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.
My kitchen is being remodeled and I decided that these would be perfect for my last major baking endeavor before I lose my stove due to the demo of the old kitchen. I was so right! I took these on a girl’s weekend trip and they were a big hit!
Wow! These were so good! Definitely recommend!
I really like the combination of cinnamon and chocolate, it’s a rich and smooth flavor that ups the game of the traditional cinnamon roll. Definitely making these goodies for Father’s Day!
Mine came out a tad dense, but I think that’s because I had to hand mix and I’m guessing I either added too much flour or slightly over mixed. Would definitely recommend a mixer for this one! However, I did them with a classic plain glaze and they were still super yummy.
I thought they were tasty but a little dry. I would definitely want them hot out of the oven. I also substituted the expresso icing for vanilla icing.
These were SO. GOOD. Light, fluffy, perfectly chocolate-y, and that espresso icing…AMAZING!!!
I made these yesterday. They are VERY good! I used 2% milk in both the dough and for the icing, and both worked fine. I had to add about an extra tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar to thicken the icing a bit. I had no espresso powder so I used Nescafe Clasico Dark Roast instant coffee, but I think next time I will double the amount I use because the coffee taste is pretty well masked by the chocolate.
I do have one question. Some of the rolls seem a bit under baked, a little more “doughy” than others – still good, but I was wondering how I can tell exactly when it is time to take them out of the oven. I used the minimum stated time (25 minutes), and I thought they looked like they were ok, but I now think they should have been baked for another couple minutes. Do you have any suggestions as to how to know the optimum time to take them out of the oven?
Thanks for another GREAT recipe.
Hi Trent, thank you for trying these chocolate rolls. Were the under-baked rolls the center rolls? That can happen with such a large pan of big rolls. If you try them again, simply extend the bake time. Tent foil on top so the tops (especially on the edges) do not over-brown.For a more accurate test, yeast doughs/bread is done when an instant read thermometer reads the center of the loaf/pan/bread as 195°F-200°F (90°C-93°C).
I made these chocolate rolls because they were part of the May baking challenge. Honestly I’m not a big chocolate fan or a cinnamon roll fan and I really thought these rolls were going to be too rich and sweet so I even thought about skipping the challenge this month but I’m so glad I tried them out. They were absolutely DELICIOUS! I actually like them a lot more than traditional cinnamon rolls!!! The semi sweet chocolate made them sweet but not TOO sweet. They were perfect with coffee! The glaze on top was delicious. The thing I’m most impressed with though is how soft and fluffy the dough was!!! I’ve never had sweet rolls this fluffy! It honestly was like dinner roll level fluffiness! I also loved that there was an overnight preparation option because there is no way I’d wake up early enough to have time to proof the dough twice in the morning. I prepared the rolls the night before and when I woke up the next morning I set them out on the counter while I got ready and then baked them and ta da they were done by brunch time and I didn’t have to spend much time in the kitchen with them that morning! I’m sooooo impressed and will definitely be saving this recipe for future use!
THIS RECIPE WAS PERFECT. SO EASY WITH SUCH DELICIOUS RESULTS!
Fluffy is right! These were so fluffy and beautiful. I think my favorite part was the cocoa-cinnamon mix. Delicious! I made the rolls with a simple vanilla glaze. Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
These were amazing! Definitely will make again!
Everyone loved this recipe. I asked my boyfriend to tell me his opinion but his mouth was too full to answer.
Easy to make and tasty! I made them for an event and they were a hit.
This recipe is delicious. I made these for Mother’s Day to surprise my own mom and my sister-in-laws I went for it with the espresso glaze and my family and I were not disappointed! Thank you for always offering such great recipes! They are always easy to follow and delicious to eat and share.
These are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had (and anyone I gave them to said the same). I doubled the espresso icing….not needed….but if I was digging into sweetness…I was going all out! I am making them again this morning and will do half with espresso and half cream cheese (my 12 year old didn’t love the espresso). I got up at 5am to start the dough…not because I needed to….but because I was dreaming of the rolls and it woke me up 🙂
These were so easy to make! My 2 year old loved helping! They were very rich though, a whole one was almost too much. We froze the left overs to have another time and they’re just as good defrosted!
Oh my goodness sake. These are divine! The dough was easy to make and rose perfectly. I cut the rolls with floss to get a better appearance than cutting with a knife. They came out beautifully. I was so proud! My spouse would prefer less chocolate, but I loved all the chocolate! I used regular vanilla icing instead of the espresso. These are amazing. Thanks for a great recipe!
This is a great recipe. Made it for May challenge. Delicious and yummy. Really enjoyed making this recipe today.
Made these today!! These are awesome. Used buttermilk in place of whole milk and for the glaze I used half & half instead of heavy cream.
I made these today and we just enjoyed them for dessert. They were incredible! I skipped the icing and just dusted them with powdered sugar. Our boys gobbled them up and my husband and I enjoyed them as well. Absolutely delicious recipe.
These were delicious! Such a great spin on cinnamon rolls!
Absolutely delicious! Made it exactly as directed and family loved them!
I had fun baking this today and just entered it to May’s Baking Challenge. I used chopper bittersweet chocolate and for the filling I mixed regular and dark cocoa powder, YUM!!!
A nice spin on classic cinnamon rolls. Loved the bitter/sweet contrast with the coffee though these weren’t overly sweet. I liked the different texture the bread flower brought, and I’m glad I tried it. Pretty easy recipe with overnight rise. Would definitely make again!
These are so good The recipe is easy to follow and the end product is delicious. My son who doesn’t really like chocolate ate two in a row.
These were so soft and delicious! I think I’ll reduce the sugar in the glaze and up the coffee! It’s a wonderful flavour. I halved the recipe and it turned out really well. Thanks a ton Sally! I’m doing the Baking Challenge for the first time!
Holy cow so good. Very rich and delicious. Love the espresso glaze with them, but it would also be amazing with a classic cream cheese frosting. Can’t go wrong with these.
A nice variation on typical cinnamon rolls! The espresso glaze was easy and delicious, but after eating the first roll, I think some fresh sliced strawberries would be perfect with the chocolate.
These were so delicious! Another fun challenge.
These were delicious! VERY rich, definitely eat them with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee.
These rolls are incredibly good, and the espresso glaze is a must if you love coffee! I let the unbaked rolls sit in the fridge overnight, took them out early in the morning to rise, and baked them in time for breakfast. They were eaten up so quickly I barely had time to say goodbye. 😉 I asked my little brother, “Did they meet your expectations?” “Beyond,” he sighed happily. Next up on my to-bake list: Sally’s Orange Sweet Rolls.