Cinnamon Rolls with Apple Pie Filling

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These Cinnamon Rolls with Apple Pie Filling are the perfect gooey sweet treat to enjoy on weekends and special occasions. Each roll is filled with fresh apples and cinnamon sugar and smothered with a homemade cream cheese icing. Plus, they are quick and easy with only 30 minutes of rising and simple pantry ingredients!

Cinnamon rolls with apple pie filling topped with a cream cheese icing in a baking dish.

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📋 About the Recipe
🛒 Ingredients
📓 Instructions
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
❄️ How to Store
🔍 FAQs
💭 A Couple More Tips
🍴 Related Recipes
Recipe
Reviews

📋 About the Recipe

Quick rise! Many cinnamon roll recipes call for several lengthy rises before baking. These apple pie rolls only require 30 minutes total of rising time.
Great for holidays! Enjoy these memorable cinnamon rolls for Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas morning, or on Rosh Hashanah.
Hosting friendly. I love making cinnamon rolls for hosting because they feed a large crowd, are special, and super filling! Serve with fresh fruit, eggs, bacon or Air Fryer Potato Latkes. Even try serving them with a savory main option like my Mediterranean Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche!

🛒 Ingredients

For Cinnamon Rolls with Apple Pie Filling

For Cream Cheese Icing

A few notes about the ingredients:

Instant yeast - Note that this recipe uses instant yeast, also known as rapid rise yeast. You can use regular active dry yeast instead, but you will have to double the rise times.
Flour - All purpose flour is the best flour to use in homemade cinnamon rolls. If you use whole wheat flour or another flour, your results will be drastically different. The rolls will not only be more dense, but the dough may not turn out well.
Eggs - These apple pie filled cinnamon rolls use 1 large egg and an egg yolk. Try making my Raspberry and White Chocolate Blondies with the leftover egg white!
Powdered sugar - Powdered sugar is necessary for sweetening the homemade cream cheese icing. Powdered sugar cannot be substituted with any other type of sugar as other sugars would be too grainy and will not make a smooth icing.
Butter - Unsalted butter is used in both the dough and the cream cheese icing. Both components require softened butter. Allow the butter to come to room temperature before using for best results.

📓 Instructions

Prepare the apple pie filling. In a large pot over medium-low heat, stir together the thinly sliced gala apples (learn how to cut an apple here), lemon juice, water, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and kosher salt.

Stir the apple pie filling constantly for about 10 to 12 minutes until the apples are softened. Once soft and fragrant, set aside and allow the filling to cool completely.

Ingredients for apple pie filling in a pot and cooked until softened.

Melt the butter into the milk. Combine the room temperature, unsalted butter and whole milk in a microwaveable cup or bowl (I used a glass pyrex). Microwave until the butter is melted and the mixture reaches 110 degrees Fahrenheit on a thermometer.

In my microwave, this takes about 1 minute. If the mixture is 110 degrees Fahrenheit but the butter isn't fully melted, whisk it into the milk until it melts.

Melted butter and warm milk in a measuring cup.

Prepare the dough. Add the instant rapid rise yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour the butter and milk mixture over top while still warm and gently whisk together. Allow to sit for 1 minute.
Add in the all purpose flour, sugar, salt, and eggs to the bowl.

Melted butter and warm milk added to yeast, flour, eggs, and sugar in a mixing bowl.

Using the dough hook attachment, turn the mixer to medium-low and mix for 5 to 7 minutes until the dough forms a ball and begins pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky and sticks to the bowl, add up to an additional cup of flour (I typically add an additional ¼ cup).
Rise the dough. Transfer the dough to a bowl greased with a splash of vegetable oil. Cover with a clean tea towel or saran wrap and set in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Dough resting in a mixing bowl with a towel over top.

Get ready to roll the dough: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9x13 casserole dish. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon for the apple pie filling and set aside.
Roll the dough. Flour a clean surface, then roll the dough out until rolled into a large rectangle, about ½" thick. You can do this in 2 batches if you are limited on space.

