These outrageously rich and indulgent chocolate sweet rolls come together with a buttery soft fresh homemade dough and brown sugar chocolate filling. They’re shaped like cinnamon rolls, but taste like flaky chocolate babka. Drizzle the warm rolls with espresso glaze or choose another topping from the suggestions below.
These make for an extra special Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter, or Father’s Day brunch recipe!
Melty chocolate, fresh dough, and espresso glaze. What’s not to love about this trio?
Tell Me About These Chocolate Sweet Rolls
- Flavor: I often use softened butter in softer bread doughs, but opted for melted butter here. I find melted butter adds more, well, buttery flavor. This dough is sweet and so buttery—in fact, it would be fantastic completely plain. But plain’s not in our language today and we’re filling it with brown sugar, cocoa powder, a bit of cinnamon, vanilla, and lots of real chocolate. Don’t limit them to the morning hours because these chocolate sweet rolls definitely taste like dessert.
- Texture: Because there’s fat in the dough from the whole milk, eggs, and butter, the bread is extra soft, rich, and flaky. Though all-purpose flour is fine, bread flour promises extra bread-like chewiness. These textures work perfectly with the gooey chocolate swirls and smooth espresso glaze. Each bite has different twists, flakes, and pockets of melty chocolate—similar to the texture of apple cinnamon babka. They’re like warm chocolate babka rolls.
- Ease: It goes without saying that homemade bread takes time and effort. Consider these chocolate sweet rolls a fun afternoon or weekend baking project. The dough requires 2 rises, but otherwise is pretty straightforward. You can even get started the night before by following the overnight instructions. If you’re new to baking with yeast, review our Baking with Yeast Guide. Or if you’re in a real time crunch, try these super quick 20 minute chocolate crescents instead.
Use a Rich Dough for Chocolate Rolls
Before I show you how to make chocolate rolls, let’s talk about the dough. This is a rich dough, which means that it’s prepared with fat like milk, butter, and eggs. Rich doughs make soft breads such as dinner rolls, pull apart bread, and glazed doughnuts. Lean doughs, on the other hand, are made without much fat and produce crusty bread like homemade bagels, artisan bread, and pizza dough. There are so many ways to bake bread and if you want to expand your bread skills, here are all of our yeast bread recipes. (This cheese bread is a reader and team favorite!)
- Instant Yeast or Active-Dry? You can use instant yeast or active-dry yeast in the chocolate rolls. I usually use instant yeast and still take the time to quickly proof the yeast in step 1. Proofing the yeast means mixing it with a little sugar and the warm liquid to prove that it’s active—the mixture will look foamy on top, see photo below. But this step is not usually required when using instant yeast. Still, it doesn’t hurt and takes 5 minutes and you can prep your other dough ingredients as you wait.
This rich dough is supposed to be very soft, so don’t add more flour than absolutely needed. Embrace the softness and a sticky work surface because if you don’t mind the mess, you’ll be rewarded with the richest, flakiest chocolate rolls. I heard chocolate croissants were borderline jealous of all these flakes.
Do These Taste Like Cinnamon Rolls?
As far as the process goes, we’re essentially making homemade cinnamon rolls but with a chocolate filling. Make the dough, let it rise, punch it down, roll it out, add the chocolate filling, roll up jelly roll style, cut into rolls, let them rise until puffy, then bake. If you’ve made homemade cinnamon rolls before, this process isn’t anything new. We do use cinnamon in the filling, but it’s really just a background flavor behind all the chocolate and brown sugar. They certainly resemble cinnamon rolls, but they taste like homemade bread swirled with gooey melted chocolate.
Step-By-Step Photos
Proofing the yeast:
After the dough comes together, knead by hand or with your stand mixer. (See my How to Knead Dough tutorial for extra help with this step.) The dough is now ready to rise. Here is the soft dough before and after the 1st rise:
Here are the rolls before and after the 2nd rise. See how puffy they get?
I don’t want to stand in your way of chocolate bliss, so I promise I’m almost done. 😉
Espresso Glaze & Other Topping Options
I couldn’t decide on a topping that would be legendary enough for these extraordinary rolls, but espresso glaze comes pretty close. The bitter espresso powder helps offset the sweet confectioners’ sugar and all the sweetness in the rolls themselves. It would taste divine on these no yeast cinnamon rolls too!
