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caramel apple sourdough cinnamon rolls

Easy Caramel Apple Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls With Caramel Icing

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.  
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Serving Size 12 people

Equipment

  • 1 Stand mixer You can mix these rolls up by hand, but I usually use my Bosch mixer and just mix up the dough while I’m cleaning up supper dishes in the evening.  This makes the rolls fast and easy to make.
  • 1 measuring cups and spoons
  • 1 Rolling Pin
  • 1 Sharp knife or pizza cutter for cutting the rolls.
  • 1 12-inch cast-iron skillet or 9 x 13 baking pan
  • 1 Saucepan (for making the caramel and the apple filling)
  • 1 Medium bowl for making the caramel frosting
  • 1 Hand mixer

Ingredients

Dough Ingredients:

  • ½ cup apple cider or apple juice
  • ½ cup sourdough starter
  • ½ cup softened butter
  • ½ cup sugar or honey
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder optional - (only use if baking right away)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda (optional - only use if baking right away)

Filling Ingredients

  • 4 apples, peeled and diced
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 ½ cups brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ cup cornstarch
  • ½ cup butter (for spreading on the dough)

Caramel Sauce:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 6 Tbl. butter
  • ¼ cup cream
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Caramel Frosting:

  • 4 oz cream cheese
  • ¼ cup butter
  • ¼ cup caramel sauce (recipe above)
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups powdered sugar

Instructions

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, ½ 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 

Notes

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.
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