Salted Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls
These salted caramel apple cinnamon rolls are nothing but amazing with rolls filled with caramelized apples, cinnamon, pecans and salted caramel topping.
I am not going to beat around the bush here. These Salted Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls are AMAZING! There is no other way to put it. I mean, how else can you describe warm cinnamon rolls filled with caramelized apples, cinnamon, pecans and drizzled in salted caramel? Come on, tell me “amazing” is not the word that comes to mind.
Okay, let me break it down further. It all starts with soft, easy-to-work-with dough. Using Fleischmann’s® RapidRise Yeast, there is little or no time spent waiting for the dough to rise. Whip up your dough; let it rest for 10 minutes during which you caramelize your apples in brown sugar and some spices. Get your butter melted (or browned for some added flavor!!) and chop up your pecans. Pretty much awesomeness prep here.
Once dough is ready, roll it out, spread with butter and coat with cinnamon sugar, pecans and caramelized apples. Roll up. Cut. And put away in baking pan. At this point you pretty much let it rise and double in size or chill overnight if you want to wake up to freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Then bake away!! And top with a GOOD amount of salted caramel once ready to enjoy.
Did I convince you there are AMAZING yet? Like you want to try them NOW?? That’s what I thought 🙂
Salted Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls
These salted caramel apple cinnamon rolls are nothing but amazing with rolls filled with caramelized apples, cinnamon, pecans and salted caramel topping.
Ingredients
For Rolls:
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 envelope + 2 teaspoon Fleischmann's® RapidRise Yeast
- 3½ to 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoon very warm water (120° to 130°F)
For Filling:
- 2 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon Spice Islands® Ground Saigon Cinnamon
- 1 cup (~4 ounces) chopped pecans
For Caramel Syrup:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
For Rolls:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yeast and 2 cups of flour. Add the flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture all at once and then add water. Mix well and add an additional 1-1/2 to 2 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time, until a soft smooth dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough until smooth. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, combine chopped apples with ¼ cup brown sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until apples are caramelized, about 7- 10 minutes. Set aside. Grease a 13 x 9- inch pan.
- Divide dough into 2 equal portions and roll each portion out to a 14 x 8-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Brush each with a good amount of melted butter. Combine the rest of the brown sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle ½ of the cinnamon sugar on each rectangle. Scatter the apples onto the rectangles and top with pecans. Roll up the rectangle from the long side and cut each roll into 8 slices.
- Place rolls into prepared pan, cut side down. Cover pan and let rise until double, about 45-50 minutes. (You can freeze rolls at this point or refrigerate overnight.)
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F . Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool slightly before drizzling with caramel sauce (recipe below). Serve immediately.
For Caramel Syrup:
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until blended and sugar is melted. Remove from heat. Whisk in sea salt. Pour caramel syrup into a heatproof bowl. Let cool.
As a Become a Better Baker Blog Ambassador, this post was sponsored by ACH Foods through their partnership with One2One Network. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep me inspired!
All this time later I have discovered the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted (and that’s a LOT of rolls).
If I freeze a batch of unbaked rolls, should I let them completely thaw before baking?
Hi Kay, that is great to hear. You should thaw them in the refrigerator overnight before baking.
These cinnamon rolls were unreal! I had to improvise on the caramel since I don’t keep corn syrup handy, but I found a solution that seemed to do these amazing pastries justice: I boiled a sealed can of sweetened condensed milk for an hour until it caramelized, then popped it open and added a bit of apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and nutmeg.
My husband isn’t typically a big fan of any sort of baked apple (no, I don’t understand it either), but he devoured two of these in record time. And we have another batch waiting patiently in the freezer for next weekend! Amazing. Thank you, Zainab!
I am SO GLAD to hear!! And thanks for sharing that tip on the caramel. I actually have another caramel recipe that doesn’t use corn syrup…I will link it to this post.
Hi,
could you freeze those? If so, how would you recommend doing it ?
Thank you :)!!!
oops never mind I just saw the note!!
These look SO amazing! I want to reach into my computer screen and just take one! I think I am going to have to try these. My oldest son LOVES cinnamon rolls…this is going to be a great treat when he comes home from college at Thanksgiving! Pinning!
Oh I hope you make it for him!! It would be a great coming home present 🙂
Oh my, these look absolutely incredible!!
Oh, my goodness!!! Those are seriously killing me over here!!! I adore all things salted caramel, and those caramelized apples inside sound amazing!!! I wish I had one to go with some coffee right now!
Oh man, these cinnamon rolls look absolutely fantastic! That cinnamon filling is totally calling for me!
Yes!! Try it!!
This combines some of my favorite things in a roll – salted caramel and cinnamon! LOVE. Pinned!
Thanks for sharing!!
Caramelized apples – well you have officially redefined cinnamon rolls for me, the cinnamon and sugar is not going to cut it anymore! I love love love the apple and nut combo, but you’ve taken it to the next level with soft yeasty rolls! Definitely pinning these. And hooray for rapid rise yeast! I used active dry for so long that when I finally used rapid rise, I went ahead and made three batches since it could be done in half and hour instead of four 🙂
Thanks Mary Frances!! Cinnamon and sugar just don’t cut it anymore.