Cinnamon Rolls with Apples and Cream Cheese Frosting
Course Breakfast
Prep Time 2 hourshours25 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours55 minutesminutes
Servings 24rolls
Author Valya's Taste of Home
Ingredients
Dough
1tsp.– dry active yeast
1tsp.– sugar
2tbsp.– warm water
1 ½cup– low fat milk
½cup– water
5large – eggs
1cup– sugar
8tbsp.– unsalted butter
1tbsp.– Best Foods mayonnaise
½tsp.– vanilla
6cups– all-purpose flour +1 tbsp. for dusting
Filling
2tbsp.– unsalted buttermelted
4tbsp.– white granulated sugar
2tbsp.– ground cinnamon
4Fuji apples
Glaze
4oz.– cream cheese room temperature
1cup– confectioners’ sugar
1tbsp.– unsalted room temperature
¼tsp.– pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Into a small glass cup add yeast, sugar and water.
Mix well. Set aside and let it rise.
Pour milk and water into a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil while stirring it constantly (if you don’t stir constantly the milk will burn on the bottom of the sauce pan).
Pour half a large bowl of cold water and place the sauce pan with boiled milk in it to cool faster. Set aside.
Place butter and margarine into a small bowl and melt it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Add mayonnaise, and stir with a whisker or fork until well incorporated. Set aside to cool.
Put eggs and sugar in your electric mixer bowl. Beat on high for 5 minutes.
During the beating time sift the flour.
Stir the yeast mixture into the milk until well combined.
Egg mixture should be done mixing. Stir in boiled milk with water, and melted butter/margarine/mayonnaise mixture into the egg mixture.
Attach the dough attachment of the mixer and add sifted flour ½ cup at a time (if you don’t have a Kitchen Aid mixer, it still turns out well mixing with a hand mixer). When you are all done with the flour the dough should be sticky.
Remove the dough attachment, scrape the dough off it. Cover the mixer bowl with a clean towel and place the bowl in a warm place (I preheat the oven to 100 – 105 F, then turn it off and place the bowl on a folded towel or a mat). Let it rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
How to assemble:
Remove the risen dough from the oven.
Dust a large cutting board with flour. Press the dough down, remove it from the bowl, coat the dough with dusted flour and divide into 2 equal pieces.
Cover one part with a kitchen towel, and roll out the other half on the cutting board to thickness of a ¼ inch square.
Brush entire square with melted butter, sprinkle 2 tbsp. white sugar, and 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon.
Using a pizza cutter, cut strips about 1 ¼ inch wide. You should have 12 strips.
Wash and slice apples very thinly (so the knife is visible through the apple, if you slice apples too thick it will be hard to roll them).
Lay out the apple slices on the dough strip towards the top of the cinnamon roll.
Roll the strip and pinch the end so it doesn’t come out during rising and baking.
Place the rolled cinnamon rolls on a buttered pan. Repeat the same process with all the strips. When you are done with the square, place the pan in a warm place or oven to rise for 30 minutes. While the first pan is rising you can work on the second half of the dough by repeating the same steps of assembling.
Remove from the oven. Preheat oven to 350 F (since I have a double oven stove, I preheat the second oven and place first pan of rolls to bake, while second pan of rolls goes into the warm oven to rise. It cuts on time). Bake for 30 minutes or until edges of the rolls are golden brown.
While the first pan of rolls is baking and second pan is rising, it’s a good time to make the glaze. Into a small bowl add all the glaze ingredients and mix with a hand mixer for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl down and mix it again for 3 more minutes. Set aside.
Remove baked rolls from the oven (I place second pan of rolls into the hot oven to bake). Let the rolls cool for 5 minutes on the pan.
Place the cream cheese frosting into decorating bag.
Remove rolls from the pan. Drizzle cream over the roll, and spread the frosting evenly on top of the roll with a spoon.