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Recipe Detail Page
Chocolate Swirl Buns
Holiday 2013
These chocolate-laced rolls are a cross between cinnamon rolls and pain au chocolat. Chef Joanna Ward Malan makes loaves of bread frequently and just cuts off a hunk of dough to make these sweet rolls. My interpretation of her freewheeling approach is these overnight slow-rise rolls that are baked in the morning right from the refrigerator. Use your bread machine to make the dough (alternatively see instructions after the recipe for making the dough in a stand mixer).
Makes 12 rolls
DOUGH
1 cup (250 mL) milk
2 tbsp (30 mL) cold unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
2 2/3 cups (650 mL) all-purpose flour (stir or sift before measuring)
2 tbsp (30 mL) granulated sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) salt
2 tsp (10 mL) bread-machine yeast or instant dry yeast
FILLING
1½ tbsp (22 mL) unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp (45 mL) granulated sugar
1 tbsp (15 mL) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup (125 mL) chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips
ICING
½ cup (125 mL) icing sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla essence
1 to 2 tbsp (15 to 30 mL) milk or cream
1 Scald milk by microwaving for 1 minute and 30 seconds or until steaming hot but not boiling. Add cold butter to melt and help cool down milk. Cool milk mixture to lukewarm.Then beat yolks into barely warm milk. Add milk mixture, flour, sugar, salt and yeast to canister according to your machine’s dough mode requirements; start machine.
2 When dough is ready, roll out and pull into a12 x 16-inch (30 x 40-cm) rectangle on a lightly floured board; this takes several minutes of shaping and resting. Leaving 1½ inches (4 cm) of one long side uncoated, smear remaining area with softened butter.
3 Toss sugar with cocoa powder; then sprinkle over butter-coated dough. Scatter with chocolate chips.
4 Dampen uncoated dough with water to make it sticky; then snugly roll up dough beginning with coated long side. Cut crosswise into 12 pinwheel rolls. (Tip: a serrated knife with a low-pressure sawing motion makes neat cuts in the dough cylinder.)
5 Coat a 12-inch (30-cm) pizza pan with nonstick baking spray or grease. Place 4 rolls, cut-side down, in middle, almost touching each other. Arrange 8 rolls around outside, again almost touching each other. Push any bits of chocolate that have come loose into swirls. Lightly coat rolls with nonstick baking spray.
6 Cover with plastic and let rise overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, remove rolls from refrigerator.
7 Adjust oven rack to above centre; preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
8 Uncover rolls; bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until top is golden.
9 Using a wide spatula, transfer rolls to a cooling rack. Stir icing sugar with vanilla and 1 tbsp (15 mL) milk, and more milk as needed, to form an icing that can be drizzled overtop hot rolls. Decoratively drizzle over rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 12 rolls
STAND MIXER METHOD:
1 To make dough without a bread machine, thoroughly combine flour, sugar, salt and bread-machine yeast or instant yeast in bowl
of electric stand mixer using a dough hook. (Bread-machine or instant yeast is formulated to be added directly to the flour without first proofing in water.) Heat milk (in microwave or on stovetop) until steaming, but not boiling. Add butter; stir to melt. Cool milk mixture to lukewarm. Then beat yolks into barely warm milk.
2 While constantly beating, gradually add warm milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat at high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape once or twice, or until a dough ball forms. Dough should feel slightly sticky; if necessary adjust texture with 1 tbsp (15 mL)
water if too dry, or 1 tbsp (15 mL) flour if too wet. Turn out onto a lightly floured board; cover with upside-down mixer bowl. Let rest for 20 minutes; then continue with step 2 of previous instructions.
