Hazelnut Chocolate Rolls, or the Best Kind of Leftovers

Because I hadn't had my recipe set for my mother's birthday cake, I ended up buying extra ingredients, just in case something went wrong, or I had another idea. I also ended up buying way too many hazelnuts, which, incidentally, are only sold here as 'filberts' in 2oz bags. Not too convenient or frugal when you're buying a pound of them. So, I found myself with an excess of good quality chocolate, ground hazelnuts, and some hazelnut buttercream frosting. I also had a meeting of the Madison Japanese Association to attend, and needed to bring a dish to pass.

I somehow came up with the idea of making cinnamon rolls with a hazelnut chocolate filling instead of cinnamon (so they weren't cinnamon rolls at all) topped with the buttercream frosting, using up leftovers and making a delicious, and hopefully impressive dish to pass, all in one fell swoop!


I made my yeast dough recipe, cut up the chocolate and ground it into fine chunks in the food processor, added the leftover ground hazelnut, some powdered sugar, Frangelico, egg white, and vanilla yoghurt, then spread that on the dough, rolled it up, baked it, and frosted it. Unfortunately, I have no idea how much chocolate or hazelnut I used, but it was similar to the filling recipe of the cake, and it doesn't matter much anyway, as long as it's not too runny. Some butter might have been nice, even.

Sweet Yeast Dough Recipe [source]

2 eggs, well beaten
¼ C. milk
1 pkg. (or 1 Tb.) dry yeast
¼ C. warm water
½ C. softened butter
¼ C. sugar
½ tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Grated lemon peel
2 C. flour, more if needed

1. Pour lukewarm water, yeast, and sugar in mixing bowl.
2. Add melted (not hot) butter, warmed milk, salt, lemon peel, and beaten eggs. Mix well.

3. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each cup. Add more flour, if necessary, to make a smooth dough, and turn out onto a floured surface.
4. Knead very lightly.

5. Let rise for about 1 hour; punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.

(gk: In this case, I left out the grated lemon peel.)