Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

If you are a chocolate lover or have a chocoholic in your life, these gooey soft and super indulgent triple chocolate cinnamon rolls are for you! A chocolate chip stuffed chocolate brioche dough, with cinnamon sugar and triple chocolate chunks for filling. Topped off with an easy chocolate frosting.

Jump to:

• Why you'll love these rolls
• Equipment Notes
• Ingredient Notes for Chocolate Chip Chocolate Brioche
• How to Make Chocolate Chip Filled Brioche Dough
• Ingredient Notes for the Filling
• How to Make Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
• Ingredient Notes for the Cocoa Frosting
• Frosting these Chocolate Rolls
• Expert Tips
• Substitutions and Variations
• Storage Advice
• Making Ahead
• FAQs
• More Chocolate Recipes You'll Love
• Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

Why you'll love these rolls

• Triple chocolate - these aren't just chocolate, or double chocolate. We're talking triple! Maybe even quadruple or quintuple depending on how you choose to count your chocolate. Loaded with dark, milk and white chocolate, they're not for the faint of chocolate heart.
• Easy make ahead brunch - these indulgent rolls are a lot easier to make than you might think. Best part, most of the work is done in advance (and I've got tips to give you even more of a head start). So you'll have an epic brunch fest sorted!
• Limitless potential for making your own - want more milk chocolate? Not a fan of white chocolate? Mix, match and make these your own with my tips of substituting and varying the recipe.

Equipment Notes

To make these rolls, I recommend having the following equipment at hand:

• Stand mixer with a dough hook - you can knead any dough by hand technically, but this one is pretty sticky and unwieldy. I would highly recommend a mixer and dough hook, which will save you time and effort.
• Mixing bowl - you'll want a medium sized mixing bowl to put the dough in for its first proof and you may want a couple of small mixing bowls (cereal/soup bowls work just as well) for mixing up the filling ingredients and the frosting at the end.
• Spatula - using a rubber spatula will help you scrape your dough out of the mixing bowl and just makes life that little bit easier! You'll also want to use a spatula for mixing up fillings and toppings when the time comes.
• 8" square baking pan - you can also use a 9" pan here or a 9-10" cake pan. Different sized pans may impact the baking process a bit as they will mean the dough is moving/rising differently.
• Plastic wrap - for the slow proof, you'll want to cover your mixing bowl with plastic wrap (or cling film). Tightly covering the bowl will help to ensure the dough proofs.
• Parchment paper - I really recommend lining your baking pan. It means that you don't have to worry about removing the rolls when they're baked and still warm.
• Dental floss - a flavorless dental floss or a thin kitchen twine is the best way to slice cinnamon roll dough!

It is absolutely possible to use different/additional/less equipment, but these pieces are what make this recipe easy for me!

Ingredient Notes for Chocolate Chip Chocolate Brioche

My chocolatey chocolate brioche combines a melt in your mouth soft brioche dough with cocoa and chocolate chips. You'll need:

• Milk - just like my classic Brioche Cinnamon Rolls, you'll need warmed milk to activate your yeast. This should be lukewarm and ideally between 104°F/40C and 120°F/50C. You don't want it so hot it will kill the yeast, but too cold and it won't activate it well!
• Dry active yeast - this recipe uses a typical sachet of yeast which is about 2¼ teaspoons or 7g. You can use fast action yeast as well, which doesn't technically require the activation process, but following the same steps in this recipe won't harm fast action yeast!
• Flour - a combination of all purpose (or plain) and bread flour helps to develop the gluten in these rolls and will give them the ideal soft texture.
• Sugar - a bit of sugar works to really liven up the yeast!
• Salt
• Cocoa powder - dutch-processed works best here.
• Eggs - large eggs, ideally at room temperature when adding to the dough. One of the eggs will be divided into yolk and white, the white being added to the dough and the yolk reserved for an egg wash before baking.
• Butter - brioche is all about the butter! I use unsalted butter, softened at room temperature. You can use salted here too, but that will add extra saltiness to the overall recipe unless you amend the salt added separately. That can go down a slippery slope of impacting flavor and texture in your finished product. I also highly recommend using a good quality butter for fat content, which really enriches the dough.
• Chocolate chips - the smaller the chip the better here, so if you have mini choc chips, these would work great! As you can see, I didn't have the minis on hand when I took my photos... Essentially the larger the chip in the dough, the more difficult this will be to roll out and work with, since you can only really roll it to the thickness of the chips!

