High Altitude Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Icing

Soft and fluffy chocolate cinnamon rolls, made with pillowy chocolate yeast dough filled with gooey swirls of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and dark chocolate, then drizzled with sweet vanilla icing. You’ll love this dark chocolate version of classic cinnamon rolls. And with the chocolate dough and vanilla frosting, they taste like an Oreo cookie in cinnamon roll form!

You might also love these strawberry rolls with cream cheese frosting, apple butter cinnamon rolls with maple icing, and cardamom orange cinnamon rolls.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

So Soft and Fluffy. These chocolate cinnamon rolls are so fluffy, with the most decadent, gooey and chocolatey filling inside.

Great Leftover. These are not only great fresh and hot from the oven, but also for days after.

Perfect for the Holidays. Special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas are the perfect occasion to make a pan of these sweet, fluffy rolls. You can even make the dough at night, let it rest and chill in the refrigerator, then shape and bake the rolls in the morning, so you don’t have to wake up too early.

Tastes Like Oreos. When I took the first bite of one of these rolls, my first thought was, wow, this tastes like an Oreo cookie with cinnamon! Delicious.

High Altitude Tested. While this recipe will work at any altitude, know that I test all of my recipes at Denver’s high altitude of 5,280 feet, so mountain bakers can be assured of great results.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Dough

• Butter. Unsalted butter, in both the dough and the filling, adds richness and flavor to these chocolate cinnamon rolls.
• Whole Milk. Adds moisture and fat for a tender dough.
• Yeast. You can use either instant/rapid-rise yeast or active dry yeast. I’ve included instructions for both in my recipe. The yeast is what makes the rolls rise, making them soft and pillowy.
• Sugar. The sweetness in these rolls comes from a trio of different sugars used. A little granulated sugar in the dough, brown sugar in the filling, and powdered sugar for the icing.
• Flour. You can use either all-purpose flour or bread flour in today’s recipe.
• Cocoa Powder. Use a good quality Dutch processed (not natural) cocoa powder. You’ll be adding cocoa powder to the dough, as well as using it to dust the counter when rolling out the dough.
• Salt. A pinch of coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness.
• Eggs. This is an “enriched” dough, meaning it has a fairly high fat content from the eggs and butter. But the amount of sugar called for in the dough itself is relatively low. The result is a soft, pillowy dough that bakes into a beautifully rich-tasting roll.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Filling

• Butter. Spreading butter over the dough after rolling it out is what gives the sugar moisture, so it melts into a gooey filling.
• Brown Sugar. You can use either light or dark brown sugar.
• Cinnamon. Note that although these are cinnamon rolls, you could certainly opt to leave out the cinnamon, if you just want the flavor of the chocolate rolls with the vanilla icing.
• Chocolate. I love using Chocolove Dark Chocolate, which I finely chopped to sprinkling inside the cinnamon rolls. You could also use mini semi sweet chocolate chips.

Icing

• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the icing.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. Thins the icing to a spoonable consistency that’s rich, creamy and luscious.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Instructions

Make the dough.

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F .If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It’s important that you check the temperature – if it’s too cold, it won’t activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to foam and bubble; this will let you know that the yeast is active.

• In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the flour with 1/2 cup of the cocoa powder (reserve the remaining 1/4 cup of cocoa powder for rolling out the dough later).
• Add the warm butter/milk/yeast mixture, the rest of the sugar, salt, eggs and vanilla extract into a rough shaggy dough.
• With the dough hook, knead on medium/low speed for 10 minutes. The dough will be soft, sticky and loose, and will not form a firm dough ball, but don’t add more flour.

Let the dough rise.

• Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Scrape the dough in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes. If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.

Chill the dough.

• Set the bowl of dough, still covered, in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. The chill time allows the gluten to rest and the dough to develop flavor. It’s also much easier to work with the dough when it’s cold, since this is a soft dough.

Roll out the dough, and shape the rolls.

• Turn the cold dough out onto a clean counter, using the remaining 1/4 cup cocoa powder to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and your rolling pin. Roll your dough out into a rectangle or oval measuring approximately 12×18 inches.

• Line a 9×13 pan with a sheet of parchment paper, or spray with non-stick spray.
• Melt your butter and use a pastry brush to spread it evenly over the dough, all the way to the edges.
• In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle that evenly over the butter.
• Sprinkle with the chopped chocolate.

• Roll up the dough (starting on one of the long sides) into a log, keeping it as tight as you can.
• Using a gentle sawing motion with a sharp, non-serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 rolls. Or use a piece of unflavored dental floss, sliding the floss underneath and then crossing it over the log of dough to cut it into rolls.

• Place the rolls, cut side up, in the pan. Cover the pan with a towel, and set in a warm place for 20 minutes to puff up a little, just until the rolls are touching. Note that the photographed baking pan is slightly smaller than a 9×13 pan, measuring around 8×11 inches.

Bake the rolls.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Bake the rolls on the center oven rack for about 25 minutes, just until the top of the rolls are baked and set.

Finish with vanilla icing.

• In a bowl, stir together all the icing ingredients until smooth. Immediately drizzle over the hot rolls.
• Let the rolls cool for about 10 minutes and serve warm.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of cocoa powder did you use?

I used Rodelle Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder.

Why do you use cocoa powder instead of flour to roll out the dough?

Since this is a chocolate dough, rolling it out in cocoa powder will keep the color nice and dark. If you rolled it out in flour, it would get white and splotchy.

What’s the best way to reheat leftover cinnamon rolls?

I usually reheat them in a toaster oven, or at 50% power in the microwave. Note that the icing will always melt when cinnamon rolls are reheated.

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