Other topping options include salted caramel, vanilla icing, the maple icing from maple bacon doughnuts, or cream cheese icing from homemade cinnamon rolls or raspberry sweet rolls. For something simple, a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar would be beautiful. Peanut butter frosting would be over-the-top and I’m certain all your sweet teeth would be satisfied for weeks. Ha!
And, again, these rolls are RICH so you could easily skip the icing on top.
See Your Chocolate Sweet Rolls!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
More Cinnamon Roll Varieties:
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Raspberry Sweet Rolls (my favorite!!)
- Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Maple Pecan Sticky Buns
- Lemon Sweet Rolls
- Orange Sweet Rolls
- Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Chocolate Sweet Rolls
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 28 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes (includes rise times)
- Yield: 12 rolls
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These rich and fluffy chocolate sweet rolls come together with a buttery soft fresh homemade dough and brown sugar chocolate filling. They’re shaped like cinnamon rolls, but taste like flaky chocolate babka. You can make the chocolate rolls within a few hours or get started the night before using the overnight preparation option.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) whole milk, warmed to about 100°F (38°C)
- 6 Tablespoons (75g) granulated sugar, divided
- 1 Tablespoon (9g) active dry or instant yeast
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups (530g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for hands/work surface
Chocolate Filling
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (10g) unsweetened natural or dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (135g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or a 4 ounce semi-sweet chocolate bar, finely chopped*
Espresso Icing
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream*
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted (sift after measuring)
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, 2 Tablespoons sugar, and the yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Cover and allow mixture to sit for about 5 minutes or until foamy on top. *If you do not own a mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula is a better choice.*
- Add the remaining sugar, the butter, eggs, salt, and 1 cup (about 130g) of flour and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add 3 cups (about 400g) flour, switch the mixer down to low speed, and beat until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Dough will be very soft, but not overly sticky. Beat in 2-3 more Tablespoons of flour if dough seems very sticky. Avoid adding more flour than you need.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat for an additional 6-8 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6-8 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or use nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter and it takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Grease the bottom and sides of a metal or glass 9×13-inch baking dish or line with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough: Punch down the dough to release the air. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 10×16-inch rectangle. Make sure the dough is smooth and evenly thick. If the dough keeps shrinking as you roll it out, stop what you’re doing, cover it lightly, and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. When you return to the dough, it should stretch out much easier.
- For the filling: Mix all of the filling ingredients together except for the chopped chocolate/chocolate chips. The softer the butter is, the easier it is to mix. (Microwave it for a few seconds to soften if needed.) Spread mixture all over the dough. Sprinkle chopped chocolate/chocolate chips evenly on top. Tightly roll up the dough to form a 16-inch-long log. If some filling spills out, sprinkle it on top of the roll. With an extra sharp knife, cut into 12 even rolls, between 1-1.5 inches each. Arrange in the prepared baking pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover the rolls tightly and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (Or use the overnight option below.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Bake rolls for about 25-28 minutes or until they are lightly browned on top. After about 15 minutes, tent a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the pan to prevent the tops from browning too quickly and baking unevenly. Remove pan from the oven and place pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes as you make the icing.
- Make the icing: Warm the cream on the stove until barely simmering or warm it in the microwave for 15-30 seconds. Whisk espresso powder into the warm cream, then whisk in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract until combined. Drizzle the icing over the warm rolls and serve immediately.
- Cover leftover frosted or unfrosted rolls tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions – Overnight: To prepare the night before serving, prepare the rolls through step 7. Cover the rolls tightly and refrigerate for 8-12 hours. (16 hours max. 8-12 hours is best, but 16 hours is OK if absolutely needed. Do not exceed 16 hours.) The next morning, remove from the refrigerator and allow to rise on the counter for 1-2 hours before continuing with step 9.
- Make Ahead Instructions – Freezing: Baked rolls can be frozen up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm up before enjoying. You can also freeze the unbaked rolls and here’s how: bake the rolls in step 9 for only about 10 minutes. Cool completely, then cover tightly and freeze. To serve, take the rolls out of the freezer and place in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Once thawed, finish baking them for about 20 minutes.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer (or Glass Mixing Bowl with Wooden Spoon/Silicone Spatula) | 9×13-inch Baking Pan | Rolling Pin | Cooling Rack
- Milk: Use whole milk for the best, richest tasting dough. You could also use buttermilk. 2%, 1%, or nondairy milk work in a pinch. Do not use nonfat milk.