How to Make Chocolate Chip Filled Brioche Dough

My dough here follows the same based process as my other brioche based cinnamon rolls, like my Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls or my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls.

1. Start by greasing a bowl with butter or flavorless oil and setting aside.
2. Then sprinkle the yeast and a teaspoon of sugar into your warmed milk. Give this a quick stir and set aside for about 10 minutes. During this time, the yeast should activate and become pretty foamy.
3. Meanwhile, place the flours, remaining sugar, salt and cocoa powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Stir this together lightly.
4. When the yeast is ready, pour this into the flour mixture and add your eggs (two whole eggs and one egg white).
5. Begin kneading on a low setting, scraping the sides of the bowl down after a minute or two to ensure all of the dry ingredients are being incorporated.
6. Knead for about 12-15 minutes until you have a sticky dough that seems to be holding itself together.
7. After this first kneading process, keep the mixer on a low setting and add the butter (carefully) a small bit at a time.
8. Once all the butter is added, knead for another 10-12 minutes until your dough is once again showing signs of pulling itself away from the sides of the bowl.
9. Add the chocolate chips and knead for a couple more minutes to get them as combined as possible.
10. Scrape the dough into your greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to proof slowly overnight (or for about 8 hours until doubled in size).

Ingredient Notes for the Filling

To make my triple chocolate cinnamon filling, you'll need:

• Butter - unsalted worked best, but you can use salted too. Salted will add saltiness to the overall recipe flavor. The butter should be softened at room temperature, so that it is easy to spread/mix.
• Sugar - granulated sugar or caster sugar are my preferred in this recipe. You can use brown sugar, but the deeper the brown sugar the more the molasses flavor will come through and it will impact the overall flavor of the recipe.
• Ground cinnamon - what would a cinnamon roll be without ground cinnamon!?
• Chocolate - I use a mix of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate for this filling. I also used a combination of chips and chunks. You can vary the amounts of each and amend the chip/chunk distribution - tips below!

How to Make Triple Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

Once your dough has completed its slow proof, it's time to assemble the rolls and prepare for baking!

1. Start off by lining your square baking pan with strips of parchment. Quick tip: if you let these overhang the sides by an inch or so, you'll be able to lift the pan of baked cinnamon rolls out when the time comes!
2. In a small mixing bowl, mix together your sugar, cinnamon and butter until you have a spreadable paste.
3. Scrape your dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll this into a rectangle about 12" wide by 15" long.
4. Spread the surface of your rectangle with your cinnamon sugar mixture. Then sprinkle generously with chocolate chips and chunks.
5. Roll from the bottom to the top into a tight log.
6. Using flavorless dental floss or thin kitchen twine, trim the ends of the dough and then divide into 9 rolls.
7. Place these in the lined baking pan in rows of three evenly spaced.
8. Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and leave to proof for about 2 hours at room temperature, until again doubled in size.
9. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan).
10. Just before the rolls have finished their proof, make a quick egg wash using the reserved yolk and a splash of milk. Brush this over the surface of the rolls and then bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 30 minutes until risen and lightly browning on the surface.
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes while making the frosting.

Ingredient Notes for the Cocoa Frosting

This is a quick and easy chocolate frosting. You'll need:

• Powdered sugar - also known as icing sugar or confectioner's sugar. You don't need to sift this for this icing as the sugar will melt down into the liquid.
• Cocoa powder - a good quality dutch processed cocoa powder will be best for flavor here.
• Boiled water - the key to getting the best out of your cocoa powder in a frosting is to 'bloom' this by using boiled water to make a paste (a bit like a super concentrated hot chocolate!).
• Milk - a few teaspoons of milk will make this a creamy smooth glaze. Add the milk slowly as you can use this to adjust the consistency to your preferences (less milk for thicker, more milk for thinner).
• Vanilla extract - vanilla compliments and accentuates cocoa, enhancing the flavor.

