When the holidays come around, we know that friends and family will be visiting throughout, and we love hosting holiday get togethers. One thing we always have available for guests, is sweet treats, especially baked ones! One baked sweet treat that my hubby does very well, is Cinnamon Rolls… But, for Fall, we added just one more little ingredient… APPLES!  

Here is the How-To from my dear hubby— since he is the chef in the family!

Fall has always been a magical season for me.  The air turns crisp and cool, the autumn foliage turns to beautiful arrays of color and holidays are focused on food and family.  I’m not sure why exactly, but in my family Fall tends to be synonymous with baking.  As a kid I baked bread, muffins and even made doughnuts with my maternal grandmother.  I can remember making pies with my paternal grandmother and getting to eat the leftover pie crust baked with a little cinnamon and sugar on it.

I have continued to enjoy baking and my passion this year has been trying to create the perfect cinnamon roll.  I’ve tried several different bread recipes for both the bread machine and the kitchen aid mixer.  For this article, I ended up using the bread machine to make the dough and used the recipe below.

Dough

1 cup warm milk (110 F)

½ cup granulated sugar

2 ½ teaspoons bread machine yeast

2 eggs (room temperature)

⅓ cup melted butter, cooled

4 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Filling

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium granny smith apple, peeled and diced

Icing

3oz cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons of butter, softened

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

I start by placing the warm milk and granulated sugar into the bread machine pan and mix well until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Next I sprinkle the yeast over the top of the milk/sugar mixture and allow to sit for 10 minutes to give the yeast a start.

Next add the butter and eggs.  Pour the flour, salt and cinnamon in on top and set the bread machine on the dough cycle.  When the machine is done, remove the dough and turn it briefly on a lightly-floured surface.  Place the dough into a bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.  Take out 4 tablespoons of butter and let soften.

While the dough is resting mix the brown sugar and cinnamon well in a small mixing bowl and set aside.  Now for the next part, it really depends on how you intend to bake the cinnamon rolls.  I usually use two 9 IN X 9 IN pans and so I split my dough into two equal halves.  Roll your dough out to about ⅛” thickness and into the shape of a large rectangle.  Next spread the 3 tablespoons of softened butter onto the dough and sprinkle the brown sugar & cinnamon mixture, ensuring even distribution over the surface.  Next sprinkle the diced apple over the dough as evenly as possible.  Roll the dough into a cylinder and cut into desired thickness (I usually try for about 1” to 1 ½”), placing the rolls into a greased baking pan.  Cover, set in a warm place and allow to rise until they have doubled in size (roughly 1 hour).   When you’re ready to bake the rolls, place them into a preheated oven at 400 F for about 18 min or until lightly browning on top.  Allow the rolls to cool for 20 to 30 minutes before icing.

To make the icing,  add the cream cheese and butter to your mixing bowl and mix on a low speed for 2 minutes.  Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extra and continue to mix at a low speed until the mixture is smooth and moist.  Mix on high speed for one minute and remove from mixer. Spread the icing evenly over the cinnamon rolls.

I hope you like these apple cinnamon rolls as much as my family does!