- Yeast: Make sure you use 1 Tablespoon of yeast, which is a little more than 1 standard packet. You can use active dry or instant yeast in this recipe. Follow all of the same instructions. If using active dry yeast, the rise times are usually *slightly* longer, but not much. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Best Flour to Use: For best texture, I recommend bread flour. The same amount of all-purpose flour works and the rolls will still be wonderfully rich and soft. The rolls are a little more chewy and flaky when using bread flour.
- Chocolate: I usually use and recommend one 4 ounce (113g) baking chocolate bar, such as Ghirardelli or Bakers 4 ounce bars sold in the baking aisle. Chopped fine, this is about 3/4 cup. You can use semi-sweet or bittersweet. Avoid white chocolate or milk chocolate because the rolls will be overly sweet. You can use about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips, mini or regular size, instead. Chocolate chips weigh a little more, so use 135g if you are using a scale.
- Heavy Cream & Espresso Powder: In first part of the icing recipe, we are essentially making a creamy and very strong espresso liquid by mixing warm cream with espresso powder. (Make sure you use instant espresso powder, which is typically sold as simply “espresso powder.”) Feel free to use 3 Tablespoons of very strong brewed espresso or black coffee instead. Mix icing ingredients together, then add 1 more Tablespoon brewed espresso or black coffee to thin out if needed/desired.
- Half Batch: You can halve this recipe by halving all of the ingredients and using an 8 or 9 inch square or round pan. The 1st dough rise time may be a bit shorter. Roll the dough out to (approximately) a 7×10 inch rectangle. Roll up into a 10 inch log, then cut into 6 rolls. 2nd dough rise time will be about the same. Bake time is a few minutes shorter.
These are amazing! I used AP flour and 2% milk because it’s what I had, and they still are great. The dough is so soft yet chewy and it has just the right sweetness. My husband said it’s one of the best things I have ever baked and my kids devoured them as well.
These were very easy to make and they turned out beautifully! The smell is intoxicating! I went with the espresso glaze and I love the hint of coffee. Delicious! I’ll be keeping this recipe and making it again!
These were delicious. I made them in smaller pans so that I could share them with a friend who had just adopted a sweet little toddler! Easy to make…all you need is a little time at home. Wonderful!
This was such an easy yeast dough recipe! My dough rose in 1 hr 30 min for the first rise with dry active yeast. My family loved these and I will be making them again. The only thing I would change would be to halve the amount of cinnamon in the filling. Thanks again for a great recipe!
I was wondering, if I want to make these in the same recipe amount but mini ones so there would be more, could I cut the dough in half horizontally before rolling so they bake up as big? (I hope that made sense)
If so, how long would it bake for?
Hi Oke, we imagine that should work okay — bake time should be about the same if using the same pan size, but keep a close eye on them. Let us know how it works!
Made these and they looked picture perfect. I used oat milk and they still turned out great.
Do you think it would be too bitter if we used 100% cacao pure baking chocolate for the filling? I just have some I’d like to use up, and I noticed that we also put brown sugar in the filling and then powdered sugar in the glaze…. Also I don’t like desserts that are overly sweet so I usually reduce the sugar in your recipes anyway.
I just don’t want it to come out bitter though
Hi Jenna! If you prefer a darker tasting chocolate, I’m sure that swap would be just fine though we haven’t tested it. Let us know if you do!
While I was reading this recipe, it occurred to me that it sounded like something I could make in my bread machine. So I gave it a shot and I was not disappointed! I heated up the milk and butter to 100° and put it in the bread machine pan, poured in 4 cups of bread flour, made two separate wells, I beat the eggs and put it in one well, and the sugar and yeast in the other well. I put the salt off to the side. Set it to regular dough mode, and it came out perfect! Then I finished the recipe as followed and topped them with vanilla glaze. I’ll definitely be doing this again!
What a fun twist on a cinnamon roll! We aren’t big breakfast eaters, so I made them for dessert and they were delicious! I think I’ll even have a leftover one warmed with my coffee in the morning!
They went together easily (even though I mis-read and accidentally mixed the chocolate into the filling) and tasted really good too!
This recipe turned out so good it belongs in a bakery! I did good and only ate one and set the rest to the Detectives with hubby. They’re all raving about them.
These were delicious! We made them with the vanilla glaze. Perfect amount of chocolate and not too sweet. Next time, I would bake them for less time (or maybe lower temperature) the edges of ours got a little dark.