Cinnamon and sugar mixed in a bowl. Dough rolled out into a rectangle on a cutting board.

Spread on the apple pie filling. Spread the softened unsalted butter evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar until the dough is completely coated. Lastly, gently place the apple pie filling on top of the cinnamon sugar.

Rolled out dough topped with butter, cinnamon sugar, and apple pie filling.

Roll the cinnamon roll dough.Starting with the long edge, roll the dough tightly to form a long log, keeping the apples inside. Then, using a knife or unflavored dental floss, cut the log into a total of 12 even-sized rolls.

Raw cinnamon rolls rolled up and cut into rolls.

Transfer to a baking dish and rise again. Place the cinnamon rolls with apple pie filling into the greased baking dish, swirl side up. Cover with the same clean tea towel and allow the rolls to rise once more for 20 minutes.
Bake. Bake the rolls with apple pie filling for 23-28 minutes, or until golden brown and the dough is cooked through in the middle.

Cinnamon rolls with apple pie filling before and after baking in a white baking dish.

Prepare the cream cheese icing. In a clean stand mixer bowl, beat together the full fat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract, using the paddle attachment. Add in the powdered sugar, salt, and milk, and beat again until light and fluffy.

Whipped cream cheese and other ingredients in a mixing bowl for the icing.

Serve! Serve the apple pie filled rolls warm with the cream cheese icing spread over top.

Cinnamon rolls with apple pie filling in a white baking dish topped halfway with cream cheese icing.

⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations

Use any sweet apples you'd like! In this recipe, I recommend using gala, but you can use what you have.
Substitute the unsalted butter with salted butter. If doing so, omit the additional kosher salt.
All purpose flour is the only flour recommended. It creates the best, fluffy cinnamon rolls. No other flour has been tested and cannot be recommended.

❄️ How to Store

To store: Store any leftover cinnamon rolls in the refrigerator in an airtight container or the casserole dish covered tightly with saran wrap. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To freeze: Freeze the rolls in an airtight container with the icing on the side up to 6 months.

To reheat: Reheat individual rolls in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until warmed through. If you are reheating a bunch of rolls at once, you can place them back in an oven preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit covered with foil for 10 minutes, or until warmed through.

🔍 FAQs

Why did my cinnamon rolls turn out dry?

If your cinnamon rolls are on the drier side, you likely added too much flour to the dough. When measuring flour, it is important to use the spoon and level method:

Instead of digging the measuring cup directly into the bag, you want to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife. Do not pack the flour in or tap it on the counter to fit more in - this will yield too much flour and therefore, create dry buns.

Why did my cinnamon rolls turn out dense?

Contrastingly to dry cinnamon rolls, dense cinnamon rolls typically means that not enough flour was used.

If your dough was super sticky and difficult to work with, this is a sign not enough flour was used or it was under mixed. Another cause for dense cinnamon rolls could be under baking.

Why didn't my cinnamon rolls rise in the oven?

If your cinnamon rolls did not rise, my guess is your yeast was not fresh (make sure to check the expiration date!) or the butter/milk mixture you poured overtop the yeast was too hot and therefore killed the yeast.

Both of these things can prevent the rolls from rising properly in the oven.

💭 A Couple More Tips

Use unflavored dental floss when possible. When cutting the cinnamon rolls, I highly recommend using dental floss. Using a knife works in a pinch, but it smashes the cinnamon rolls down, which will likely cause the apple pie filling to ooze out of the middle. Dental floss will allow the rolls to keep their shape, effortlessly cutting through the dough, keeping the filling inside.
Sift the powdered sugar into the icing. Powdered sugar has a tendency to get clumpy and whipping those clumps out of the icing is very difficult once added. Sift the powdered sugar into the icing to create the smoothest texture.
Use room temperature ingredients. Room temperature ingredients are going to blend together easier and yield the lightest, fluffiest cinnamon rolls.

A cinnamon roll on a black plate with a fork full of apple pie filling and flakey dough.

Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!

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