Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

 

Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

It was never going to take long for me to introduce a chocolate element to my Nordic baking, and it wasn’t entirely without inspiration either.

I’d eaten a divine cinnamon roll in a cafe in Copenhagen, it was a point-to-that-one selection that had surprised me with its chocolate and cinnamon filling.

That bun was a little less chocolate-obvious than these obscenely gooey rolls, my filling has spilled out from the coils in a naughty cocoa-wink to entice you in.

Yes they’re a little messy: it’s chocolate, I’m not going to apologise.

We’ve spent a week house sitting in north Yorkshire, looking after two of my favourite dogs, we’ve had pretty much every kind of winter weather up here. I couldn’t resist filming Bonzo standing with his face to the breeze, he looks so awesome with the wind blowing his fur back.

The day after I filmed this it snowed and transformed the landscape, it felt even more nordic in the kitchen as I set to baking this variation on cinnamon rolls, staying warm and toasty in front of the Aga.

I used my pulla dough recipe for these rolls, omitting the ground cardamom, partly because I’d run out and also, I don’t think this roll needs it. 

It’s a pretty much the same recipe as the korvapuustit, with the simple addition of one tablespoon of cocoa powder to the filling mixture.

Just one tablespoon of cocoa, that’s all it needs! 

Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

For the dough

• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 60 g (1/2 stick plus a bit) unsalted butter
• 1 sachet (1 tbsp or 7 g) of fast-action dried yeast
• 500 g (4 cups) strong (bread) white flour
• 75 g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 1 free-range egg, beaten

For the filling

• 60 g (1/2 stick plus a bit) salted butter, very soft
• 100 g (1/2 cup) light muscovado or light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 

Heat the milk to almost boiling point then take off the heat then add the salt and the butter (cut into slices if it is straight out the fridge). The butter will melt into the milk. Allow to cool to lukewarm.

Place the flour, yeast and caster sugar into a large bowl and thoroughly mix together: a balloon whisk will do this brilliantly.

When the milk/butter has cooled, mix in most of the egg, reserving a tablespoon of it to use as an egg wash before baking.

Add most of this liquid to the dry ingredients and begin to combine, switching to your hands. You may need all the liquid, you may need a spot more, depending on the flour and the humidity.

Bring the dough together and knead for around 8 to 10 minutes until soft and smooth.

Place into a clean bowl, cover with cling or a tea towel and leave to prove for around and hour, it should double in size. Leave it somewhere draft-free and not too cold.

Meanwhile, make the filling by combining the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 190ºC / 375º F / gas 5 and line two baking sheets with parchment or silicon paper.

Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl and ‘knock back’, briefly kneading the air out.

Roll out the knocked back dough quite thinly into a squarish rectangle on a lightly dusted work surface. It wants to be around 5 mm thick; the squarer the rectangle, the more spirals.

Spread the rolled out dough with the filling mixture, spreading it out evenly with the back of a metal spoon.

Tightly roll the rectangle up.

Slice 2.5 cm (1″) pieces and lay them flat onto the prepared baking sheet leaving plenty of room between them for them to rise.

Cover loosely with cling film or tea towels and leave to prove for 15 to 20 minutes, they should plump up.

Brush egg wash over the proven buns using the reserved beaten egg and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a preheated oven until risen and golden, the chocolate filling oozing decadently out of the rolls.

You’ve got to serve these rolls warm!

These chocolate cinnamon rolls can be refreshed in a hot oven. Suitable for freezing once cool: bag, freeze and reheat from frozen in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes.

 

By Rachel A Davis