Bread rolls – versatile and tasty!
Personally, I won’t ever get enough of developing recipes for bread rolls. They’re so fun to make and the variations are endless! On our blog, you can find all kinds of bread roll recipes, ranging from savory (ham & cheese rolls), fun for kids (pizza snails), classic (Danish birthday buns), and just plain delicious (sifted rye bread rolls). Not only are they handy to have around over the course of a week, so that people can just grab and go, but they also freeze and reheat well. It’s always been a staple in our family to whip up a batch of rolls when in need of breakfast or snacks for a whole lot of people. For all of our bread roll recipes, you can do the first rise in the fridge overnight and then shape and bake the buns the next morning.
Today’s recipe
Today’s recipe is for chokoladeboller, or chocolate rolls. Simply put, they are sweet yeasted bread rolls filled with chocolate chips, and they are SO delicious! You seriously cannot beat a couple of these for breakfast, topped with butter and jam, or even peanut butter. If you want especially fluffy rolls, place them close together on the baking sheet so that when they bake, they expand more upwards instead of out. I like baking them separately to get more of a crust all around the roll, but that’s just personal preference. Anyway, if you like rolls, these are a must-bake recipe for you 🙂
Ingredients
For these rolls, you’ll need the following: yeast, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, softened butter, bread flour or all-purpose/plain flour, and chocolate chips/chunks. You can optionally add a bit of cardamom – we love cardamom in sweet bread rolls but it’s up to you – or even cinnamon to the dough. In this recipe, you can make a few substitutions if you need to: swap out the butter for a bit of oil, add some whole wheat or rye flour (although we would recommend keeping at least half of the flour as white wheat flour to ensure a fluffy texture), and you can definitely choose other add-ins. One that I can immediately think of is a delicious cranberry and white chocolate version of these buns.
Instructions
This recipe is standard for bread rolls, and if you’ve tried or looked at any of our other bread roll recipes, you’ll see that this is, understandably, very similar. Combine your ingredients (depending on your yeast, you may need to do it in a specific order – see the recipe down below) and knead until you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough. Add your chocolate towards the end of kneading, just so you have enough time to get it evenly distributed throughout the dough. Let this rise for about an hour to an hour and a half, then shape the rolls. Let this rise again. Finally, brush with egg wash and bake. Enjoy and let us know if you try it!
Chokoladeboller (Chocolate Rolls)
Ingredients
- 2 tsp instant yeast (2.25 tsp active dry yeast, 17.5g fresh yeast)
- 200 ml milk
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp cardamom (optional)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 57 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 450 grams bread or all-purpose flour
- 100 grams chocolate chips/chunks (if you want them extra chocolatey, you can add a little more!)
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- If using active dry yeast or fresh yeast, heat the milk in the microwave or on the stovetop until it is “fingervarm” (finger warm), meaning it should feel warm to the touch but not hot. Add your yeast, about a tablespoon of the sugar from the recipe, stir, and leave it for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble up. If using instant yeast, you can often just add it right to the other ingredients without doing this step, but if you want to test out the yeast anyway, you can do this step!
- Combine the eggs, remaining sugar, and cardamom in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Once the yeast mixture has bubbled up a bit, add it to the egg mixture, or if using instant yeast without checking it, add it now too. Mix well.
- Then add the salt and flour. If mixing by hand – mix with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Add your softened butter now and knead a few times until it starts to incorporate. Tip it out onto a work surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Add more flour if needed – the dough should be soft and smooth, not dry and not sticking to the surface. You can If using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, knead the salt and flour into the other ingredients until it starts to come together, then add in your butter. Allow it to knead the dough together for about 10 minutes.
- Add the chocolate chips/chunks during the last 2 minutes of kneading. If you're using a stand mixer, you may need to do this step by hand to distribute the chocolate chips more evenly.
- Cover the dough with cling film or a clean dishtowel and place in a warm place to rise for 1-1.5 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Once your dough has doubled in size, turn the dough out onto a clean word surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces. I like to weigh the total dough to start, then divide by 12 and weigh each individual piece to get really evenly sized rolls, but you can definitely just eyeball this!
- To shape them properly, take a piece, pinch together into a ball shape, then cup it in your hand with the top of the roll touching your palm. Place your hand on an unfloured surface with the seam touching the table. Move your cupped hand in quick, tight circles – this will cause the seam to come together and create tension on the surface of the dough, meaning it will rise upwards in the oven, instead of flattening.
- Place shaped buns on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. You can place them closer together if you want them to touch so they rise more upwards, or leave some more space like we did to get a crust all around. Up to you!
- Cover and let the rolls rise for another 30-45 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). To check if they are ready, use the poke test. Poke the dough with one finger. If the dough springs back immediately, it needs more time. If it springs back slightly but an indentation remains, it’s ready to be baked.
- Brush with egg wash (whisk together one egg and some water until there are no more gloopy egg streaks). Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after 6 or 7 minutes for more even color. Check the bottom of the buns to see whether they are done – they should be golden. If they’re too pale and they don't sound hollow when you tap the top of the buns, they’ll need another minute or two.
- Let them cool on a cooling rack for at least 10-15 minutes, then cut in half, cover in butter, and enjoy! We do like to eat these plain when they are warm from the oven. If you're eating leftover buns, we tend to pop them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften a bit, or you can cut them in half and toast them!
on a bad day, i’d be mad i bought these. very easy to make though, well explained instructions.
Happy to hear that the recipe was easy to follow 🙂 Thanks for using our recipe and leaving a comment!
These were really good. I messed up the recipe at various points and they still turned out great. I used almond milk and dairy free butter sticks because I’m allergic to dairy, and also added a lot of extra chocolate chips because I love chocolate. I highly recommend this recipe!
So happy to hear that they turned out well! Thanks for using our recipe and leaving a comment 🙂
hej, jeg må sige… de var knapt ude af ovnen og væk… Jeg skal bage lidt igen til ungerne i morgen..
venlig hilsen uli
Hej Uli, dejligt at høre at de blev spist op! Tak for din kommentar 😊