Double Chocolate Honey Dinner Rolls | Rich & Soft Chocolate Bread

Now that the weather has cooled down, I suddenly craved a pillowy-soft roll packed with deep, rich chocolate flavor. I got right to work and baked a tray of double chocolate dinner rolls.

🍞Ingredients: Makes 16 rolls

Bread flour 450g, milk 250g, heavy whipping cream 45g, 1 large egg (mine was 58g), salt 3g, honey 70g, cream cheese 20g (see Photo 6), milk powder 15g, cocoa powder 25g, instant dry yeast 5g, butter 35g, baking chocolate chips 35g.

🍞Method:

1️⃣Place all ingredients except the butter and chocolate chips into the mixer bowl and knead until the dough reaches the thick membrane stage (medium gluten development). Add the butter and knead until the dough reaches the full windowpane stage (thin, translucent membrane), then add the chocolate chips and mix on low speed until evenly distributed.

2️⃣Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover, and let proof in a warm, humid place until doubled in size.

3️⃣Gently degas to release large air pockets, divide into 16 equal pieces, shape into tight balls, place in the baking pan, and let rise for the second proof.

4️⃣Once doubled in size, bake on the lower-middle rack at 180°C for about 25 minutes, tenting with aluminum foil in time to prevent over-browning.

5️⃣Brush the tops with melted butter while hot right out of the oven.

❤️Baker's Notes:

🌼When loading the mixer bowl, add the liquids, honey, and salt first, then add the flour, and place the yeast on top of the flour last so the yeast does not touch the salt directly.

🌼Adjust the milk amount slightly as needed for your flour's absorption.

🌼This formula uses a generous amount of honey and no extra granulated sugar. The rolls are only mildly sweet, so if you have a sweet tooth, feel free to add a bit of sugar.

🌼I added a small piece of cream cheese because a baking instructor once shared that cream cheese improves crumb texture. Whenever I use the direct method and have cream cheese in the fridge, I like to toss a piece in. You can easily omit it if you don't have any.

🌼Increasing the cocoa powder to 25g gave a much richer color and deeper chocolate flavor than using just 10-15g.

🌼Adjust the oven temperature and baking time according to how your oven runs; I am still getting used to my new oven too.

🌼I really recommend the milk powder shown in Photo 6; it smells wonderful.

🌼Both brushing with milk before baking and brushing with melted butter after baking are optional.

#Baking

#Chocolate

#Bread