Super soft and pillowy apple cinnamon rolls topped with brown butter vanilla icing that will make you feel like you’re eating autumn.

Soft Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Butter Vanilla Icing

These rolls contain all the ingredients for a lazy autumn morning: crisp sweet apples covered in cinnamon, soft rolls, and the most delicious brown butter vanilla icing. I am definitely planning on making these on repeat all autumn!

About the icing…

Ok, so I don’t want to exaggerate, but this brown butter vanilla icing is probably one of the best icings I have ever made. Like, I keep thinking about what else I can put it on! It’s sweet, it’s creamy, it’s nutty… I’m salivating just thinking about it!

This icing is super easy to make, you simply have to brown the butter in a pan and mix it with cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla bean paste. The little bits in the vanilla bean paste make it look even more delicious.

So what’s in these rolls?

These rolls are super easy to make and you will most likely have all these ingredients at home. This is all you’ll need:

• Flour
• Milk
• Yeast
• Butter
• Apples – I used pink lady
• Cinamon
• Brown sugar
• Vanilla bean paste
• Cream cheese

What apples should I use for these?

You can use pretty much any kind of apple for these rolls, personally, I like a pink lady, but it’s all down to preference. You can use Granny Smith for a more bitter flavour, or Gala for a more sweet taste. I wouldn’t recommend using banking apples (you find them in UK supermarkets) as they tend to lose their shape pretty quickly.

A few tips for success

• Don’t over fill them – I made these rolls 3 times before sharing them. One of those times I loaded them up with lots of apples and found that they released so much juice, the centre of the rolls was not properly cooked. So unless you like undercook rolls, I wouldn’t do that!
• Cut your apples in small pieces – to avoid feeling like there isn’t enough apples, cut them in small pieces
• Make sure your room is warm – with the colder weather fast approaching, it’s important to remember to keep the room warm when making these. If your room is cold, the dough won’t rise or will take really long to do so. If your room is too cold, turn the oven on to the lowest temperature and put your dough in making sure the oven is no warmer than 30 degrees celsius.

Soft Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Butter Vanilla Icing

Ingredients (makes 9 rolls aprox):

For the rolls:

• 270 ml of whole milk
• 60 gr of butter
• 500 gr of bread flour
• 15 gr of dry active instant yeast
• 100 gr of sugar
• A pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 40 gr of butter
• 70 gr of brown sugar
• 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon

For the apples

• 2 medium apples peeled and cut into small cubes – I used pink lady apples
• 1/4 of a tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 tsp of brown sugar

For the icing:

• 45 gr of butter, browned and at room temp – you will need an extra 10-15 gr before browning as some of it tends to evaporate
• 90 gr of cream cheese at room temp
• 35 gr of icing sugar
• 1 tbsp of milk
• 1 tbsp of vanilla bean paste

Method:

1. Warm up the milk and let the butter dissolve in it, you’ll have to stir regularly, once ready, set aside to cool down slightly, it shouldn’t be completely cold, just enough for you to be able to touch it without burning yourself. In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Pour the milk and butter into the dry ingredients and mix them well until you get a dough. Knead it over a floured surface for 5 minutes, then, put the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let it rest for at least an hour or until doubled in size.
3. While the dough is rising, prepare the apples. Cook the apples with the brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon over medium heat until they are soft enough to be pierced with a fork but they still keep their shape. Once ready, allow them to cool down completely.
4. Once the dough has risen, roll it in a floured surface until you have the shape of a rectangle. If you are struggling to get that shape, just cut the edges so it acquires that shape. Spread the butter all over the dough all the way up to the edges.
5. Mix the sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle it all over the dough, I used my hands to make sure everything spread over evenly. Then, add the apples, they won’t cover the whole thing, that’s ok, if you put too many apples they’ll release too much juice and the rolls will be soggy.
6. Grab one of the long edges (to your left or right) and start rolling the dough until you get a long log. Cut the top and bottom edge if those edges seem uneven.
7. Cut the rolls into 2.5-3 cm sections using either a very sharp serrated edge knife or floss (I used floss and found it extremely satisfying).
8. Place the rolls into a baking tray greased with butter or lined with baking paper and cover them with cling film or a kitchen towel. Don’t squeeze them together, leave some space between them to allow them to grow.
9. Let the rolls rise for another hour.
10. Once ready, pop them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 30-35 minutes, until they are golden brown and no longer doughy.
11. While the rolls are cooking, make the icing. In a pot over medium heat, melt the butter completely stirring frequently. The butter will go from very bubbly to have smaller bubbles and will start smelling nutty. Keep cooking until the butter starts taking a golden brown colour and you’ll see some brown pieces at the bottom of the pot, once that has happened, take it off the heat and transfer to a glass bowl and let it come to room temp.
12. Once your butter has cooled down, whisk in the rest of the ingredients using a whisk or a hand mixer and spread over your rolls.