Homemade apple cinnamon rolls combine soft and buttery cinnamon rolls with a warmly spiced apple filling and sweet salted caramel icing. You can prepare them the night before, making these a wonderful choice for fall weekends, Thanksgiving, or holiday breakfasts.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since updated it with new photos, additional success tips, and one small but helpful step: pre-cooking the apples before adding them to the filling. Giving the apples a quick head start on the stove ensures they’re perfectly tender inside the baked rolls.
These homemade apple cinnamon rolls are essentially the best parts of apple pie and homemade cinnamon rolls rolled into one delicious breakfast treat. The rolls bake up soft and fluffy with gooey centers, golden brown edges, plenty of cinnamon-spiced apples, and a generous drizzle of salted caramel icing.
The dough is rich and buttery, but very manageable. And while homemade cinnamon rolls take some time because the dough needs to rise twice, most of that time is hands-off. You can also prepare the rolls the night before and bake them fresh in the morning.
Are You a Yeast Beginner?
If you’re new to baking with yeast, my Baking with Yeast Guide is a wonderful resource for all bread beginners!
Why You’ll Love These Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Soft, buttery dough: This is a rich yeast dough that bakes up fluffy and tender.
- Plenty of apples: Pre-cooking the apples helps them soften before they’re rolled up with brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Salted caramel icing: A little homemade salted caramel takes the simple vanilla icing to another level.
- Make-ahead friendly: Prepare the rolls the night before, refrigerate, and bake them fresh in the morning.
One reader, Alice, commented: “Awesome recipe! I followed the overnight directions and they turned out so soft, gooey, and moist. My family absolutely adored these rolls, and many went to have seconds (and even thirds!!). Recipe was also easy to follow for someone with limited experience with yeast...★★★★★”
Another reader, Nicole, commented: “This recipe is a keeper. Came out perfect. My family asked me to do another batch! ★★★★★”
Ingredients for Apple Cinnamon Rolls
The dough for these apple cinnamon rolls is a rich dough, meaning it’s made with enriching ingredients like milk, butter, and eggs. These ingredients produce a soft, tender bread with plenty of buttery flavor. It’s similar to the doughs we use for dinner rolls and glazed doughnuts.
You need 7 ingredients for the dough:
- Milk: Whole milk produces the best flavor and texture, but lower-fat or nondairy milk can work in a pinch.
- Yeast: You can use active dry or instant yeast. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast and helps tenderize the dough.
- Eggs: Add richness and structure.
- Butter: Adds flavor and keeps the dough soft and rich.
- Salt: Essential for flavor.
- Flour: All-purpose flour provides the dough’s structure.
And just a few more ingredients:
- Filling: Butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and apples
- Glaze: Confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, milk, and salted caramel
What Are the Best Apples for Cinnamon Rolls?
Use a firm apple that holds its shape when cooked. Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or a combination of your favorite baking apples all work well. If you’re interested in learning more, see my guide to the best apples for baking.
Peel and thinly slice or finely chop the apples before you begin. We’ll give them a quick head start on the stove before adding them to the filling, which helps ensure they’re perfectly tender in the baked rolls.
How to Make Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Making cinnamon rolls from scratch takes some time because the dough needs to rise twice, but most of that time is hands-off. You can make and bake the rolls in one day, prepare them the night before, or freeze the cinnamon rolls to prep even further ahead.
Prepare the dough: After the dough comes together in the mixing bowl, it’s time to knead. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, you can use that for this step, or you can knead the dough by hand.
See my How to Knead Dough video tutorial if you need extra help with this step:
Let the dough rise: The dough rises in about 1–2 hours. During this time, you can get your filling ingredients ready and quickly pre-cook the apples.
Why pre-cook the apples? This extra 5-minute step makes a big difference. Over the years, some readers have commented that the apples were still a bit crunchy after baking, so I added this brief step to give them a head start. Simply cook the apples in a skillet with a splash of water until they begin to soften. This helps ensure they’re perfectly tender by the time the cinnamon rolls are baked through.
Shape and fill the apple cinnamon rolls: Punch down the risen dough, then roll it into a 12×18-inch rectangle.
Spread the butter on top and sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Scatter the pre-cooked apples over the filling, tightly roll up the dough, and cut into 12 rolls.
2nd rise: Arrange in a greased or lined 9×13-inch pan and cover to let rise one more time.
The rolls will be puffy:
Bake until the rolls are lightly browned. About halfway through the bake time, I like to cover the rolls loosely with aluminum foil so the tops don’t brown too much before the centers have a chance to bake through.
