Apple Cinnamon Puff Pastry Rolls. Buttery, flaky puff pastry filled with sweet & tangy apples and baked with apple pie spice sugar (not just your average cinnamon sugar!) Serve with or without a cream cheese frosting. Thin out the frosting and do a light drizzle, spread a thick amount over and let it melt, or use it for dipping. With caramelized cinnamon sugar and the beautiful smell of apple pie, this recipe is comforting and delicious and a perfect holiday brunch or breakfast. Who needs a candle when you have these baking in your oven?!
Easier than Making A Cinnamon Roll
While Cinnamon Rolls are really delicious, festive and fun to make, sometimes its too much to deal with yeasted dough and extra hours. This recipe comes together all at once with about 30 minutes of bake time.
My mom makes a phyllo dough cinnamon roll with raisins for Christmas morning every year. I wanted to do something just as simple, but with the delicious flavors of apple pie.
Home Cook's Notes: The Cinnamon Roll Shortcut
Spread the butter evenly: Make sure the softened butter covers the entire sheet of puff pastry. This is the glue to hold that cinnamon sugar to the pastry and helps it to stick.
Roll tightly, but gently:The apples take up extra space compared to the average completely soft cinnamon roll, so take note that there isn't a very tight spiral. You want to keep the apples inside your roll, but don't stretch the puff pastry so that it is too thin. If your rolls feel too soft, or feels stretchy and is ripping, freeze the log for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
Watch for caramelization: Puff pastry should bake until golden brown and fully puffed. Keep an eye on the cinnamon sugar—you want it caramelized, not burnt. In each spiral you will see lots of layers and cooked through apples!
Cut the Apples into matchsticks: The matchstick apples are my FAVORITE apple cinnamon roll hack that no one tells you about. They are skinny so they do not require any pre-cooking as they cook all the way through, and they roll up really well into the puff pastry. We also get the chance to stuff A LOT of apples into the puff pastry allowing for lots of apple flavor.
From the Kitchen
More Holiday Breakfast or Brunch Recipes
Blueberry Puff Pastry Turnovers
Everything Bagel Breakfast Sandwich Casserole
Connect with Me
When you make these Apple Cinnamon Puff Pastry Rolls, I’d love to hear how they turned out! Leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram @quartersoulcrisis. Your feedback helps me improve my recipes and inspires me!
📖 Recipe
Apple Cinnamon Puff Pastry Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 sheets of puff pastry
- 4 large apples, I like a mix of Granny Smith and Honeycrisp
- 8 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
Apple Pie Spiced Sugar
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon apple pie spice
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 5 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 tablespoon butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Thaw Puff Pastry & Preheat oven to 400°: Thaw the puff pastry sheets at room temperature for about 45 minutes, or until they are still cool to the touch but unfold easily without cracking. Once thawed, gently pat or roll out with rolling pin to get rid of the indents.
- Prep Apples: While waiting for puff pastry to thaw, peel the apples and slice them into very thin matchsticks. Cut apple in half, then cut the halves into slices, and the slices into matchsticks as thin as possible. I like about ⅛ inch.
- Assemble Cinnamon Rolls: Spread ½ the softened butter over a sheet of puff pastry. Sprinkle ½ the cinnamon sugar mixture over the butter and gently press it in with your hands. Lay the ½ apple matchsticks in a horizontal layer over the sugar. This can be haphazard, you just want them all horizontal and evenly dispersed. Roll the puff pastry tightly, but gently, into a log, then carefully slice each log into 6 even rolls. Repeat using the other ½ with the other sheet of puff pastry.
- Bake the Rolls: Grease an 8- or 9-inch baking dish or line with piece of parchment (sometimes they can stick!) and arrange the rolls close together in the dish. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown and puffed up
- Make Cream Cheese Frosting: While rolls bake, make cream cheese frosting. In 10 second intervals, soften your cream cheese (its okay if it's a little melted). Whisk cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until combined (use spatula, whisk or hand mixer). Add powdered sugar. The choice is yours - thin with milk to drizzle light frosting over the rolls before serving or serve thinned frosting for dipping. Or leave the frosting thick and spread on the rolls right when they come out of the oven.
- Serve warm with Cream cheese frosting or without.
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