I whipped up a huge batch of apple butter and decided to bake a few recipes with it. Besides my apple butter palmiers, I wanted to try apple butter cinnamon rolls. And about two days after I thought of this recipe, Molly from Girl Meets Farm shared a similar recipe for apple butter rolls. Great minds think alike.

Since I hadn’t made apple butter cinnamon rolls before, I wanted to stick with a simple dough recipe. If you have a tried and true dough recipe for cinnamon rolls, feel free to use that. This dough makes light and fluffy rolls. The recipe does make a double batch (24-36 rolls), so feel free to divide it in half. I also added a half teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients, and I really love the subtle sweetness it adds to the dough. The dough does need to rise twice, so you can make these ahead of time. You can either chill the plain dough, or you can refrigerate the assembled but unbaked rolls. As I was making the first batch, I made the executive decision to add nuts to the second batch. I threw in a cup or so of walnuts, but I think pecans would also be great here.

I also had an internal debate about frosting. Should we go full cream cheese or a more whipped frosting? In the end, I settled on the cream cheese frosting. And it was the right choice. The cream cheese pairs nicely with the apple butter. It’s creamy and rich, and I love the flavors with the apple butter and roll dough. This is also a double recipe, so you can divide it if you only make one batch of apple butter cinnamon rolls.

Apple butter cinnamon rolls

Author: Lisa
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Yield: 24–36 1x

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Ingredients

Scale

Sweet roll dough

6–7 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 packages of yeast (4.5 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of water
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1 egg

Cinnamon roll filling

1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of apple butter
Optional: 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream cheese frosting

2 packages of cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
2 teaspoons of vanilla
5–6 cups of powdered sugar
Milk, if needed

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Instructions

Apple butter cinnamon rolls

Combine 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and cinnamon. Heat up the water, milk, and butter until very warm.
Add the milk mixture and the egg to the flour mixture. Mix until combined. The dough will probably be very wet. Slowly add 3 more cups of flour. Stir on medium until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl.
Once the dough is mixed, knead the dough for 5-8 minutes (with a stand mixer) or 8-10 minutes (by hand). Add the remaining cup of flour into the dough. Knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Let the dough rise for 30-60 minutes until doubled in size.
Lightly flour your work service. Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll each piece of dough out to a 12×18 rectangle. It may be easier to work with one piece of dough at a time. These directions are for one piece of dough at a time. Brush half of the melted butter (approximately two tablespoons) over the dough. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the butter. Spread a half-cup of the apple butter over the cinnamon sugar mix, leaving about a half inch border of the dough. Optional: top the apple butter with the cup of chopped nuts.
Roll up the dough along the long edge of the dough. You’ll want to fold the dough over a bit to keep the apple butter inside the roll. Pinch the seam of the dough and place the dough seam-side down. Slice each log into 12-18 rolls. Grease two 9×13 pans. Divide your rolls between the two pans. Let rise for 30-45 more minutes until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool about 5 minutes before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

Combine the cream cheese, butter, and the vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Stir in the powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Beat until fully combined. The frosting should spread pretty easily. If you want a thinner consistency, add a few tablespoons of milk and mix until combined.
Spread the cream cheese over the cinnamon rolls.

Notes

You can also sprinkle nuts like walnuts or pecans over the apple butter.
You can slice the rolled up dough into 12 or 18 rolls. 12 rolls will be larger, and 18 rolls will be smaller.

Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Enjoy!

Apple butter cinnamon rolls