Drizzle with icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together and drizzle over the warm rolls.
You Have Icing Options
My favorite topping for these apple cinnamon rolls is the salted caramel icing included in the recipe below. It’s a simple vanilla icing with a couple spoonfuls of homemade salted caramel mixed in. The caramel + apple + brown sugar + cinnamon combination is hard to beat.
But you have plenty of other delicious options:
- Cream cheese icing from these big giant cinnamon rolls
- Maple icing from maple cinnamon rolls
- Simple vanilla icing
- Brown sugar icing from pumpkin donuts
- Or skip the icing and drizzle the warm rolls with salted caramel
By the way, if you can’t get enough of apples and cinnamon for breakfast, try my apple cider French toast next!
Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Prep Time: 4 hours (includes rises)
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 40 minutes (or overnight)
- Yield: 12 rolls
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft homemade apple cinnamon rolls filled with buttery brown sugar, cinnamon, and tender apples, then topped with sweet salted caramel icing. Prepare them the night before for an extra-special fall or holiday breakfast. You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls; see instructions below.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup (240g/ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar, divided
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (14g) Platinum Yeast from Red Star (2 standard packets)*
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
- 4 and 1/2 cups (563g) all-purpose flour or bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons oil or butter for the bowl (or use nonstick spray)
Filling
- 2 cups (250g) peeled chopped apples (about 2 medium apples)
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 2 Tablespoons warmed salted caramel
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and the yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Cover and allow mixture to sit for 5–10 minutes or until foamy on the surface. If you do not own a mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula is a better choice.
- Add the remaining sugar (1/2 cup or 100g) and the butter and beat on medium speed until the butter is slightly broken up. Add about 1 cup (125g) of the flour, the eggs, and salt, and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. Dough will be soft. If it seems too sticky and clings to the sides of the bowl instead of forming a rough mass around the dough hook or spoon, add more flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and continue to mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl but is still moist and tacky. If it feels dry and crumbly, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat on low speed for an additional 5–8 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5–8 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should feel smooth, supple, and elastic. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or butter (or use nonstick spray). Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in size. (I always let it rise on the counter and it takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Pre-cook the apples: While the dough finishes rising, place the chopped apples in a skillet with 1 Tablespoon water. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until the apples are beginning to soften. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly while you roll out the dough.
- Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking dish (glass or metal) or line it with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough: Punch down the dough to release the air. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 12×18-inch rectangle. Make sure the dough is smooth and evenly thick. If the dough keeps shrinking back as you roll it out, cover it lightly and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten, then continue rolling.
- Fill the rolls: Spread the softened butter all over the dough. The softer the butter is, the easier it is to spread in this step. (Microwave it for a few seconds to soften if needed.) In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter. Scatter the pre-cooked apples evenly over the filling. Tightly roll up the dough to form an 18-inch-long log. If some filling spills out, sprinkle it on top of the roll. With an extra-sharp knife, cut into 12 even rolls, about 1.5 inches wide. Arrange in the prepared baking pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover the pan and allow the rolls to rise until puffy, about 1 hour. (Or use the overnight option in the Notes below.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake for about 26–29 minutes or until they are lightly browned on top, rotating the pan halfway through. If the tops are browning too quickly, loosely tent aluminum foil over the top of the pan. Remove pan from the oven and place pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes while you make the icing.
- Make the icing: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, milk, and warmed salted caramel together until smooth. Drizzle over the warm rolls and serve.
- Cover leftover frosted or unfrosted rolls tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions – Overnight: To prepare the night before serving, prepare the rolls through step 8. Cover the rolls and refrigerate for 8–12 hours. (16 hours max. 8–12 hours is best, but 16 hours is OK if absolutely needed. Do not exceed 16 hours.) The next morning, remove from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise for 1–2 hours at room temperature before continuing with step 10.
- Make Ahead Instructions – Freezing: You can freeze cinnamon rolls for up to 3 months, and I recommend a few different methods for freezing cinnamon rolls. The first method is to freeze them after shaping, before they’ve had their 2nd rise (step 8). Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let rise for 1.5–2 hours at room temperature before baking. The second method is to par-bake the risen rolls for 10 minutes, let cool completely, then cover and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. Finish baking for 15–20 minutes. You can also freeze fully baked cinnamon rolls. See How to Freeze Cinnamon Rolls for more details about all of these methods.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Glass Mixing Bowl and Silicone Spatula / Wooden Spoon | Rolling Pin | 9×13-inch Glass Baking Pan or Metal Baking Pan | Cooling Rack | Whisk
- Milk: I recommend using whole milk for the best, richest-tasting dough. You could also use buttermilk. Reduced-fat, low-fat, or nondairy milk works in a pinch. Do not use nonfat milk.
