This recipe was created in partnership with White Lily®.
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When a plain old cinnamon roll just won’t do… these chocolate peanut butter buns might be just what you’re craving. Little in size, but large on flavor, with a lightly spiced peanut butter filling studded with chocolate chips and plenty of gooey chocolate glaze (think doughnut) on top. Just for good measure.
These rolls are best right out of the oven, freshly glazed and devoured while they’re still warm and gooey.
The first time I made them I daintily drizzled the glaze on top.
The second time I smothered them.
Guess which batch I liked better?
(The second batch also got a generous brush of melted butter before baking which also didn’t hurt).
They key to soft rolls is a moist dough, plenty of butter, and less baking time than you might think. Pull them out when the buns are baked through, but still soft in the middle. The tops will not be golden brown (we’re not making biscuits here), rather the edges of the buns will have just barely started to color. Like a light brush of bronzer, not a bottle of spray tan.
We’ve talked about flour before. Multiple times, actually, and in what situations bleached vs unbleached vs cake flour is appropriate. Here, we’re using bread flour, which has the highest protein content of all the different types of flour. That extra protein helps build gluten and allows the dough to absorb more liquid (and more liquid leads to a softer, fluffier bun). While you could use All Purpose flour here (unbleached, please, if you must), your dough will be stiffer and your rolls won’t be quite as soft. Still good, but bread flour will be so much better.
You can find White Lily® Bread Flour in a store near you or online at smucker.com or Amazon.
Cinnamon rolls might seem tedious if you quickly glance at the sheer length of the recipe down there, but if you break it out into easily manageable steps they’re really quite approachable. Especially if you plan to eat them in the morning (which I assume you will), this breakdown means you don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to prepare them. While the entire process, start to finish, would take about 3 to 4 hours (including rise time), I suggest breaking the process up into 3 steps, each taking no more than 30 minutes of active time, completed over a 2 or 3 day period.
2-Day cinnamon rolls:
Day 1: Make the dough, let rise 1-2 hours. Roll out, fill, and cut the rolls. Cover and chill overnight.
Day 2 AM: Take out of the fridge 1-2 hours to let rise, then bake, glaze, and serve.
3-Day cinnamon rolls:
Day 1: Make the dough. Cover and chill overnight (it’ll do a surprising amount of rising even when refrigerated).
Day 2: Roll out, fill, and cut the rolls. Cover and chill overnight.
Day 3: Take out of the fridge 1-2 hours to let rise, then bake, glaze, and serve.
When you look at it this way, it doesn’t seem so complicated, does it?
Trust me, it’s worth it in the end. All the recipes I’ve tried for 1 hour cinnamon rolls just don’t quite have the same cloud-like texture… they’re denser, more like pizza crust or breadsticks, and that’s just not the texture you want in a cinnamon roll.
Oh, and please weigh your flour. The difference between 3 cups that I measure and 3 cups that you measure might be as much as 1 ounce or more (usually on the side of more flour than necessary), which can greatly affect the texture of the rolls. A good kitchen scale is an invaluable tool in your kitchen.
The dough itself should be sticky. A stiff dough yields a stiff roll, and we’re going for soft and fluffy here. Your dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom (and to your hands). Don’t worry, once it rises and/or chills it’ll be workable, I promise.
If you’re making these on a particularly humid day, you can add a bit more flour if you really need it, but if you can manage without it your rolls will be better off in the end.
The filling is simply melted butter and peanut butter (peanut butter on its own tends to be a bit too thick when baked, the butter helps smooth it out), followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar like a traditional cinnamon roll.
And chocolate chips. Because why not?
If you wanted to turn these into full-size cinnamon rolls, don’t split the dough in half. Roll a rectangle about the same size, but it will be twice as thick, and spread with the full amount of filling and cinnamon sugar (or as desired). You’ll end up with 12 full size rolls this way. In my opinion, however, this size roll with this particular recipe is a bit disproportionate: I like more filling and less dough of the mini rolls.
Now, someone better take this pan away from me before I eat them all in one sitting.
Soft, gooey cinnamon rolls with peanut butter filling and a warm chocolate glaze. The mini size of these rolls ensures the optimal dough-to-filling ratio.
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Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with White Lily. As always, all opinions written are purely our own. We’re incredibly grateful for opportunities like these that allow us to continue sharing delicious recipes with you, so thank you for supporting us and the brands we love.