Chocolate Rolls with Chocolate Sauce

How to make this easy chocolate rolls recipe at home, packed with a delicious buttery chocolate brown sugar mixture and served with a dark chocolate sauce. This easy recipe is great for snack time, breakfast, or a family brunch.

If you love rolled buns filled with sweet chocolate sauce, then you'll love this homemade chocolate rolls recipe with its sweet chocolate filling and hot chocolate sauce.

These little buns are very similar to cinnamon rolls but with less cinnamon and a double dose of chocolate unlike the traditional cinnamon roll recipe served with a cream cheese glaze.

As soft as my chocolate cinnamon rolls recipe with a pillowy, soft and pillowy crumb and a filling of butter, brown sugar and cocoa powder, not to mention the chocolate chips.

Chocolate rolls are very easy to make at home and perfect for any occasion, we like to eat them hot for breakfast or for an after-school snack

>>See all the brioche recipes on the blog

Ingredients and substitutions

Here is an overview of the ingredients and possible substitutions to make these chocolate rolls at home, scroll down to see the quantities in the recipe card.

Roll dough

• Milk: warm semi-skimmed cow's milk that you can replace with a vegetable drink like almond milk.
• Baker's yeast: 1 pack of active dry yeast, or about 20 g of fresh yeast.
• Flour: All-purpose flour or plain flour or a special homemade brioche flour.
• Butter: use unsalted butter softened or melted and cooled.
• Eggs: large egg at room temperature.
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar, not flavored sugar.
• Salt: Essential for the softness and to bring out all the flavor.

Chocolate filling

• Butter: Use preferably unsalted and softened sugar to have a very smooth mixture.
• Sugar: Only brown sugar which perfumes perfectly the chocolate sauce.
• Cacao: unsweetened cocoa powder.
• Vanilla: a vanilla extract for the flavor.
• Chocolate: mini chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chunks.
• Optional: Add cinnamon ground to make a chocolate cinnamon rolls version.

You will find the quantities and complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of the page.

How to make Chocolate Rolls recipe

1 - Make the dough

1. First, dissolve the dry baker's yeast in the warm milk and let it sit for a few minutes.
2. Then place the dry ingredients, flour, salt, sugar and softened butter in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook.
3. And start kneading at medium speed, then add the eggs and the milk containing the yeast.
4. Mix for about 5 to 8 minutes, until you get a homogeneous and a bit sticky dough.
5. Then cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 2 hours at room temperature, until the dough doubles in volume.

 Tip: Make the bread dough overnight and let it rise in the fridge. It will be even softer and easier to handle.

2 - Chocolate filling

1. Start by mixing together all the ingredients, the brown sugar, the unsweetened cocoa powder, vanilla extract and the melted butter.
2. Set aside until ready to assemble.

Tip: You can easily replace the chocolate filling with jam, add thin slices of fruit, with hazelnut praline paste etc…

3 - Shape the rolls

1. After the first rise, place it on a floured work surface and degas it with the palm of your hands.
2. Finally, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a large rectangle on your floured work surface.
3. Spread the chocolate filling over the entire surface, then sprinkle with chocolate chips.
4. Then roll the dough on itself to form a long sausage.
5. Finally, using a knife, cut into 12 equal-sized pieces.
6. Finish by placing the pieces in a rectangular baking dish lined with parchment paper, making sure to space them out as they will grow and double in size.
7. Cover with a tea towel and let your chocolate rolls grow again for about 1 hour.

Tip: Use dental floss to cut more easily and have clean cuts with a nice swirl.

4 - Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and bake it for about 20-25 minutes, until it is golden brown on top.
2. Let cool down a bit your chocolate rolls before taking it out of the dish.

Tip: Be careful not to overcook the buns, otherwise they will be too dry and lose all their softness.

5 - Chocolate sauce

1. In a saucepan over low heat, place the dark chocolate cut into pieces with the heavy cream.
2. And mix to obtain a liquid chocolate sauce.
3. Pour the sauce into a container and reheat if necessary your dark chocolate sauce in the microwave.

Tip: Serve a chocolate roll with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to make it a great dessert.

Other toppings ideas

There's nothing better than adding an extra layer of chocolate coating on your chocolate rolls, but you can easily replace it with flavored cinnamon sugar icing or simply vanilla sugar icing.

But I still have other ideas of toppings:

• Vanilla ice cream
• Whipped cream
• Custard or homemade pastry cream filling
• Cream cheese
• Salted caramel sauce
• Homemade apple sauce
• Cream cheese icing

Store and freeze instructions

At room temperature: Keep your rolls for about 1 week at room temperature covered with a cloth or in an airtight container box.

You can lightly heat them up in the microwave to give them a fluffy texture.

In the freezer: When completely cooled, place them in a storage bag and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Let them defrost gently at room temperature or use the defrost function of your microwave

More brioche recipe

• Brioche French toast recipe
• Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese
• Suedish cinnamon buns kanelbullar
• Butcheln sour cream sweet buns
• Homemade soft pretzels
• Cinnamon sugar pretzels
• Sesame bagels
• Chocolate star bread
• Chocolate babka recipe

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