Gooey, homemade Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls are filled with sweetened apple butter, baked to a soft, golden brown and spread with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. One of our best apple recipes for apple picking season! You’ll love our homemade apple butter!
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Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls
Today is a special day.
We’re sharing with you one of our favorite cinnamon roll recipes. This isn’t just any cinnamon roll, but our much-loved, classic breakfast. These are such a loved recipe (about as much as our apple dumpling recipe) that I really just wanted to be selfish and keep them my little secret. Mom convinced me that you’d love them too, so I’m handing over to you the best cinnamon roll recipe around.
The Best Cinnamon Roll Recipe
I don’t know about you, but cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite breakfasts. Well, besides muffins. Sometimes I wake up and want something gooey, cinnamony, and really unhealthy. Actually, I wake up thinking that every morning, but on a rare occasion do I get to satisfy my craving. If it were up to me, I would want a yummy sweet roll warmed up for me every morning. Right beside my muffin. 🙂
This Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls recipe is actually pretty easy once you get the dough done. The dough isn’t that hard, either, but the best part is when you get to slather on some apple butter, butter, and brown sugar. Roll it up, cut it up, let it rise, and bake it!
Done.
When you take the apple butter cinnamon rolls out of the oven, beware! Your kids will crowd around the pan, waiting until it cools off. I did it, too. Even though I still had to wait to eat them, it was just good to smell these amazing rolls.
Cream Cheese Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls
The simple cream cheese frosting on the top is only 4 ingredients:
- cream cheese
- butter
- powdered sugar and
- cinnamon
Beat it together until it is smooth. Trust me, you might want to hide it somewhere you won’t eat it so you can actually put it on the rolls.
It’s that good. And it will melt in your mouth.
If you like ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls with a hint of apple flavor, you’re going to want to make these rolls soon. Your kids will thank you!
More Apple Butter Recipes
- Apple Butter Sheet Cake
- Apple Butter Streusel Muffins
- Apple Butter Pie
- Apple Butter Buttercream Cupcakes
What You Need to Make Cinnamon Rolls:
Red Star Platinum Yeast: My favorite yeast.
Apple Butter: This is a great store-bought brand…or make your own homemade apple butter.
Saigon Cinnamon: This is our favorite cinnamon. You can’t beat its flavor!
Stand Mixer: A hand mixer will work, but I always find it easier to make frostings with a stand mixer.
Pastry Mat: This silicone mat keeps your cupboard clean and makes rolling out pastries so easy.
8×8 Baking Pan: I love that this cinnamon roll recipe makes a small batch. Then I’m not tempted to eat as much. 🙂
Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Rolls:
- 1/2 cup 2% or higher fat milk warmed to 110-115 degrees F.
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 package Red Star Platinum Yeast
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
Filling:
- 4 tablespoons butter (softened)
- 1/2-2/3 cup apple butter
- 3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Frosting:
- 6 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 5 tablespoons butter (softened)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Add the warm milk and the yeast to a stand mixer bowl. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until yeast is activated. Add the egg, butter, salt, sugar and flour. With with dough hook, beat on low for 2 minutes until the dough is combined and forms a ball. Then let the dough hook knead the dough on medium speed for about 8-9 minutes. The dough will be soft and just slightly sticky. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 20-30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough into a 10x20 rectangle. Spread the butter and apple butter to cover the dough. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the top, then roll it up like a jelly roll. Cut it into 9 slices (about 2 inches each) and place them into a 9x9 baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
- Set the pan of cinnamon rolls in a warm place to rise for 20 minutes. After they are done rising, bake them at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.
- While they are cooling, make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Beat until well blended.
- Spread the frosting over the warm cinnamon rolls.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 9 rolls, with 1 serving being 1 frosted sweet roll. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.
Nutrition
Candied Nuts says
June 11, 2014 at 4:48 amCinnamon rolls sound appetizing than other rolls. Love your post. thanks
Erin @ The Spiffy Cookie says
October 5, 2014 at 9:52 amI know I would absolutely love this. Great idea using apple butter
Pool Party in Gurgaon says
January 8, 2015 at 4:26 amNice post, things explained in details. Thank You.
Ronald Gagnon says
July 10, 2016 at 1:51 pmThis is the best recipe I have ever seen for cinnamon rolls….and doesn’t take long to make
Julie Clark says
July 11, 2016 at 12:17 pmThanks for the kind words!!
Shelley says
November 4, 2018 at 1:55 pmCan you freeze these for make ahead brunch?
Julie Clark says
November 4, 2018 at 3:50 pmThey are always best fresh, but they do freeze ok too!
Lauren says
December 16, 2018 at 12:56 pmI had a lot of trouble with this recipe! The dough was very dry, not sticky as expected based on the instructions. As a result the dough was quite difficult to knead. Also the added moisture in the dough from the apple butter made these take WAY longer than 15 minutes to bake up. I’ve added almost an extra 20 minutes of bake time and my rolls are still raw where they are touching each other. I hope the taste is worth the wait!