I snagged the base for this recipe from a “Taste of Home Fall Baking – Fresh from the Oven” cookbook. My first real attempt at a baking recipe, part of a new goal for myself.

Type of meal	Cuisine	Difficulty
Dessert, Side, Rolls	Baking	Easy
Cooking Time	Yield	Rating
Prep: 1h Rise: 1h + 1h Baking: 30-35m Cooling: 10m Total: 3h 45m	12 servings	★★★★☆

Ingredients

Dough

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 pkg / 1/4 oz / 2.25 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1/4 cup sugar (* need more below)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips (* need more below)

Filling

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar (* need more above)
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips (* need more above)

Syrup

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup light whipping cream

Main preparations

Dough

1. Starting with a large bowl, use warm water (3/4 cup) to dissolve the active dry yeast (1 pkg / 1/4 oz / 2.25 tsp).
2. Warm the 2% milk (3/4 cup) and add it to the large bowl with the canola oil (3 tbsp), sugar (1/4 cup only for this part), salt (1.5 tsp), and all-purpose flour (3 cups only for this part).
3. Use an electric hand-mixer to beat the mixture for 3 minutes. Note: The original recipe called for medium-speed, but I confess this mixture was EXTREMELY gooey and I needed high-speed just to make a dent.
4. You can stir in enough of the remaining cup of flour to make a firm dough which should also reduce the stickiness.
5. Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and start kneading, adding in the miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips (3/4 cup only for this part) as you go. 8 minutes should do it, making the dough smooth and elastic.
6. Place all of it in a greased bowl, turning the dough over and around once in the bowl so the dough is greased on the top, bottom, and sides.
7. Cover and let rise, 1 hour. It should double in size, particularly if in a warm area.
8. Punch the dough down in the bowl and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle flour on the rolling pin and then roll out the dough to make an 18×12 inch rectangle.

Filling

1. Soften the butter (1/4 cup) either naturally or in the microwave and spread it on the rectangle, staying inside a border of about 1/2 inch around the edges.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar (1/3 cup only for this part) and ground cinnamon (2 tbsp). Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered rectangle (it should look like dusting, but a bit thicker).
3. Dust the top again, this time with the remaining miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup only for this part). You need to gently press the chips into the dough to get them to stay in place, or when you go to roll up the dough, the chocolate chips will simply shift and bunch up.
4. Roll up the dough from the long side, making it look like a jelly roll. Pinch the final seam to seal, or it will unravel later when you put it in the bowl.
5. Cut the “long roll” into 12 even-width slices.

Syrup

1. Combine the packed brown sugar (1 cup) and light whipping cream (3/4 cup) in a small bowl. Pour into a baking dish; 13×9 inches should do it to allow room for it to expand.
2. Take the 12 slices and lay them individually on their side (a cut-side down) on top of the syrup in the baking dish. Place them evenly in the pan, leaving room for them to expand.

Baking

1. Cover and let rise. They should double in size in about 50-60 minutes. Start preheating your oven at the 45-minute mark.
2. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown, 30-35 minutes in total depending on your oven and if it was fully preheated. Remove the baking dish from the oven.
3. Let the rolls cool for 10 minutes, and then remove from the container onto a platter/plate.
4. Serve warm.

Variations/Notes

• I didn’t use enough flour in the first stage, and the resulting “goo” was strong enough that I had to rip my hands out of it and scrape the dough off to get it into the dish. When you take it out of the bowl, it will really stick to the rolling pin and surface if you don’t have enough flour on both.
• I also forgot in the filling stage to press the chips into the dough before rolling it up, so the chocolate chips didn’t “roll” at first, they just pushed inwards until I had enough dough to fold over to hold them in place.
• The original recipe called for heavy whipping cream, which the store was out of, and I used light cream for the syrup instead. Worked just fine so I left it that way in the recipe above.
• I didn’t pinch the seam strong enough when we went to roll up, and so after cutting, the rolls unravelled a bit in the baking dish.
• We made 12, but these are extremely rich, and we cut them in half after the first day as they were a little too big for a regular dessert.