Go Back
+ servings
Closeup of apple pie cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon Rolls with Apple Pie

Next-level Cinnamon Rolls! Soft and fluffy rolls filled with apple pie filling, topped with a sticky sweet glaze. Perfect for holiday brunch and breakfast!
5 from 3 votes
Print Pin
Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Resting Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 337kcal
Author: MinShien

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1 cup 2% milk
  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • 1 large egg room temperature
  • 3 3/4 cup all purpose flour more if needed
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp instant yeast
  • butter for greasing the bowl

Apple Pie Filling

  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 4 cups apples thinly sliced, ~3-4 apples
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp all purpose flour
  • a pinch of salt

Glaze/ Icing

  • 2/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp 2% milk
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To Make Dough

  • Warm milk to 90-100 degree F. Melt butter to 90-100 degree F. Crack and beat up a room temperature egg. Combine milk, butter and egg into a bowl or a standing mixer.
  • Add dry ingredients to mixture: flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Use a dough hook to mix the dough if using a standing mixer. Or knead the dough with hand.
  • Dough should not be sticky, but it shouldn't be very dry either. When touch with fingers, a large clump of dough should not stick to fingers. Start with 3 3/4 cup flour and add more if dough is sticky. A lot of factors (humidity, temperature, size of egg etc) can make the dough more or less wet, so the amount of flour needed may differ slightly.
  • Lightly butter large bowl (bowl must be twice or three times larger than dough) and bring dough to bowl. Cover with cloth, and let it rise for an hour, preferably in a warm spot.
  • Dough should rise to twice its original size.
  • When dough has risen, punch the ball with your fist to release the air. Flour a clean surface, then use a rolling pin to flatten out dough into a 15″x12″ rectangle. 

To make apple pie filling

  • Melt butter in a medium pot under medium heat. Once butter is melted, add apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, flour and a pinch of salt. Bring heat to medium high and stir continuously. Use a whisk to whisk and remove clumps from the mixture if needed.
  • Once mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, remove from heat promptly by transferring to a separate bowl (so that mixture does not continue cooking) and set aside.
  • Cool mixture so that it is not boiling hot (slightly warm or room temperature is fine) when added to the dough. (See Note 1)

To make Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

  • Spread apple pie filling evenly onto the flattened dough. Leave a 1-inch frame around the dough where there is no apple pie filling. Doing this will prevent less filling from spilling out of the dough when rolling the dough.
  • Gently roll dough from the long side into a long tube.
  • Using a serrated knife, cut off the ends and then cut tube into 12 cinnamon rolls. Each roll will be about an inch thick.
  • Place rolls onto a 9″x13″ casserole dish lined with parchment paper, or greased with butter. Rolls may be soft and apple pie filling may ooze out while transferring the rolls. A little messy is ok and expected! :)
  • Cover casserole dish with a towel and let rolls rise again for 30 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Remove towel. Cinnamon raisin rolls should be slightly bigger in size. Bake in oven for 22-25 minutes.
  • While rolls are baking, make the glaze by combining all the ingredients under “Icing/glaze” using a hand mixture or a whisk. Add more powdered sugar to make thicken the glaze and add more milk to thin out the glaze based on your preference.
  • When rolls are done, let it cool for 10 minutes. Drizzle glaze onto the rolls.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Note 1: To ensure that apple pie filling has time to cool, make filling immediately after placing the dough to rise. This way there is time for the filling to cool while the dough rises.

Nutrition

Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 127mg | Potassium: 148mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 269IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 2mg
Did you make this recipe?Take a pic and tag me at @joyous.apron, or hashtag #joyousapron on Instagram!