These rolls were an amazing Mother’s Day treat! My 5-year-old daughter and I made them exactly as written (minus the glaze – they are fantastic on their own) and they turned out perfect. Balanced flavor, fluffy texture, and pretty spirals. What’s not to love?
Mm mm good! The dough is so soft and fluffy! And anything with chocolate is a win in my book. I would like to try them again and substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour. I opted to go without the espresso icing, we prefer our sweet rolls without and I didn’t have whole cream at home. Definitely a win and will be going in my recipe box.
These are sweet roll perfection. The texture of the bread is soft, pillowly, and heavenly and there is the perfect amount of chocolate flavor. I thought the espresso glaze complimented the rolls perfectly. Could not ask for more!
Why can’t I use non-fat milk in this recipe? Is it ok to use? My family has a lot of food allergies and we usually only use non-fat milk. Thank you! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Hi Taylor, you definitely could, but you’ll lose some flavor, softness, and richness in the dough. Though I haven’t tested this, I’m sure you could replace 1-2 Tbsp of the milk with melted butter. Just add more butter when you mix in the melted butter. (Don’t add it when you proof the yeast.)
Great recipe! Not a huge cinnamon roll fan so I love this take on it. I used a vanilla drizzle and a ganche drizzle and they are amazing! Very easy to follow recipe.
Hi Sally,
Would I be able to substitute light cream (5% fat) instead of whole milk (3.25%) fat as my local grocery store does not carry whole milk?
Thanks.
Hi Mikayla, I don’t recommend cream in this dough because it’s simply too thick. Feel free to use reduced fat milk instead.
Can you use milk chocolate chips for a less “bitter” taste?
Absolutely.
I was nervous about making these but they turned out wonderfully! Love Sally’s foolproof recipes!!
These are delicious! I used dark chocolate for the filling and a salted caramel icing. I also spaced the rolls out on a baking sheet before putting them in the oven. This prevented the centers from collapsing.
My husband and I really enjoyed making these together. The recipe was so detailed and easy to follow and the outcome was delicious!
This was a fun and easy recipe to make! The rolls turned out beautiful and tasty!
Since we don’t like icing on the rolls, I just brushed them with Simple Syrup immediately as they came out of the oven, for added sweetness and shine.
Great recipe, thank you Sally!!!
These turned out perfect! They are delicious. Next time I am going to add cinnamon to my dough for a bit more cinnamon taste. Lakewood Flooring
Wowsers! This recipe came together so smoothly and the taste was incredible! They are rich, and that small amount of cinnamon truly balance it all together and the espresso icing was a perfect pairing. I did half batch of these and it was the perfect amount for our family. Will definitely make them again!
Made these today and they came out great. First time using yeast (and my dough hooks lol). Recipe is simple for someone who has never made rolls before, dough rolls out really nice. I intend on trying to make the cinnamon rolls..only problem I forsee is eating too many! Thanks for another great recipe!
Well, I thought the dough for these rolls was easy to make and was soft, light, and delicious when baked. Unfortunately, my husband and I disliked the filling. It tasted bitter to me, and I didn’t care for the combination of cinnamon with the chocolate. I should have gone with my gut instinct and left out the cinnamon.
I have been making homemade cinnamon rolls using a favorite recipe for ages, but I will use this dough recipe and my usual filling for my next batch. It’s THAT good!
My husband and I had a blast making this, especially rolling out the dough on such a small table! It was really really delicious, the dough was so soft and just perfection. I used cream cheese frosting though (much like for cinnamon rolls).
Excellent recipe as usual. Just made them and the icing topped it off nicely. Hard to stop eating them.
I always enjoy making cinnamon rolls!! So when I seen this recipe for Chocolate Sweet Rolls, I knew I wanted to try it!! I drizzled it with a vanilla glaze & I was very pleased with how tasty the rolls are!! Love your recipes!!
Easy to make! The dough is soft and the chocolate is delicious. I subbed 2oz of semi sweet out for dark chocolate. I skipped the espresso icing because I don’t prefer sweet sweet things! It was such a fun recipe to try. I shared with my sister and she said they were bakery quality!
I don’t have a stand mixer and the dough wasn’t difficult to make by hand at all!
Hi,
I just finished making this recipe and found it very easy to follow.
My only suggestion is that I didn’t have the espresso powder and used 3 tablespoons of strong brewed coffee instead which meant that my icing was runny and didn’t sit on the rolls like Sally’s did.
They tasted delicious anyway!