Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

Make the Rolls:

1. To a 2-cup glass measuring cup or medium bowl, add the water, yeast, sugar, and allow the yeast to bloom for 5 minutes.
2. To the bowl of a stand mixer* (see Notes below) fitted with a dough hook attachment, add the Devil's food cake mix, 2 cups of the flour, the yeast mixture, the oil, and mix together for about 2 minutes. If the dough appears to be too soft and is not pulling away from the sides of the bowl, add an additional ¼ cup of flour and mix for an additional minute. Tip - The dough can dry out easily if you add too much flour, so I do not recommend adding any more than the 2½ cups the recipe calls for. If the dough is still slightly tacky after adding the extra ¼ cup, coat your hands with non-stick spray to better handle the dough and use a rubber spatula to scrape it out of the bowl. However, it should be pretty well combined.
3. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a ball in your hands; it helps if they're lightly sprayed with nonstick spray so it doesn't stick as much.
4. Spray down the mixing bowl (the same one you used to mix up the dough is fine or another large mixing bowl) with non-stick spray and place the dough ball back in it. Cover with plastic wrap and proof (allow the dough to rise) for 1 hour.
5. After 1 hour, punch the dough down, and reshape into along ball/cylinder shape and place on a lightly floured surface such as your countertop.
6. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about ¼-inch thick.

Make the Filling:

1. Melt butter and add in the vanilla. Use a pastry brush to brush the dough with the butter, leaving a border of about ½-inch on the edges of the 2 shorter sides.
2. Sprinkle the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg over the top of the butter.
3. Begin rolling the dough up from one of the long sides as tightly as possible.
4. Use your hands to gently press the ends of the dough back in towards the middle so they aren’t as tapered.
5. Use a very sharp knife or unflavored waxed dental floss (the best method!) to cut the large cylinder log into 12 rolls, about 1- inch thick. If you want, you can cut off and discard the very end bits from each end of the log for more uniform rolls.
6. Place them in a 9x13-inch baking pan sprayed very well with cooking spray or greased, cover with plastic wrap, and proof for an additional 30 minutes. While the rolls are proofing, preheat your oven to 375F.
7. Remove the plastic wrap and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until cooked through. It can be a little tricky to tell when baking anything chocolate if it's done or not due to the dark color, but look closely and make sure the rolls appear set. However, I prefer to under bake rather than over bake to avoid them from becoming dry; I'd rather have them slightly under baked and a little gooey than over baked and drier, but to each their own.

Make the Frosting:

1. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before topping with chocolate frosting. Use either a 16-ounce tub of store bought chocolate frosting in a shelf stable tub. I also have this scratch chocolate buttercream frosting recipe that is excellent. Feel free to research Google and make another scratch chocolate frosting if you're so inclined.