Why Not Chocolate Rolls?

The Chocolate Bread was so good, I was encouraged to try Chocolate Rolls--like Cinnamon Rolls but with, well, chocolate.

Success!

Like Cinnamon Rolls, I used my Aunt Betty's roll recipe. (This is half the recipe.) After patting out the dough, I spread melted chocolate on it: 2 C of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted. I rolled up the dough, cut it, and panned the rolls. The melted chocolate makes this a messy process!

After baking the rolls, I made some Chocolate Ganache:

Heat in the microwave, just to simmering (Watch carefully! It doesn't take long!), 3/8 C (6 Tbsp.) heavy cream. Add 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir until completely melted.

I piped ganache onto the rolls. I need a little practice!

Delicious!

By the way, I used 100% white whole-wheat flour in these rolls.

Whole Grain Happiness!

Chocolate Bread--Beta Testing Continues

One of my chocolate bread beta testers has been waiting quite impatiently for the next round of testing. I was finally able to make that happen today!

This time I only made the 100% whole-wheat (white wheat) version. And, since I knew there was a demand for it, I used all of the dough for chocolate bread.

I melted the chocolate and spread it on the dough before rolling it up. I like the way it looks lots better this time.

I recommend waiting to slice the bread until it is completely cool. It slices cleanly and it tastes better.

Speaking of taste, it was a hit with all testers. In fact, the 17 month old tester kept asking for bread all day long!

Chocolate Bread--Beta Testing

I decided to bake chocolate bread for Valentine's Day. I had never eaten chocolate bread, but I had eaten chocolate croissants, which are heavenly. Maybe next year I'll be ready to make chocolate croissants.

I envisioned chocolate bread as similar to cinnamon bread. Except chocolate, not cinnamon. I read many recipes and came up with this:

I used my roll dough and Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips. I made two half-batches. One was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 all-purpose flour. The other was 1/4 soft white whole-wheat flour and 3/4 hard white whole-wheat flour. With each, I made three little loaves of chocolate bread and one large loaf of cinnamon bread.

Pictured above: on the left is the 100% whole-wheat bread; on the right is the mostly-white bread.

All testers, ages 17 months to adult, loved both kinds. The adults agreed that there was (gasp!) too much chocolate. In my next attempt, I plan to melt the chocolate and spread it on the dough before rolling it up.

One of the beta testers took the whole-wheat cinnamon bread home.

Further testing of this batch will occur after dinner tonight!