Secret Recipe Club: Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

It's time again for another month of Secret Recipe Club! This month I received Baking and Creating with Avril for my "secret blog" to visit, read through, and pick something delicious to cook or bake from! Avril's site is beautiful - I absolutely love the layout and colors and the yummy pictures of all the delicious goodies!

I didn't even get through the first category (Breakfast) without opening half of the recipes to look at and maybe to try - these are the ones that caught my eye right off the bat: Buttermilk Berry Muffins, Coffee Cake Muffins, Apple Crumble Pie Muffins, and THEN Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing!! Search OVER!!  Seriously, these were calling my name.

I'm so glad I gave this one a try - as is the usual with cinnamon rolls there are quite a few steps and it takes awhile to pull this one together but the results are well worth it. It is quite the decadent treat. The icing is sooo good - perfectly creamy. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of powdered sugar; I used about 2 1/2 and that was plenty sweet for me, so taste test as you to until you get the right cream cheese / sweet combination for you and yours!

These are like little apple pies in cinnamon roll form. The apple pieces are really yummy "surprises" that tucked into the dough. The dough is flaky and tender, and they are perfectly sticky and sweet. Completely yumm. Kent and Kenneth both really enjoyed these as well; these made for a fantastic breakfast treat for us all! I fixed some cheesy eggs and sausage links to round these sweet treats out. They're fantastic even when they're cooled to room temperature. I stored the frosting separate from the rolls that we didn't eat right away at breakfast so we can re-heat the rolls in the oven and get them nice and toasty again without melting the icing. I know these are going to disappear very quickly around here!

Dough rolled out, slathered with butter, and sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Apples sauteed in a yummy brown sugar sauce.

Apples sprinkled over the cinnamon roll dough.

Rolled up, and ready to be cut!

12 rolls in the 9x13 baking dish, ready for the oven.

Super yummy, creamy icing!

Baked up, sticky, yummy buns.

Tender, flaky, delicious cinnamon rolls.

Dig in!

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing from Baking and Creating with Avril

Dough Ingredients:
1 cup warm milk (I warmed my milk in the microwave for 45 seconds to warm it)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled for a couple of minutes
4 1/2 cups bread flour (or AP flour)
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp regular yeast

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling Ingredients:
5 TBS butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 TBS ground cinnamon

Apple Filling Ingredients:
4-5 small / medium sized baking apples, peeled, cored and small diced
3 TBS butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cornstarch

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 TBS vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make the dough.  Warm milk in a medium size heat proof bowl  in microwave for about 1 minute (do not get it too hot or the yeast will be killed when added to milk).  Sprinkle yeast over milk, let sit for a couple of minutes and then gently stir to combine and set aside.  Add flour and salt into large bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer.  Melt butter and set aside for a couple of minutes to cool then pour into flour mixture. Add in slightly beaten eggs and then milk/yeast mixture to the flour mixture.  Mix to combine using the dough hook. Run mixer for about 5 minutes until dough comes away from bowl and is shiny in color. 
2. Lightly grease a large bowl and then remove the dough from mixing bowl and place into the prepared greased bowl.  Cover with a clean damp towel and set in a warm place without any drafts.  Allow dough to rise until at least doubled in size - about an hour.
3. Remove dough from bowl onto a lightly floured and allow to rest for 15 minutes before rolling out.
4. While dough is resting make apple filling.  In a medium size sauce pan melt 3 TBS of butter.  Add in diced apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Cool apple filling as you prepare the dough for layering of all the yummy goodness!
6. Roll out rested dough into a large rectangle.  Mix together 1 cup brown sugar and 2 1/2 TBS ground cinnamon, set aside as you spread about 5 TBS of softened butter over your rectangle of dough.
7. Sprinkle the brown sugar cinnamon mixture over the butter layer (press in gently with your fingers, get all the way to the edges) and then sprinkle on the apple filling.
8. Starting on a long side of the rectangle carefully roll up the dough. If the filling comes out a little bit as you can just spoon it over the rolls once placed in pan.
9. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Melt 1/2 a stick of butter in a 9x13 baking pan. Remove pan when butter has melted. Cut rolled up dough into 12 rolls (about 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick) - place slices in prepared pan.  Put any remaining filling on top of rolls in pan.
10. Pop in oven and bake for 15 minutes - rolls should be lightly browned when they are done (I had to bake mine an extra 10 minutes to get them to be lightly browned).
11. While rolls are baking, make the icing as you will want to frost the rolls while they are still warm. In a large bowl combine cream cheese and butter.  Beat together for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add in sifted powdered sugar along with vanilla extract. Beat all together until well combined and smooth - about 2-3 minutes.
12. Allow rolls to cool for 5-10 minutes and then spread icing over rolls while they are still warm (if the rolls are too hot, the icing will melt, so make sure they're still warm, but not too hot).
13. ENJOY!