Frosting these Chocolate Rolls

To make the frosting, start by blooming the cocoa in the boiled water. Then mix this into the powdered sugar, with your vanilla and milk until smooth.

Spread the frosting over your fresh baked rolls and serve for gooey chocolatey indulgence!

Expert Tips

If you're a cinnamon roll connoisseur and have made some of my other recipes, you'll no doubt be familiar with some of my top tips here. But, whether you're experienced or brand new to these brunch bakes, we've got you covered!

• Be aware of the activity of your yeast - if you follow the steps at the start of this recipe and your yeast isn't foamy, then it is better to start over at this stage rather than be disappointed after all the kneading! Yeast is a bit fiddly - your yeast might be expired, if your milk is too hot it might kill it and if your milk is too cold it might not liven up.
• Slow and steady wins the race - I know this recipe calls for a lot of kneading. This is because of the sticky enriched nature of the dough and the way the butter is added. The process is key to soft brioche - don't try to speed this up by kneading super fast and cutting corners. This is why I recommend using a stand mixer - you can just set yourself timers and leave it to do its thing.
• It can be difficult to tell chocolate doughs are baked - these will become a bit darker, but avoid burning the top! Keep an eye from about 25 minutes and check for the dough to be risen and browning lightly around the edges.

Substitutions and Variations

Whether you need to make amendments because of available ingredients or dietary needs, there's a lot of room to maneuver with these rolls:

• Pick your own chocolate mix - if you like one type of chocolate more than another, feel free to mix and match here. Similarly, if you don't have any chocolate chips, you can also cut up solid bars of chocolate (it's a great way to use up holiday chocolate leftovers, if you've got solid chocolate going spare!).
• Add nuts - chocolate and nuts work super well together and these rolls only benefit from a bit of nutty crunch! You can make these echo my Chocolate Hazelnut Cinnamon Rolls with some chopped up hazelnut pieces. Or try pecans or walnuts, both go great here.
• Change the frosting - you can mix and match frostings here easily. Maybe even just drizzle with a chocolate sauce! The options are limitless.

Storage Advice

These cinnamon rolls are best to eat fresh from the oven on the day! They'll be at the gooiest when warm. But, if you have leftovers, these are best stored at room temperature in an airtight container or well wrapped.

Let leftovers cool before wrapping. If they're still warm, they will form condensation on the wrapping or packaging. This will lead to moisture being trapped and the dough becoming damp.

You can also freeze the leftover rolls. Again, allow to cool completely first. Then, wrap well or place in a freezer safe bag and store for up to 3 months. Defrost before serving.

Quick note on freezing - the frosting may become a bit melty during the defrosting process. They'll still be tasty, if not quite as pretty!

Making Ahead

So, these rolls involve steps that require you to make them a bit ahead. The length of time involved in proofing doughs means that these are best started the day before. But, equally this means that, as written, the recipe is most involved the day before actually assembling and baking.

If you want to get even further ahead, you can! If you make the dough in the morning, slow proofing in the fridge during the day, you can bake the evening before you intend to serve. Once baked, allow them to cool, don't frost and wrap well. The following morning, rewarm in the oven for about 10 minutes and then frost.

A couple of key things to note:

• Don't try to speed the first proof - if you leave the dough at room temperature, it will proof more quickly, but it will be so sticky that it is incredibly difficult to handle. A cold proof may be slow, but it is best for an enriched dough and won't be so hard to handle and shape.
• You can't rewarm the rolls once they are frosted. Leave off the frosting if you want to make in advance.

FAQs

More Chocolate Recipes You'll Love

• Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes
• Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
• Chocolate Pastry Cream
• Homemade Chocolate Whipped Cream
• Two Ingredient Chocolate Ganache