Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

These Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls are what you get when a thick blanket of sweet, enriched dough wraps itself around your mother’s apple pie recipe in a big hug. Take your cinnamon rolls up a notch with apple pie filling, and prep them today to have warm cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.

So read on for detailed tips and tricks for how to make apple cinnamon rolls. Or just grab your apples, hit that purple Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make apple pie-filled cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients

Classic cinnamon roll dough is an enriched yeast dough made with milk, eggs, and butter or oil just like my chocolate chip brioche, rainbow challah, or Japanese milk bread rolls. I also add orange here just like in my raisin challah to give the dough bit more flavor. The milk is scalded – heated until little bubbles form and almost boiling – to break down some of the milk proteins that prevent gluten formation.

The dough is wrapped around an apple pie filling mixture of apples, sugar, and spices that’s cooked down until thickened. Just like in my apple pie baked beans, use apples like a Honey Crisp or cross that won’t fall apart when you cook them. You don’t want to be making homemade applesauce.

Top your baked cinnamon rolls with an easy cream cheese frosting with equal amounts of butter and cream cheese.

Recipe tips and tricks

You can make enriched doughs by hand, but it’s much easier to incorporate the butter using a stand mixer. First, whisk together all your dry ingredients in your mixing bowl.

Beat in the scalded, cooled milk and vanilla, and then add the egg. You should have a rough, shaggy dough at this point.

Switch to your dough hook and knead on medium speed, adding the butter a few cubes at a time. Keep kneading until a smooth, elastic dough forms, and please resist the urge to add more flour.

Shape the cinnamon roll dough into a ball in your bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, 60 to 90 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

While the dough is rising, make the apple pie filling. This way it will have time to cool and won’t melt the butter in your dough.

Add the chopped apples, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the apples soften, release their juices and start to caramelize and thicken, about 15 minutes.

Punch down the risen dough and roll it into a 12 by 18-inch rectangle on a lightly floured countertop. Spread the cooled apple pie filling evenly across the dough, leaving a half-inch border along the edges.

With the short side facing you, roll the dough into a log, and pinch the seam closed. You want to roll this firmly, but not so tight that the rising yeast dough has nowhere to go.

Cut into 12 one-inch rolls. I really think unflavored dental floss excels here for cutting cinnamon rolls without smushing them down!

Place the rolls in a greased 9×13-inch baking dish and cover with plastic wrap. You can also split these into two pans to freeze half of the batch for later.

To bake immediately, let rise until puffy, about 45 minutes to an hour. I typically prefer to let them rise overnight in the refrigerator and bake them warm for breakfast.

When ready to bake, heat your oven to 375°F. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly golden with an internal temperature of 190 to 200°F.

Let your apple pie cinnamon rolls cool for 10 minutes before frosting.

All of my tasters preferred a cream cheese frosting for these cinnamon rolls. I’ve also tried a simple cinnamon glaze and find the cream cheese frosting stands up better to the apple.

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until completely smooth, then the powdered sugar – sifted if lumpy – and vanilla. Spread the cream cheese frosting over your warm cinnamon rolls; I’d recommend doing this over each individual cinnamon roll rather than the whole pan so you can store and reheat any leftovers.

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