Easy Caramel Apple Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls With Caramel Icing

Sharing is caring!

These caramel apple cinnamon rolls are a delicious fall-time twist on my traditional sourdough cinnamon rolls. The tender apple filling paired with caramel frosting and a rich, gooey caramel sauce drizzled on top makes them a perfect fall treat. You can prepare them the night before, then bake fresh the next morning for a comforting breakfast, a festive fall gathering with friends, or simply anytime you’re craving that warm, fall-time spirit.  

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion.  Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well.  When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest.  A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.   

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

For more of our favorite sourdough recipes, check out the sourdough portion of our website: Sourdough.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Delicious – who doesn’t love all the flavors of caramel apples, especially in the fall?  And when they are all wrapped up inside a gooey cinnamon roll, what’s not to love?
• From scratch – even though these cinnamon rolls are a bit of a labor of love, each part is made completely from scratch, making them all the more healthy and delicious.
• Perfect fall treat – these really are the perfect fall treat, complete with apples, caramel icing and drizzled with a caramel sauce.

Ingredients

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Tools

Favorite Sourdough Recipes:

How to Make These Caramel Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

Make The Cinnamon Roll Dough

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the first six ingredients.  

If using a mixer, start mixing on low and slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  The baking powder and baking soda are optional and only needed if you are making these with sourdough discard, or if you want to bake them right away without letting them rise first.

If you’re not using a mixer, add the flour to the other ingredients in the bowl and knead until the dough comes together into a nice ball.  Stretch and fold or knead the dough every 15-30 minutes for a couple hours.  This will develop the gluten similar to how the mixer develops it by mixing.

Make The Caramel Apple Filling

In a large cast-iron skillet, combine the apples, 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.

Saute over medium heat until apples are tender.

In a small jar, combine the water and the cornstarch and mix well.

Add to the apple mixture and cook until bubbly to thicken slightly.

Allow the filling to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Assemble The Rolls

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to ¼” thick in the shape of a rectangle.

Spread the extra butter onto the surface of the dough.  

Then spread the filling ingredients on the dough (see video).

Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough into 12 strips.  

Then roll each strip into a roll individually.  This makes more uniform cinnamon rolls.

Place in a greased cast-iron skillet or baking dish.

For the long fermented version

Cover with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and let the dough rise on the counter overnight.  If you need to wait longer than overnight to bake them, place them in the refrigerator, and pull them out to finish rising a couple of hours before baking.

You can also freeze the cinnamon rolls at this point and thaw them to raise and bake later.

For the quick version:  proceed with baking.

Baking The Rolls

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Make sure the center is completely done.

Remove from the oven.  Spread with the caramel frosting and drizzle with the caramel sauce.

Enjoy with a steaming cup of hot apple cider, a warm caramel latte, or a cold glass of milk. 

Savor every bite!  Store any leftover rolls in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week, although I know they’ll never last that long.

Caramel Sauce

To a small saucepan, add the sugar and toast it over medium-high heat until starts to turn a caramel color, stirring constantly.

As soon as it starts to turn a nice caramel brown, immediately add the butter and mix well.

Then add the cream and salt, all while stirring constantly.

Turn off the heat and allow the caramel to cool.  It will thicken as it cools, but can be warmed back up for easy drizzling if necessary.

Caramel Frosting

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and mix well with a hand mixer.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21

Tips

• To gain all of the health benefits from making these with long fermented sourdough, be sure to allow them to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight.  This will ensure that most of the phytic acid and gluten in the flour are consumed by the sourdough starter making these much easier to digest especially if you are gluten intolerant.
• If your sourdough starter is really thin, you may need to add some additional flour to this recipe.  I always mix them until the dough pulls away from the sides of my mixer bowl, or until it’s not super sticky if mixing by hand.
• You can mix these in a mixer (my favorite is a Bosch), or just mix up the dough and do a series of kneading or stretch and folds every few minutes for about an hour to develop the gluten in these rolls.  Then just roll them out, shape and allow to rise until double and then bake.
• My favorite way to cut these cinnamon rolls before baking is with a pizza cutter.  Then I roll each cinnamon roll individually, so it makes each roll look as uniform as possible.
• It is perfectly safe to add the eggs to this dough and still allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature overnight because the good active bacteria in the sourdough starter will prevent any bad bacteria from forming on the eggs.
• You can make the apple pie filling, the frosting and the caramel sauce ahead of time, which makes assembling these rolls fast and easy.

FAQ

More Recipes Like This