Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Icing
Soft and fluffy chocolate cinnamon rolls with gooey swirls of butter, brown sugar and dark chocolate, drizzled with sweet vanilla icing.
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Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 2 ¼ tsp (1 packet) instant/rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour or bread flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, divided
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 3 oz good-quality chocolate, finely chopped
Icing
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 5-6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 measuring approximately 12x18 inches.
Filling
- Line a 9x13 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, crossing the floss 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.
Bake
- 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.
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.
Notes
- Yeast: This recipe calls for instant or rapid-rise yeast, which does not require any proofing first, so you can just mix it right into the dough. If you only have regular active dry yeast, you should proof it first, before adding to the dough. To do this, heat your butter and milk as instructed, then sprinkle the yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, over the liquid. Stir in and let sit until foamy, about 5-10 minutes. Add to your dough and mix as instructed.
- Eggs: Your eggs will be too cold if you use them straight from the fridge, and the chill could prevent your dough from rising. Let them sit out for about an hour (or place the eggs in a glass of hot water) to warm up to room temperature before adding to your dough.
- 110-115 Degrees: It's very important that you check the temperature of your melted butter and warmed buttermilk. The amount noted here is not a suggestion; it's essential to correctly activating your yeast. Too cold, and the yeast won't be activated. Too hot, and it will kill the yeast.
- Cream Baked Rolls: Pouring cream over your rolls, prior to baking, is a popular option for super gooey and soft rolls. To do this, you should slightly warm 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream to take the chill off. Just before baking your rolls, pour the cream over them and then bake as instructed.
- Overnight Cinnamon Rolls: To get a jump-start on breakfast prep, you can make and proof the dough, then roll and shape the rolls the night before. Place the cut rolls in your baking dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, take them out of the refrigerator, and set in a warm place to take the chill off, which will take about an hour, then let them puff up a bit. Bake as instructed.
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