Cinnamon rolls are my favourite sweet and I also love desserts with apple and cinnamon so this apple cinnamon rolls just had to be on the blog. I love the combination as well as the final result of the recipe.
Just look at that photoooooo!!!! You can see the apples with the sugar and cinnamon in between the layers of dough and it just looks spectacular. And because I’m having one right now as I’m writing this I can say they taste as good as they look :).
What I love most about my cinnamon roll recipe is how soft the dough is even after cooked. I hate it when I’m handed a cinnamon roll and it breaks when you pull on the layers. What I like most is to peel it and have the dough stretch as I pull.
The other thing I love about this recipe is how gooey they are, they’re really juicy in between the layers. When they’re fresh out of the oven the juices are loose at the bottom. However as they cool down the cinnamon rolls reabsorb those juices and it’s the best thing you could eat.
Here’s a video on how I make my cinnamon rolls in case you have any doubts:
Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 500 g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 120 g sugar
- 240 ml lukewarm milk
- 60 g unsalted melted butter cooled to room temperature
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla esence
For the sugar filling:
- 220 g brown sugar
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 60 g melted unsalted butter cooled to room temperature
For the apples
- 2 apples
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
For the dough
-
Mix the lukewarm milk, eggs, vanilla essence and melted butter.
-
Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and make a hole in the centre and add all the wet ingredients in the center.
-
Mix everything until you have a uniform dough. It’s really sticky so don’t worry, that’s just the way this dough is ???? That makes them gooey at the end instead of bread-y and hard.
-
Let the dough rest for 1 hour covered in cling film or until it doubles its size. If it’s too cold, turn on your oven until it’s warm (not hot) inside and let it puff up there.
For the apples
-
Peel the apples and remove the core. Cut the apples in small cubes.
-
Cook the apples in butter over medium heat until they are soft and no liquid remains on the pan.
Assembly
-
Dust flour on a clean tabletop and roll the dough. Every couple of rolls make sure it’s not sticking and dust more flour underneath and on top. Roll it out to 2mm thick so that you get lots of rolls instead of just a couple thick ones. Try to keep it as rectangular as you can. At the very end make sure it’s not stuck and dust more flour if necessary so you can roll it with ease.
-
Paint the melted butter on top evenly and reach every edge.
-
Mix the sugar and cinnamon and spread it out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle it and then spread out any mountains of sugar by gently brushing them with your hand.
-
Start rolling: first do it carefully so it’s nice and tight and once you have the first 2 complete rolls, you can just push it (still very tightly) so it rolls to the end.
-
Cut the rolls (I did mine 4cm) and put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper at the bottom (this will help later so the sugar doesn’t stick, you’ll thank me!) and arrange them nicely. Keep a decent amount of space between them so that they can rise during proofing and after in the oven without becoming square.
-
Let them sit for 30min (again, it helps if they’re in a warm environment) and then they go in the oven at 180C for 20-30min or until they’re golden on top
