I’ve been wanting to share this recipe for over a month now, but I keep messing up the icing. By messing up, I mean it doesn’t look pretty. It still tastes ridiculously amazing.

As with most things in life, when I come up with a genius idea, I then realize that someone else has already made it. I love cinnamon rolls, and I love making them. They are so good that I don’t think they should be restricted just to pre-noon hours. Why not make them for a dinner dessert? And why not add chocolate to them?

That was my genius idea. Chocolate cinnamon rolls. Just to check, I googled it. What immediately popped up? Pioneer woman cooks chocolate chip cookie sweet rolls. I’d made her regular cinnamon rolls before, and they were awesome, so I knew this recipe would be no different.

The cool thing about her cinnamon roll recipes, is that 1/2 of it is make ahead. You can make the dough, let it rise, and then stick it in the fridge for up to 3 days before rolling out and then baking. If you don’t love waking up at 5am to make brunch, or if you are planning on making them for dessert, you can make 1/2 of them the night before!

As I’ve been inclined to do recently, I’ll just refer you to the link above and then give you a few hints and pictures:

1. After heating up the milk, you need to let it cool to warm before adding the yeast. She tells you to do this, but sometimes when I’m in a hurry, I skip over the directions. I did that one night and the dough never rose.

2. When making the icing, follow her instructions. Do not add all the ingredients at once and expect it all to come together. You’ll end up with clumps in your icing. If you don’t add enough powdered sugar, you’ll get an icing like the one below. Regardless, pour it on top. Cream cheese, butter, and sugar always taste good.

3. The chocolate really stands out, so I’d splurge and get some real good chocolate to make them extra delicious.

4. The regular cinnamon rolls are also awesome. When visiting my brother and sister in law a couple weeks ago, I made both in one weekend. I’ll let my brother tell you how many he ate for breakfast. It was… impressive.

5. Half a batch will yield about 30+ cinnamon / sweet rolls. That is usually enough for whatever I’m baking for.

Try them! Have fun with it! The base is awesome, so just go crazy with the toppings.