Gluten Free Chocolate Sweet Rolls are soft and decadent rolls filled with pastry cream and chocolate and brushed with a glaze while still warm.
Gluten Free Chocolate Sweet Rolls were originally published on February 12, 2020 and have been updated with a slightly different assembly method, a new name, plenty of new copy, new pictures, and a video.
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The owner of Flour Bakery in Boston, Joanne Chang, teaches a class on Craftsy all about brioche. She makes traditional brioche, brioche au raisins (which is just what it sounds like), sugar brioche buns, and sticky buns to name just a few. I reimagined her recipe for brioche au chocolat with my own gf sweet dough, and lemme tell ya these things are DANGEROUS!!
What are chocolate Sweet Rolls?
Like I said above, I got the idea for these rolls from Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery. If there is a baking class on Craftsy, I've taken it. Every single one. As I'm not a classically trained chef, I rely on the internet for a lot of my baking knowledge (and just flat out trial and error). Before there were a ton of baking channels on YouTube, there was Craftsy.
The pastries made by Joanne Chang were long narrow pastries filled with pastry cream and chocolate. I loved the idea of the pastry cream and chocolate, but wanted something more like a cinnamon bun. And these decadent, delicious rolls were born!
ingredients needed for Chocolate Rolls
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Dough OR Gluten Free Brioche Dough - I'm offering two options for making these buns. I've made them with both and both were equally delicious, just ever so slightly different. Cinnamon roll dough is easier to handle, whereas brioche dough is a little trickier to work with, but has less sugar and a little more richness.
- Chocolate - go for the good stuff here. While you theoretically could use chocolate chips from any grocery store, I urge you to try either chopped chocolate or real chocolate callets. It makes a difference.
- Pastry cream - a silky, smooth cream (aka creme pâtissière) that fills many a French pastry (think cream puffs and eclairs). It's made with egg yolks, cream, sugar, and a thickener. This recipe is so easy and so delicious.
let's make these sweet rolls!
Make gf sweet dough per recipe instructions and chill.
Make pastry cream per recipe instructions and chill.
Roll out dough into a long rectangle. Spread the pastry cream from edge to edge onto the rolled out sweet dough.
Sprinkle evenly with chopped chocolate.
Cut the dough into long strips about one inch thick.
Roll up each strip of dough as tightly as possible.
They should look like a small cinnamon roll.
Place rolls roughly 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
Cover rolls with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area to rise.
Rolls should be visibly larger, but not doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, or until light golden brown and they feel set.
Whisk together all the glaze ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.
Brush rolls straight from the oven with the glaze. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Chocolate sweet rolls FAQs
As with most freshly made breads and rolls, these rolls are best eaten within a few hours of making them. However, they can be covered and placed in the refrigerator no more than a few days. To reheat, place the covered rolls in a 300-degree F oven for about 15 minutes.
Yes, you can fill and shape them (up to the point right before the second proofing), cover them, and refrigerate them for up to two days. Remove them from the refrigerator about two hours before you'd like to bake them. I would not suggest freezing the filled rolls because of the pastry cream.
I find chopped semi-sweet chocolate (or callets) are the best, or a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate. Try to use a quality chocolate if you can. It makes a difference.
more gluten free Sweet rolls
- Gluten Free Conchas
- Ultimate Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls
- Gluten Free Beignets
- Gluten Free Orange Rolls
- Gluten Free Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Butter
- Gluten Free Kolaches
- Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns
- Gluten Free Cinnamon Knots
If you make your honey these rolls for Valentine’s Day, or any day of the year, they’ll love you forever 💖💖💖
Gluten Free Chocolate Sweet Rolls
Ingredients
Sweet Dough (this is a half recipe of my cinnamon roll dough)
- 1¾ cups (245g) Kim's gluten free bread flour blend
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tbsp plus ¾ teaspoon (12g) instant yeast
- 1 tbsp (5g) whole psyllium husks (or 1½ teaspoon psyllium husk powder)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (180ml) whole milk
- 6 tbsp (85g) butter, very soft or melted
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
Pastry Cream
- ½ cup (120ml) whole milk
- ½ cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp (15g) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, or 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
Powdered Sugar Glaze
- 1 cup (125g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60ml) warm milk (heated in the microwave)
Assembly
- 4 oz (113g) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
Instructions
Make Dough
- Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and knead for 5 minutes on medium to medium high speed until well combined. Scrape the dough into the center of the bowl, cover it, and let it proof until doubled in size, 1-2 hours (it could take longer than this, depending on the ambient temperature of your proofing area). Refrigerate the dough at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
Make Pastry Cream
- In a small saucepan, heat whole milk and heavy cream over medium heat until just simmering. Meanwhile, whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl, and then add egg yolks and vanilla. Whisk until thick and ribbon like.
