 cups (227 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons (15-30 ml) milk, more as needed

Instructions

1. Add the warmed milk and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar to a stand mixer bowl, stir to combine.
2. Add the yeast atop and lightly stir to mix in the yeast. Allow the yeast to activate and get foamy, about 5 minutes or so.
3. Once the yeast has activated, add 1/4 cup of flour and mix to combine. It will still be lumpy.
4. Add the remaining granulated sugar, the egg, salt, and baking powder. Using the bread hook of the mixer, turn it onto “stir" and combine the ingredients.
5. Turn the mixer to low or 2 and add the remaining flour. When the flour has mixed in thoroughly, up the mixer speed to 3 or 4 and add the butter, slowly one tablespoon each drop. It will stick to the sides and smear all over, but that’s ok, eventually it will mix in. The dough will be sticky. If need be, if the dough is too gooey, you may add up to 1/4 more flour to hold things together.
6. Once the butter has combined, beat the dough on 3 or 4 (medium) for 4 minutes. It will be quite soft and still sticky.
7. Grease a large bowl lightly, add the dough and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set the dough in a warm place to rise to double its size or about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
8. When the dough has risen, melt the first 4 filling ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl, 30 seconds at a time and stirring in between until smooth, probably only 30 seconds to one minute. Once everything is smooth, add the powdered sugar and combine until smooth again.
9. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin into a rectangle about 13x19.
10. With an offset spatula, cover the entire surface of the dough with the chocolate mixture, spreading evenly.
11. Roll up the dough on the 19” edge carefully and slice the dough into 1 1/2” pieces. Place the dough into a lightly greased 9x13 or slightly smaller pan about an inch apart. Cover with plastic and allow to rise again for a half hour.
12. While the dough is rising its second time, preheat the oven to 350° F or 176° C.
13. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the rolls for approximately 30 minutes, until lightly golden. Let the rolls cool in the pan.
14. Once the rolls have cooled, blend the cream cheese and butter in the mixer until they are smooth and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, beat to combine then slowly add the milk 1 tablespoon or less at a time until the frosting is the consistency you desire.
15. Spread the frosting over the buns and enjoy while they are still warm. Cover with plastic wrap to store once the rolls have completely cooled.

Notes:

Adapted from Wood and Spoon.

Calories

506

Fat (grams)

23.56

Carbs (grams)

68.55

Fiber (grams)

3

Sugar (grams)

31.75

Protein (grams)

8.8

Sodium (milligrams)

255

Cholesterol (grams)

60

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

cinnamon roll, chocolate

recipe

American

Created using The Recipes Generator

*The stand mixers, yeast, offset spatula, chocolate, and 9x13 pans are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.