Chocolate Cream Breakfast Rolls
I love chocolate cream pie as it’s one of my favorite pies to eat, especially during the summertime. The creaminess of this silky smooth chocolate pie inspired me to take it in another direction. The Chocolate Cream Breakfast Roll was created.
Components
This delicious breakfast roll can be enjoyed really at all times of the day. There are three simple components to these yummy rolls.
- Enriched Breakfast Dough
- Chocolate Pastry Cream
- Chocolate Chips
That’s it! Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? Because it is. These are made very similarly to cinnamon rolls with the substitution of pastry cream for the sugar cinnamon filling.
Some questions…
Initially, when I started to play around with this, I wasn’t sure how the pastry cream would do when baked. I had some leftover pastry cream from making Mini Brooklyn Blackout Shooters and wanted to experiment to see how they would come out in a rolled dough.
The Dough
The dough is enriched with butter and is not very sweet with a limited amount of sugar in the recipe. Recipe inspiration comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, “The Art and Soul of Baking” from Sur La Table. Great baking book! I’m partial to Sur La Table as I use to work there.
Super simple this dough is to make and so easy to work with. Also, it rises beautifully and takes the filling really well. I interchanged the dough with AP and bread flour. Really, any one of these flours alone would make an equally great dough.
Chocolate Filling
The filling as mentioned, is a really easy pastry cream. You can get the recipe here. Its a mixture of milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and chocolate. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? It’s super delicious and creamy.
So if you are an avid chocolate lover like myself, I took it one more step further and added some chocolate chips (dark chocolate) on top of the chocolate filling. Yum!! I used regular size chips, but the mini chips would be perfect here.
After coming out of the oven, I could NOT wait to try one. For fun, I add a little chocolate drizzle over the top and a touch of a powdered sugar glaze to finish these chocolate rolls. They were fantastic! I wanted to eat another one right on the spot.
TIP
A great tip: Once these are cooled. You can freeze on a sheet pan, then place the frozen rolls in a Ziploc bag and place in the freezer. When your craving hits, just take one out, and microwave for 30 seconds! They taste just like you made them fresh out of the oven.
I hope you enjoy these as much as my family has. They go wonderfully with a cup of your favorite joe.
Chocolate Cream Breakfast Rolls
A delicious enriched dough filled with chocolate pastry cream and chocolate chips rolled for a delicious and light roll great for anytime.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 18 rolls 1x
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Dough
- 1/2 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/4 cup bread flour
- 1 1/4 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
Chocolate Pastry Cream
- 3/4 cup cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 TBS cornstarch
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 oz chocolate chips
- 1 TBS butter (unsalted)
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Chocolate Pastry Cream
- In a small saucepan, combine the milk and cream and bring just to a steep, not boiling.
- In a small bowl, combine the sugar, yolks, and cornstarch and mix well. Take the hot cream mixture and slowly add it into the yolk mixture to temper and whisk constantly.
- Add this mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil whisking constantly. Boil 1-2 minutes till thick and bubbly.
- Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate till melted, then add the butter and vanilla.
- Place into a bowl and top with saran wrap to avoid a skin from forming. Place in the refrigerator to cool completely.
Dough
- Microwave the milk for about 30 seconds till it reaches 110 degrees. Use a cooking thermometer to check for accurate temperature. Place in the mixing bowl and whisk in the sugar and yeast. Allow to set for 5 minutes or so.
- Whisk in the egg and egg yolk. Attach the dough hook and mix in flours and salt and mix till just combined.
- Add the butter in small pieces and knead the dough 3-5 minutes till smooth and not too sticky.
- Place is a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise till doubled about one hour.
- Punch the dough down and rest for a minute. Roll into a rectangle about 1/4″ thick.
- Spread a thin layer of the chocolate pastry cream over the dough, leaving a 1/4″ border all around. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
- From the long end, start to roll the dough around the pastry cream till you reach the end.
- Trim each end then slice the roll into 1 1/2″ pieces till you have about 18 rolls.
- Place in a greased baking dish about 1″ apart. Or you can place them on a a greased baking sheet close together.
- Cover the rolls with a soft towel and allow to rise for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350. Place the rolls into the oven and bake 15-20 minutes till just lightly golden. I like them less browned.
- Allow to cool. Drizzle with melted chocolate bark or melted chocolate.
Notes
This recipe was adapted from “The Art and Soul of Baking.”