- Remove the milk mixture from the heat and slowly pour a little bit into the egg yolk mixture while whisking vigorously. Add a little more and continue whisking vigorously. Slowly add all of the milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture.
- Pour the combined milk/egg mixture back into the small saucepan and whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken and "burp", where large bubbles burst on the surface. Continue whisking for an additional 30 seconds after it thickens to activate the cornstarch.
- Remove from the heat and pour into a sieve set over a small bowl (to catch any cooked egg yolk bits). Whisk in butter and place a piece of plastic wrap right on top of the pastry cream (touching it to avoid a skin from forming) and place in the refrigerator to chill. Pastry cream will keep for up to 3 days.
To Assemble Rolls
- Knead dough briefly on well-floured surface until smooth. I always use the same flour blend that is in the recipe as my bench flour for kneading and shaping.
- Roll into a long rectangle about 10 inches by 14 inches in length and about ¼ inch thick. Spread the cooled pastry cream all over the dough and sprinkle the chopped chocolate on top.
- Cut dough into long strips about one inch wide and roll strips as tightly as possible into individual rolls. Place a couple of inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Cover rolls loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free area until a little less than doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your proofing area. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Remove plastic wrap from risen rolls and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until light golden brown around the edges. Upon removing from the oven, immediately brush each roll all over with thin glaze and serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Inspired by Joanne Chang’s Classic & Creative Brioche Pastries on Craftsy.
Pastry cream adapted from Gesine Bullock-Prado’s Pie it Forward.
Marguerite says
Kim, I am allergic to psyllium seed, any suggestions for substitutions?
Mary Ann Lynch says
Kim, I'm interested in trying these brioche au chocolate, but I'm wondering if there is a way to make them smaller. Also applies to your marvelous cinnamon rolls. I love them so much, but they are on the large size to eat in one sitting. I don't think the answer is fewer layers in the swirl, because the layers are where so much of the goodness lies. I'm wondering if I were to make per your instructions, but stretch the rolled dough to a much smaller diameter and them maybe cut the dough into shorter lengths? I'm not sure if I'm describing this in an understandable way. Any thoughts? More servings/smaller servings per batch is what I am going for.
With the cinnamon rolls, I have tried a technique where I stretch the roll longer/smaller. cut the roll into 3 equal shorter lengths. Cut each length in half and twist the two halfs together keeping the cut sides up (Ala Smitten Kitchen). repeating this for each remaining length. Set in a 9x13 baking pan and let rise sufficiently so that the dough fills the space in the pan. Bake per instructions. Actually works well and allows me to cut into smaller servings with each having all of the goodness. Do you think this would work for this recipe...or maybe you have a different better suggestion. Many thanks for your recipes and, in advance, for any thoughts you might have.
Kim says
Yes, I completely understand what you're asking and I think your solution would work fantastically! I actually do something similar in my cinnamon rolls video, at the very end. The video is attached to the cinnamon rolls post so you should be able to see it there, but it's also on my YouTube channel if you don't see it on the recipe post. I hope this helps 😊
Michelle Towber says
Hi Kim! I’ve made a few of your other recipes, including the cinnamon roll recipe, and they are AMAZING!! I’m planning on making this recipe soon, and was wondering if it is ok to refrigerate the dough for more than a day or two? Thank you for your help and wealth of knowledge!
Kim says
Yes, you can leave this dough in the fridge for up to 3 days. I wouldn't go further than that because of the eggs in the dough and it will also start to over ferment.
Catherine says
Welp, "user error" here... totally used the AP flour NOT bread flour! They turned out very light and airy and tender 🙂 Making them on thanksgiving with the bread flour
Marianne says
These are amazing! This was my first time baking any GF yeast breads. I followed the recipe and they turned out perfect, just like the photos. I filled half with pastry cream/chocolate and half with cinnamon filling, both are absolutely delicious!
Kim says
Yay!!! Thanks so much, Marianne 😍😍😍
Holly says
Kim, the brioche was fantastic. Better than many gluten brioche in my opinion. I made my with chocolate. The pastry cream was perfect luxurious addition to the brioche.
Kim says
Thanks so much, Holly! So glad you liked them 🙂
Gerald L. says
So good! I followed the recipe exactly and had no trouble working with the dough. I did find my pastry cream had some tiny lumps, but it was too thick to strain. I think the lumps were starch and not egg, and I wasn't too worried since it was going in the dough anyway.
I made a double batch. The first came out beautifully but the pastry was a bit dull and dusty from flour, so I brushed some egg wash on the second and it came out with the most beautiful shine. I wish I could post a picture. This recipe is amazing! I cant believe it's gluten free. The dough is so easy to work with and the texture is perfect.
Kim says
That's wonderful, Gerald!! I'm so happy you liked it! And the egg wash is a great idea. I was just lazy, haha!!
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you can share a picture there 🙂