Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

These are THE BEST apple pie cinnamon rolls! Fluffy, easy to make, and pillowy dough, filled with a buttery cinnamon apple filling, topped with cinnamon streusel, and silky cream cheese frosting. This is the perfect recipe to dip your toe into the pool of fall baking without doing a full blown cannonball right into a can of pumpkin quite yet … ya know?

What makes these Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls the BEST?

• Easy to Make. These rolls do have several elements – the dough, the filling, the streusel topping, and the cream cheese frosting. HOWEVER – each element comes together quickly and with only a few ingredients – including the dough! The dough is made with just flour, butter, water, yeast, and sugar, AND it uses rapid rise yeast which makes it super quick!
• Texture. They have everything – soft and pillowy rolls, gooey cinnamon apple filling, crunchy streusel topping, and the dreamiest silky cream cheese frosting.
• Apple Pie // Cinnamon Roll Combo. These two desserts were just begging to be mashed up into one. Like Apple Pie with a crumble topping and the fluffiest cinnamon rolls had a super delicious baby.

Ingredients

• Flour. A lot of dough recipes will call for bread flour, which is to help with the gluten formation and leads to a chewier bread. However, I know not everyone keeps bread flour on hand so I wanted to develop a recipe that uses regular all purpose flour, but still results in a soft and pillowy roll – and I did just that with these babies.
• Rapid Rise Yeast. I love using rapid rise yeast when possible, because it cuts the waiting time in half. If all you have is regular active dry yeast or instant yeast, that will work too, you will just have to adjust the rise time.
• Butter. Salted butter for everything. I recommend a high quality butter like Kerrygold or Danish Creamery, but use whatever you like. If all you have is unsalted butter, no problem – just be sure to add a pinch of salt.
• Apples. I opted for one Honeycrisp Apple and one Grannysmith Apple because I find it to be the perfect combination of sweet and tart. You can use whatever apples you like best, just be mindful that some apples have higher water contents so you might need to cook them down slightly longer to evaporate that water out before filling your rolls.
• Cream Cheese. For the frosting, I used full fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese and I encourage you to do the same. It really is the best.

How to make Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

Make the Cinnamon Apple Filling.

You’ll want to make the apple filling first, so that it has plenty of time to cool while you make the dough. Start by peeling and dicing the apples into small 1/4″ dices. I like the apples to be chopped pretty small so that you get little bits of apple in each bite rather than large chunks.

Add the apples, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and lemon juice to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine and then cook while stirring occasionally for about 10-12 minutes, or until the apples are softened, and the sugar is fully dissolved. While continuing to stir, add in the corn starch slurry and cook for an additional minute or until you can run your spoon or spatula along the bottom of the pan and the liquid will stay separated for a few seconds before coming back together as pictured below. Then remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. The filling will continue to thicken as it cools.

Make the Dough.

In a microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup, add the water and butter. Place it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds or until the butter is mostly melted. Whisk until the butter is fully melted. It should be warm to the touch, but not hot – about 110-115 degrees F. If it’s hotter than that, be sure to let it cool so that it doesn’t kill the yeast.

Add the butter water mixture, yeast, sugar, and about 200g of the flour to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk it together until just combined, then add the remaining 485g of flour. Attach the dough hook and knead on medium speed for about 7-8 minutes, or until the dough has come together into a ball, is no longer sticky, and springs back when you press a clean finger into it. Remove to dough hook, roughly form the dough into a ball, and cover it with a clean kitchen towel for 10-15 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

Make the Cinnamon Streusel.

Add all of the ingredients – the butter, sugar, flour, and cinnamon, to a bowl and mix. Press the flour and sugar into the butter until it is all combined. It might seem dry at first, but just keep mixing. Once it’s mostly together, I use my hands to press and squish it together. It should be able to hold together as a ball for the most part. Then just crumble it into chunks – some large some small.

Roll, Fill, Slice, & Bake.

Once the dough has double in size, you’ll roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about the size of a cookie sheet – 13X18″ is about what you’re going for, but it doesn’t need to be exact. Then, spread the cooled apple filling into an even layer – but don’t go all the way to the edges. This filling is a little more liquid-y than a traditional cinnamon roll filling, so it will spread to the edges as you roll it up.

Start on the long edge and roll up the dough as tightly as possible. When you get about an inch from the end, grab the other end and pull it up towards you and over the roll and pinch it to seal. Press on the tops and edges of the roll to get the thickness as even as possible.

Then, use a very sharp knife to score the dough so you know where to cut. I make my first mark in the middle, then one in the middle of each half. At that point, you should have 4 sections, then make two marks in each so that you have 3 rolls per section. Then, slice and place the rolls into a 9X13 pan. I use a metal one like this.

Mound some of the cinnamon streusel on top of each roll. Drizzle the rolls with the heavy cream, and bake at 350F for 30-32 minutes, or until the rolls are JUST starting to brown along the edges.

Make the Cream Cheese Frosting.

While the rolls bake, prepare the cream cheese frosting. It’s a small amount of frosting, so I usually just mix it by hand in a medium sized mixing bowl with a rubber spatula. If you’ve let the butter and cream cheese soften to room temperature, it will mix together very easily.

Add the butter and cream cheese to your mixing bowl, and use a rubber spatula to mix them together very well. Make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese or butter before adding the sugar. Use the spatula to press the mixture against the edges of the bowl to eliminate any lumps.

Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until combined. Add heavy cream in 1/2 TBSP increments until you reach your desired consistency. You want it nice and soft and spreadable, not as stiff as frosting you’d pipe on cupcakes.

Frost and serve.

Remove the apple pie cinnamon rolls from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before frosting them. You want them to still be warm so that the frosting seeps down to all the nooks and crannies, but not so hot that the frosting completely melts.

I sprinkled the top of mine with a little cinnamon sugar, but that’s totally optional. Serve warm and enjoy!

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls FAQs

• Can I leave off the streusel? Yes. I know there are a lot of elements to this recipe and that can make it seem daunting. These will be just as delicious without the streusel, I just think it adds a nice crunchy texture.
• Can I make the dough ahead of time? You can, however you’ll need to make the dough and the apple filling at the same time. You can prepare the rolls up until they are sliced and in the pan. Cover them and place in the fridge overnight. Then, when ready to bake, drizzle with cream and top with streusel. If you place the unrolled/unfilled dough in the fridge overnight, there’s a chance the dough will over proof due to the rapid rise yeast. If you wanted to, you could swap the rapid rise yeast for active dry, then you could just refrigerate the prepped dough overnight, then roll, fill, slice, etc the next day.
• Can I make this recipe gluten free? I have not tested this recipe with gluten free flour. Part of the pillowy softness of this dough is a result of the gluten formation that occurs when kneading the dough, so I worry the dough would be dry and not as bouncy. I would recommend finding a gluten free cinnamon roll recipe and then using my filling/streusel/frosting recipes to make a gluten free version. Just be sure to use gluten free flour in the streusel!
• Do I need all of the spices for the apple filling? If all you have is cinnamon, that’s fine. Cinnamon is the only non negotiable. The other spices just add a little something extra special and I think they’re worth it, but not a complete deal breaker!

If you loved this recipe for my Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls, be sure to leave a star rating and review below and tag @buuckfarmsbakery on Tiktok and Instagram. To save this recipe for later, click on the Pinterest icon on the recipe card above or on any of the images throughout this post.

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