Chocolate cinnamon rolls

These would make a lovely breakfast for a special occasion (such as Christmas) and would also be good as a dessert

Sometimes you just get lucky.... I decided to take part in this month's Random Recipes and was trying to see what I could bake for some other blogging challenges, and it happened that my random recipe fell neatly into several categories.

The challenge for this month's Random Recipes was to use a cookery book we had received last Christmas. I only (!) got two cookery books last Christmas, both from my boyfriend's mum, and both were signed as she knew the people behind them, which was pretty cool. So it was a toss up between the Galvin Cookbook de Luxe - full of complicated French recipes - or the Green & Black's Ultimate Chocolate Recipes - the new collection, which of course is full of lovely chocolate recipes. And the first one I came to on my shelf was.... Green & Black's. Phew!

I opened the book at random and it opened on Arianna's Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls - perfect as the Tea Time Treats December challenge is chocolate, and the We Should Cocoa December challenge is chocolate and cinnamon! So that worked out really well :-)

I was quite pushed for time so I decided to adapt the recipe and make the basic dough using my breadmaker rather than follow the instructions in the recipe, so I also used the ingredients suggested by my breadmaker cookbook.

You need:
1/2 tsp yeast
250g strong white flour
1 tsp sugar
25g butter
1 tbsp milk powder - though I didn't have any so used a dash of milk instead
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
100ml water

for the filling:
100g brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
100g butter or marg
100g dark chocolate

for the sauce:
25g butter
50g brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Put all the ingredients for the dough into the breadmaker, put on the dough setting and leave for 2 hours 20 mins. Simples!

Put the dough in a warm place and leave for 1.5 - 2 hours until it has doubled in volume.

Roll out the dough to a large rectangle

Spread the butter onto the dough leaving a small gap around the edge.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon for the filling and spread over the buttered area.

To make the sauce, melt the butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a pan then pour into the bottom of  a baking tray.

Break up the chocolate and arrange over the dough

Roll up the dough and slice into rounds

Pour the cinnamon sauce into a baking tray and space out the dough rolls. Leave in a warm place to prove for 45 mins

Preheat the oven to 180C and bake until the rolls are puffed up and golden brown - I think this took 15-20 mins.

These tasted amazing! I had two for breakfast on Sunday and they were quite rich and indulgent which is why I think they would also work as a dessert, but they were really lovely. My only concern with the recipe is that it didn't actually say how long to bake the rolls in the oven, and also that the whole thing takes a long time! There's no way I could make these starting from scratch in time for breakfast, so I started it the night before, but it's hard to know when is the best point to stop. I ended up making the dough, leaving it to prove until doubled in size, then putting it in the fridge overnight and doing the rest in the morning. That worked quite well, but it was still fairly time consuming in the morning.

I'm sending these to Random Recipes hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen

... and also to We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot, as their theme this month is cinnamon.

I am also sending this to Girlichef's Bake Your Own Bread challenge

This recipe also fits in with the Tea Time Treats December challenge, where the theme is chocolate. TTT is hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked.

In my opinion this is also a Christmassy recipe - the combination of chocolate and cinnamon, and having hot rolls for breakfast during the Christmas holidays - so I am also sending this to Calendar Cakes, hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel of Dolly Bakes, as their theme is Christmas.

 

I'm also sending this to the Spice Trail's cinnamon challenge.