Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

For years I’ve been wanting to share an apple pie like cinnamon roll (we have pumpkin cinnamon rolls, why not apple?!) and I have so many photographs of trials and recipe tests. My issue was that I never got to a point where I felt like the sliced apples were working with the baked bread. This year I thought let me try something different and work to incorporate that apple flavor in a new way: apple butter. 

Why apple butter? Well, it’s a concentrated apple flavor made by cooking a lot of apples down into a sauce. Sugar, an acid and some spices are added – all of these kind of make it taste like apple pie. It’s just lovely. 

Recipe Origins 

I started working off of my brown butter cinnamon roll recipe which uses a tangzhong base, often called milk bread. To do this we cook a portion of the liquid that goes into the recipe with a small portion of the flour. This gelatinizes some of the flour’s starches so that the dough stays softer longer. Per that recipe, I also do a heavy cream bath before the rolls go into the oven to bake. 

The biggest change I made was incorporating a lot of liquid, in the form of the apple butter. I wanted quite a bit of it so that the flavor would stand out so I had to reduce the overall liquid added, and add a bit more flour. It is still a rather sticky dough though – read the head note to the recipe if you are concerned about working with a sticky dough. 

Recipe Ingredients

Milk: whole milk. If you aim to make these dairy free I’d choose something with a high fat content and a not too strong taste (eg. soy or oat). 

Flour: you can either use a high protein all purpose flour (11%) or a bread flour. 

Water: filtered, room temperature is fine (if it’s too hot it can kill the yeast, if too cold the rise will take a bit longer). 

Yeast: I use rapid rise or active dry. Both work well but should be dissolved in the water before combining with the rest of the ingredients. 

Apple butter: I’ve tested this recipe with two different brands, McCutcheon and Dutch Country Kettles – both worked great! I have not tested this with homemade apple butter so cannot offer insight into using it yet. 

Eggs: medium to large. 

Sugar: brown sugar, light or dark. Fine granulated works too. 

Butter: unsalted and it should be easy to combine with the dough so either have it overly soft or partially melted. 

Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount. 

How to make Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

Make the tangzhong (roux)

This is a flour and water or milk paste and it’s very simple to make: simply whisk together the milk/water with a portion of the flour that’s going into the dough in a pot. 

Cook it until it thickens – you need to whisk it often or it will clump at the bottom. Once it’s the consistency of a paste, take it off the heat and let it cool. 

Make the dough 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and pour the yeast on top – give it a quick whisk and leave it for a few minutes to dissolve and activate. 

Over the mix, add the apple butter, eggs, flour, sugar, salt and a dash of vanilla if you like (I do!) 

Affix the dough hook and knead until it starts to come around the dough hook. 

Add the butter and knead for 7-10 minutes until the dough starts to come around the dough hook again. 

Transfer to an oiled bowl, toss around to coat, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour or two at room temperature. 

Then transfer to the fridge for a chill – the dough should be cold when rolling out. 

Make the filling 

Beat together the softened butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt until smooth. 

Now add the apple butter and flour and beat to just combine. It should be smooth and easily spreadable. 

Shape the rolls 

Oil a 13×9 inch metal baking pan. Generously flour a countertop and your rolling pin. 

Flour the dough too and roll it out until you have a large rectangle: 

Spread the filling over the dough: 

Roll it up into a long log: 

Slice the log into 12 pieces (I trimmed my edges so the rolls would look identical and I use a wax free floss) and arrange in the pan: you want space for them to spread and rise. 

Cover with a tea towel and let rise until you can gently poke the dough and it doesn’t spring back. This will take less time in a warm kitchen, longer in a colder environment but check them after about 45 minutes. 

If you are using the heavy cream bath, pour it into the pan where there is still space between the rolls. Tilt the pan so it moves into all the little spaces. 

Bake until golden all over – this will take around 30 minutes but don’t take them out until you are sure they are fully baked. 

Glaze 

Whisk together the glaze ingredients, adding more heavy cream for a thinner glaze. 

You can either pour the glaze over the rolls while hot – this will partially melt the glaze and create a thinner layer that seeps into the layers, or wait until they are cool and spread it thick over the top like a frosting. 

