Sally’s Chokladbullar – Soft Chocolate Buns
These delicious chocolate buns come from our Sally who used to work at our café (Hi Sally, if you're reading this). We felt that just using chocolate spread doesn’t work because it burns easily, but mixing it to a paste with some extra chocolate helps make the most indulgent and chocolatey buns possible. These are pretty hard to resist, for kids and adults. From our book Fika & Hygge by Bronte Aurell, Photo by Pete Cassidy. Book published by Ryland, Peters and Small.
Servings: 16 buns
Ingredients
Cinnamon bun basic dough (use this as a base)
- 25g fresh yeast or 13g dried/active dry yeast
- 250 ml whole milk heated to 36–37°C (97–99°F)
- 80 g butter melted and cooled slightly
- 3 tbsp caster/granulated sugar
- 400-500 g strong white bread flour
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg beaten
Filling
- 50 g butter softened
- 75 g light brown soft sugar plus 2 tsp
- 4 tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread such as Nutella
- 1 tbsp plain/allpurpose flour
- 50 g good-quality milk/semi sweet chocolate chopped
- beaten egg for brushing
- 2-3 tbsp golden/light corn or date syrup
- a generous handful of toasted hazelnuts roughly chopped
- a baking pan with sides greased and lined with baking parchment
Instructions
Prepare the dough:
- If using fresh yeast, add the warm milk to a mixing bowl and add the yeast; stir until dissolved, then pour into the bowl of the food mixer. If using dried/active dry yeast, pour the warm milk into a bowl, sprinkle in the yeast and whisk together. Cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes to become bubbly. Pour into the bowl of a food mixer fitted with a dough hook.
- Mix in the cooled, melted butter. Allow to combine for 1 minute or so, then add the sugar. In a separate bowl, weigh out 400 g/3 cups of the flour, add the cardamom and salt and mix. Start adding the flour and spices into the milk mixture, bit by bit. Add half the beaten egg.
- Keep kneading for 5 minutes. You may need to add more flour – you want the mixture to end up a bit sticky. It is better not to add too much flour as this will result in dry buns. You can always add more later. Cover the dough with clingfilm/plastic wrap. Allow to rise for around 30 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
Filling:
- In a food processor or stand mixer, combine the butter, light brown soft sugar, chocolate hazelnut spread and flour and blend until you have a smooth, spreadable mixture. Set aside.
Assembly:
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it through. Roll the dough out to a large rectangle of around 30 x 40 cm/113/4 x 16 inches. Spread the chocolate filling in an even layer across the dough.
- Scatter with the chopped milk/semisweet chocolate. Roll the dough up tightly lengthways to form a long sausage, then cut into 16 even pieces using a knife or pizza cutter. Squash the buns tightly together into the prepared baking pan if you would prefer a traybake to tear and share (pictured).
- Or if you want to make individual buns then space them spread out evenly on two larger baking sheets. Cover with a kitchen cloth and leave to rise for a further 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6. Brush the buns with a little beaten egg, then bake in the
- preheated oven for around 8–10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the buns from the oven, then brush immediately with the golden/light corn or date syrup. Decorate each bun with toasted chopped hazelnuts. Immediately place a damp, clean kitchen cloth on top for a few minutes to prevent the buns from going dry.