Chocolate Swirl Buns

chocolate swirl buns

Over the past Christmas, I received a bread maker as one of my presents. I was kind of sceptical of using it at the beginning because I’d been making bread manually for years, why do I need a bulky machine that I have to find space to store? Until I started using it, and realized how powerful that machine is! You literally just turn on the machine, put in all the ingredients, close the lid, wait a few hours, and a big loaf of fresh bread is ready! Magical! Of course if you even consider measuring your ingredients is too much work, I don’t know what to say. You know putting on your shoes, walking or driving to a store to buy bread seems even more tiring.

We’ve been having fresh home-made white bread, whole wheat bread or brioche for breakfast. And it actually got me to start thinking about what else I could do with this machine. And I realized that when it comes to fancy bread, like cinnamon rolls, sweet buns or challah, the machine might not be really that usable. Although it can help with the kneading, you will need a pair of human hands to handle all the messy stuff – the filling, rolling, cutting…

chocolate swirl buns

In the process of explore those fancy bread recipes, I came across with this chocolate swirl buns recipe. I make cinnamon rolls all the time, this kinda of buns doesn’t really sound intimating to me. And I was only hooked with the idea of stuffing brioche bread with chocolate filling. This batch came out from the oven yesterday right before my kids came home from school. After snacking, late night dessert and breakfast, they were all gone! Simply too good to stay anywhere except your belly!

Ingredients (12 buns):
Dough
1/2 cup milk, warm to touch
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
Filling
225 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions:
To prepare the dough, in the large mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm milk. Let sit for 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk sugar and egg until combined. Then slowly whisk in the yeast mixture.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix flour and salt. Run mixer on low and add egg mixture, mix until combined. Add butter and mix until incorporated.
Switch to a dough hook, let it knead the dough for 10 minutes on low speed. The dough will become sticky and stringy.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let sit in a warm place for an hour to rise.
To prepare the filling, pulse chocolate, salt and sugar in a food processor until the chocolate is very finely chopped with some parts almost powdery. Add butter and pulse machine until it’s distributed throughout the chocolate. Set mixture aside.
When the dough is risen, move it to a lightly floured surface and gently deflate it. Roll dough into a big rectangle, about 12 inches on the short end and 20 inches on the long end.
Evenly sprinkle the chocolate mixture over the dough.
Roll the short side of the rectangle tightly toward the other short end, forming a 12-inch log. Pinch the seam together at the end.
Slice it into 1-inch slices. Place the sliced rolls in a well greased muffin tins. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F, and bake the rolls for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Serve warm or in room temperature.

10 comments

  1. You mention using your bread machine in the beginning of the post but this recipe is made in a stand mixer. Have you made the dough in the bread machine as well? Thanks!

    1. Hi Marlene, I made the dough with a standing mixer, not a bread machine. I guess you could though. :)

  2. The dough is rising now. just having my cup of jo while waiting. can’t really wait though. :)

  3. These buns great! One question, do you think I can still make these if I don’t have a mixer? I guess it might require a lot of arm strengthen. LOL! Thanks.

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