- Yeast: I always use Platinum Yeast from Red Star, an instant yeast. You can use an active dry yeast instead, if needed. The rise times could be slightly longer. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Other Icing Options: Instead of the caramel icing, you can top the rolls with cream cheese icing from giant cinnamon rolls, maple icing from maple cinnamon rolls, simple vanilla icing, brown sugar icing from pumpkin donuts, or skip the icing and drizzle the warm rolls with salted caramel.
- Gluten Free: We have not tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, so we are unsure of the results.
Reader Comments and Reviews
the best cinnamon rolls recipe ever! it was easy and my family loved it
Apple Cinnamon Rolls, Absolutely delicious! I never have great luck dough making but I followed directions as written and success!
As is always the case with your recipes, a winner! For this one, I actually had some leftover apple pie filling from the last time I made your apple hand pies. (I’d made extra on purpose, because it’s so good, I thought I could use it for other things besides pie.) That’s what I used, and I chose your vanilla glaze – sooo good. Thank you for another great recipe, and I hope you’re enjoying your time with the new baby.
Hi Sally! Oh my gosh… they turned out perfect! So fluffy & moist. I added some raisins along with the apples, tastes amazing. However, I always cut back the amount of cinnamon powder as my husband finds it too overpowering . I’ve made these rolls many times before but this time i had to leave a comment. Thank you for the foolproof recipe Sally
Hi Sally, can this dough be made in a bread maker? Thanks in advance.
Hi Karen, I don’t have a bread machine to test it, but I can’t see why not.
Hi, Sally! Can I halve the ingredients in the recipe to make a smaller batch?
Absolutely! The first rise will be a little quicker since you’re working with less dough and it won’t take as long to double in size.
Hi Sally,
Can I substitute the all-purpose flour for bread flour? I believe the higher protein will make the rolls fluffier but wasn’t sure if to replace 1:1 ratio.
Many thanks!
You can, same amount. They will be a bit chewier.
I’ve been searching for the perfect cinnamon roll recipe and I’m happy to say my search has ended here. It is simply everything I want in the perfect roll: soft, fluffy, delicious and so easy t o make. The only thing I did differently was creaming the filling ingredients so it could be spread on the dough. Next time, I might increase the filling. But trust me, these rolls are simply the BEST!
Oh my goodness these are AMAZING! Thank you so much for giving the metric quantities with your recipes, I am European and cannot handle cups as a unit of measure 🙂 I let the dough rise overnight in the fridge as I didn’t have time to do the whole recipe in one day. It rose spectacularly, and the finished rolls are so good I could weep. I’ve never managed to bake cinnamon rolls this fluffy, this is going to be my go-to sweet dough recipe from now on. THANK YOU!
I made these on Saturday and a million times thank you for a recipe that allows a self admitted yeast killer to bake these with success! They came out huge and fluffy! I showed a picture of my Apple Cinnamon Rolls to a friend at work and he said they looked like the ones you get from the bakery, that just makes me giddy with happiness!
I did bake mine for 25 minutes and used a maple cinnamon glaze. I’m on a mission now to continue to make more Cinnamon Rolls from your website, so again thanks for the great recipe !
Hi Sally,
Those rolls are perfect! The moment you feel the dough you know it will be something special! And the moment you can smell them, you want to eat them! One question I have: Is there any way you can tell, that there done? The rolls looked perfect, when I took them out of the oven. And the ones on the sides were delicious! But unfortunatly the middle ones were not done and I had to bake them again.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Nicole! If you are using a glass dish you can always pick it up and look at the dough through the bottom. If the center still looks under-baked you can cover the top of the entire dish with aluminum foil to prevent the top and sides from getting too brown as the center finishes baking.
I am dying to try making these! The caramel idea sounds amazing, but I am a die-hard cream cheese frosting on my cinnamon rolls kinda gal. Do you think there would be any chance of success if I tried incorporating your caramel into the cream cheese frosting? Anything I could try to get that amazing caramel or maple flavor into a cream cheese frosting?
Thank you for the beautiful recipe and post!
Hi Sophia! Definitely. You can use the cream cheese frosting from these overnight cinnamon rolls and add a couple Tbsp of my salted caramel.
