I’ve always loved making and eating cinnamon rolls. For me, it’s always exciting when I make pastries that we generally purchase commercially. When I made my first cinnamon rolls and discovered the homemade version is much better, I couldn’t stop making them. Although the store-bought versions have a uniqueness to them. There is nothing like that fresh “cinnamony” aroma that fills up the home when these rolls are baking.
Recently I discovered that not everyone likes eating cinnamon baked goods as much as I do. I’ve never liked the thought of anyone missing out, especially when it comes to delicious food. So this time when making my rolls, I decided to substitute half my cinnamon filling for the chocolate filling instead. Best decision ever! As if the addition of chocolate is not enough, each roll is finished with cream cheese glazing. To me, that is pure decadent perfection!
Drum-roll, please… I present you with half and half Chocolate-Cinnamon rolls. You can make these for any gathering. Be it just the regular family dinner, a birthday celebration or wherever you’d like to show off your baking skills. These are perfect to bring to a potluck and might I add they are absolutely great for some of the worlds favourite holidays/festivities. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving…. you name it!
If you like this recipe, you might also like the recipe for Nutella Banana Bread.
Chocolate / Cinnamon Rolls (half and half)
Ingredients
For the dough/pastry
- 4 cups Flour
- 50 g Melted butter
- ¼ cup Caster Sugar
- 7 g Dried yeast sachet
- 1 cup Milk (Lukewarm)
- ¼ cup Water (Lukewarm)
For the Chocolate filling
- 100g Softened butter
- 1 cup Demerara sugar (or light brown sugar)
- 50 g Dark chocolate (Finely chopped or grated)
- 1 tbsp Cinnamon powder
For the Glaze
- 70g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- ¼ cup Milk
- 1 cup Icing sugar
Instructions
Making the dough:
- To activate the yeast, whisk 1 tsp of sugar with the warm water in a small bowl., then whisk in the dried yeast and set aside. In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk, melted butter and caster sugar.
- Sieve the flour into a large bowl and create a well in the middle. Pour the egg mixture and the activated yeast mixture. Gradually stir from the middle with a wooden spoon until it all comes together into a rough flaky dough.
- Pour the flaky dough into a working surface and knead together with your hands for 5 minutes or until it forms a round dough (It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth).
- Grease the large bowl with oil and place in the dough, also rub some oil over the dough . Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and set aside to rise for at least 2 hours.
Half & Half filling:
- In the meantime prepare both fillings. In one small bowl mix the grated/chopped chocolate with 1/2 cup of demerara sugar and in the another small bowl, mix the cinnamon powder with the remaining 1/2 cup of demerara sugar.
- When the dough is ready, it should have doubled in size. Take the dough out of the bowl and place unto a clean surface with a sprinkle of flour. Roll out the dough to form a rough rectangular shape.
- cut through the middle of the rolled out dough with a knife. Spread half of the softened butter unto one half of the rolled out dough. Sprinkle all over with the grated/chopped chocolate and sugar mixture.
- Tight roll the dough from one end to the other. cut into even sizes and place on a greased baking dish or tray.
- Repeat the last 2 steps with the other half of the rolled out dough, but this time sprinkle allover with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
- Cover the baking dish or tray with plastic wrap and wet in a warm place to rise for at least 1 hour. In the meantime pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Once the rolls are risen, place them in the oven and make for 30 minutes. Once cooked, set aside to cool.
- To prepare the cream cheese glaze, put the icing sugar, cream cheese and milk in a blender and blitz. Use a spatula to scrape the sides down, stir and check consistency. It should be creamy, slightly thick but also runny.
- Drizzle the glaze unto the rolls and enjoy.