Make Ahead & Storage Info 

The dough can (and it is preferred) be made the night before baking the rolls. The long chill helps with shaping and flavor development. 

I generally do not recommend shaping the rolls and then chilling them, I find this can create issues in the second rise that lead to unreliable results. 

The rolls keep well though so if you make them the night or day before, they’re still great the next day. Cover them with foil and store in a dry, cool area. 

Recipe for Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls 

Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

Super soft and gooey apple cinnamon rolls! Made with a tangzhong base, an apple butter dough, a spiced apple butter filling.

Yields: 12 large rolls

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Ingredients

Tangzong

• 240g or 1 cup milk
• 40g or ⅓ cup all purpose flour

Apple Butter Dough

• 60g or ¼ cup water
• 1 packet instant yeast
• 170g or ⅔ cup apple butter
• 2 large eggs
• 520g or 4 cups all purpose flour or bread flour
• 50g or ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• All of the tangzhong from above
• 57g or ¼ cup overly softened or partially melted butter
• 120g or ½ cup heavy cream for the bath (optional)

Apple Butter Filling

• 113g or ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 150g or ¾ cups brown sugar light or dark
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 65g or ¼ cup apple butter
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Vanilla Bean Glaze

• 200g powdered sugar
• 4-6 tablespoons heavy cream use the lesser amount for more of a frosting and the greater amount for a runny glaze that seeps into the crevices
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• Pinch fine sea salt

Method

Note: this dough is quite sticky so it: a. Needs to be kneaded with a stand mixer (not by hand), b. Needs to chill before shaping, and c. will need a well floured countertop and rolling pin, as well as repeated flouring when shaping. If you are not used to working with sticky doughs and feel intimated by it you can reduce the milk added to the tangzhong to 180g or ¾ cup. The rolls will still be great, just a touch less moist.

• Make the tangzhong: set the milk and flour in a small pot over medium low heat. Whisk well. As it cooks it will thicken, whisk frequently so it doesn’t thicken unevenly. Once it’s a paste consistency, remove from heat and let cool briefly.
• Make the dough & first rise: In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and yeast and give it a quick whisk. Let it bloom for a few minutes while you prep the rest of your ingredients. Over the yeast, add the flour, apple butter, eggs, flour, sugar and salt. Begin kneading and once the dough starts to come together, add the butter. Knead on medium until the dough starts to come around the dough hook - if it’s not, add a tablespoon or two more flour and knead until it does, about 7-10 minutes. Don’t add too much flour or the dough will dry out. It should be shapeless and sticky. Transfer to an oiled bowl and let rise for an hour (two if your kitchen is cold) then transfer to the fridge for an overnight rest.
• If you need to speed up the rise, you can leave it to nearly double on the counter then set it to chill for at least a full hour in the fridge. It does need to chill so it is more easily shaped.
• Make the filling: beat together the sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt until smooth (I use a hand mixer but if your butter is soft enough you can do this with a whisk). Add the apple butter and flour and beat to combine.
• Shaping & second rise: Flour the counter top well and roll out the dough into a large rectangle, about 24x12 inches. You will need to use flour to help you roll it as the dough is sticky. Evenly spread the filling over the rolled out dough. Roll the dough into a log from the longer side so you have a long log. Slice the log into around 12 slices (you can trim the edges and bake them separately or discard if you prefer cleaner cuts) either with a bread knife or uncoated floss, and arrange them in an oiled 13x9 inch metal baking pan so that there is space for them to rise. Leave at room temperature to rise until you can poke the dough and it doesn’t immediately spring back; for about an hour or two (two if your kitchen is quite cold).
• Bake & glaze: preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour the heavy cream in between the rolls and gently tilt the pan so that it spreads between all the open pockets. Bake the rolls until golden all over, about 30-35 minutes. If you want the glaze to be thin and run in all the layers, you can whisk all the glaze ingredients together and pour/spread it over the rolls while hot. If you like the glaze to be more like a frosting and sit on top, wait until the rolls are cool and then frost the rolls.
• These are fantastic warm but they’re also great the next day, as they stay soft!

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