Sally, I love your recipes! However I need help with this one. Question …..is “salted caramel”? Is it a liquid flavoring or melted caramels? Thank you in advance.
Hi Mary! Salted caramel is my recipe for homemade salted caramel, a liquid. Follow the link. 🙂
Hello Sally, What is the best apple to use for these rolls? And can I use another brand of yeast I don’t have much success with Red Star and does it have to be rapid rise yeast
Hi Debbie, You an use your favorite variety of apples. I like to use one tart and one sweet (like a granny smith and a fuji) for some variety of flavor – but if you enjoy eating it you will enjoy it here!
You can use another brand of yeast – If using active dry yeast, the rise times will be slightly longer.
De-freakin-licious. I make a double batch my family LOVES these. Great way to use apples.
I’ve wanted to make these since you posted the recipe, but I’ve never got around to it till today. Followed the directions exactly and these are sure soft, perfect amount of sweet (not too much), and so fluffy! For the icing, I used powder sugar, 2% milk, and almond extract (I didn’t have any vanilla!!!). It’s good. Thank you Sally!
I had a hankering for apple cinnamon something and decided to make these cinnamon rolls. They’re so good! I striped the apples so there was a combination of peeled and unpeeled Granny Smith bits. The frosting was delicious as well. Another great recipe!
The.best.ever. These are absolutely amazing! It took all my self control to not eat more than one!
Hi Sally. I have these in the oven and it smells amazing in here, can’t wait to eat it. When freezing baked rolls, do I freeze with or without the icing?
You can freeze the apple cinnamon rolls with or without icing. I prefer without so that the icing can be fresh on top!
I want to make these for Christmas but am looking for make-ahead recipes. Can i freeze these before baking? If so, do i let it rise before or after freezing? Thx
Yes. See the freezing instructions 🙂
Just wanted to report back that I made these with your suggestions and they were amazing!!! They didn’t rise much after an hour on the counter so I used your oven trick and after 30 minutes they had risen perfectly. They’ve been added to my Christmas brunch menu this year and I’m so excited for the family to try these! Thanks for another wonderful recipe and for getting back to me so quickly! Take care!
These are the best cinnamon rolls ever! This dough is so perfectly tender and flavorful! Any filling would be amazing! These apple cinnamon are my new favourite and may have to be made every weekend from now on! ❤❤ Thanks for another keeper recipe! I love that I’m not afraid of dough anymore.
Oh My! I made these with my 8 year old grand daughter Abbey. (She thinks sifted flour is a beautiful thing) They were well worth the wait. The joy she has while we are baking together is so precious. Thanks for sharing your recipes with us.
Honestly, I’ve always really disliked homemade/bakery cinnamon rolls and felt the only good ones are made at Disney. Everything else was dry and lacked flavor. BUT THESE oh my goodness, I made them the other night and the tray barely made it till the next day. They were incredibly moist, had so much flavor, and the apples were great. They were even better reheated the next morning, so gooey and delicious. I’ll definitely be making these again!
Hi Sally,
reporting back about this amazing apple cinnamon rolls: they were wonderful, soft and fluffy dough, a little caramelized from melted sugar, butter and apple juices at the bottom, almost like sticky buns! Everybody loved them 🙂 I can’t believe I never tried brown sugar in a sweet roll filling before – so good. I added a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg and a good half tsp of ground cardamom alongside with the cinnamon, and we chose the maple icing – perfect flavour combination! Thank you for this perfect breakfast treat!
Try baking on the lower rack and lightly covering with foil to prevent the tops from over-browning too soon. Or you can try baking in a few smaller pans, yes.
Hi Sally,
What kind of apples do you use and would you recommend using? Tart? Sweet? Granny Smith? or something sweeter?
Any apple you love best. I like these rolls with Granny Smith since the filling and icing are sweet.
Hi Sally, is the dough supposed to be sticky when you first take it out of the stand mixer to knead it? I wasn’t sure what texture I was looking for and I have a feeling I overkneaded it.
Yes, it’s supposed to be soft and supple– a little sticky. Not too sticky that you can’t handle it though. So adding a little more flour helps. How did they turn out?
Made these last night following the overnight instructions. I got a little nervous when I pulled them out the fridge and they had a good bit of liquid all around the dough–assuming from the apples. I ended up having to bake about 15 minutes longer. Could have been the liquid or my oven, irregardless these were AMAZING!!!! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
I made these yesterday and they were so good! The last time I tried to make apple cinnamon rolls they were a fail so I’m glad to have a go to recipe. So excited to hear about your addition, and looking forward to details! !!!