CHOCOLATE STICKY BUNS aka Chocolate Cinnamon Buns: National Sticky Bun Day!

Today is National Sticky Bun Day! I love Cinnamon Buns, and what could be better than Chocolate Sticky Buns! Here's a great Retro Betty Crocker Gold Medal Flour Advertisement and Recipe for Chocolate Cinnamon Buns aka Chocolate Sticky Buns.

Chocolate Sticky Buns aka Chocolate Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients
3/4 cup warm water (not hot - 110 to 115 degrees)
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup cocoa  (use DARK cocoa for richness)
2 and 1/4 cups sifted flour
1 Tablespoon soft unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 Tablespoons sugar
chopped pistachio nuts (or almonds or pecans)

Directions
In mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add shortening, salt, sugar, egg, cocoa, and 1 cup flour. Beat 2 minutes, medium speed on mixer or 300 vigorous strokes by hand. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Stir in remaining flour; blend well. Scrape sides of bowl.
Cover with cloth; let rise in warm place (85 degrees) until double in bulk, about 1 hour. (If kitchen is cool, place dough on rack over bowl of hot water; cover completely with towel.)
Stir down by beating 25 strokes. Turn soft dough out on well floured cloth-covered board.
Roll into rectangle, 12 x 9". Spread with butter; sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Roll up, beginning at wide side. Pinch edge into roll. Cut 12 pieces.
Place in greased 9" square pan. Let rise in warm place (85 degrees) until double, about 40 minutes.
Heat oven to 375 degrees (quick mod.). Bake 25 minutes.
Remove from pan, frost top immediately with icing (3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar moistened with cream or milk to spreading consistency.) Sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Serve warm.

Chocolate Cinnamon Bread: National Cinnamon Day

Once again my mystery and chocolate worlds collide. Today is National Cinnamon Day! I love cinnamon, so I was a disturbed to hear about the cinnamon controversy in Denmark that attempted to limit the use and ingestion of cinnamon. The Cinnamon controversy actually led to a great discussion in our mystery book group. There was a segue. Too much cinnamon can kill you! But how? Cinnamon can work as a blood thinner. The EU tried to stop the amount of cinnamon in Danish cinnamon baking to limit human consumption. Read more:  The Danish Cinnamon controversy and HERE.

But back to Chocolate and Cinnamon. If you frequent Starbucks, you may remember the chocolate cinnamon bread, a seasonal baked good. Not sure why it's seasonal, but I haven't seen it in awhile. So I went searching for the recipe. Lo and behold, I found the recipe on the Starbucks website. Yay! So you can make your own. Warning, this really isn't a quick bread. It's more like a cake, but that's o.k. with me. I've adapted the recipe a little. And, remember, always use the best cocoa and cinnamon! Question about Dutch processed cocoa? Go HERE.

CHOCOLATE CINNAMON BREAD
(makes two loaves)

Ingredients

Chocolate Batter
3 sticks sweet butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup water
1 tsp Madagascar vanilla

Cocoa Spice Topping 
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Dutch processed cocoa
Pinch of ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
1/4 cup decorating (sparkle) sugar (for decorating)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans and line bottom with parchment paper.

Chocolate Batter:
1. Cream together butter and sugar in electric mixer until light and creamy, around 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is fully incorporated. Scrape down sides of bowl a few times to get them fully mixed in.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, water and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, begin adding contents of each bowl to butter mixture, alternating between the two until mixture is fully blended, but not overly whipped. Split batter between the two pans. If batter is slightly uneven, you can lightly shake the pan to even out the tops.

Make your topping.
Combine sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger and cloves. Then evenly layer decorating sugar over batter, followed by spice mixture.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.