Caramel Apple Cinnamon Roll Bake — The soft and gooey factor of a cinnamon rolls with apples and so much CARAMEL SAUCE!! Easy, ready in 30 minutes, and uses store-bought cinnamon roll dough to save time!
What’s better than cinnamon rolls? Cinnamon rolls with apples and caramel sauce, of course.
I love cinnamon rolls and the moister, softer, and gooier they are, the better. This cinnamon roll casserole with apples delivers big time. It’s one of the best things I’ve made in ages. Seriously. The gooey factor of a Cinnabon plus apples and caramel sauce.
The recipe is easy, ready in 30 minutes, and you don’t even have to make scratch cinnamon roll dough.
I used two tubes of refrigerated Pillsbury cinnamon roll dough, chopped it into pieces, poured a milky egg mixture over the top, before adding apples, frosting, and caramel sauce.
As the dough rises around the apples, the apples become trapped in the dough, and every bite is filled with tender, juicy apples that retain a tiny bit of crunch. A perfect contrast to the chewy, buttery dough.
After baking I added frosting and drizzled salted caramel over the top for an added boost of caramel flavor. Use homemade or storebought.
During baking the apples release juice and there’s a saucy, juicy, caramel mixture at the bottom of the pan that’s so incredibly delicious.
The recipe is perfect for lazy weekend breakfasts, impromptu company, or a special holiday brunch or event. It tastes like you slaved over it but no one has to know you didn’t.
Apple Cinnamon Roll Bake Ingredients
This recipe is essentially doctored up Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with apples. I love it when store-bought shortcuts wind up tasting this good!
Here’s everything you’ll need to make the apple cinnamon rolls with Pillsbury dough:
- Refrigerated cinnamon roll dough
- Eggs
- Milk
- Ground cinnamon
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Butter
- Granny Smith apples
- Brown sugar
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Salted caramel sauce (optional)
How to Make Apple Cinnamon Roll Bake
To prepare the cinnamon roll casserole with apples, follow these basic steps (full instructions given in the recipe card below):
- Cut each cinnamon roll into 9 equal pieces.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, spices, and vanilla.
- Cook the diced apples in a skillet with melted butter and brown sugar. This process will take about 10 minutes.
- Add the prepared cinnamon roll pieces to a foil-lined 9-inch square pan. Top with the egg mixture, followed by the cooked apples. I also like to top my casserole with the icing provided in the cinnamon roll tubes.
- Bake until the top is set in the center and lightly golden brown.
- At this stage, you can either serve the apple cinnamon roll bake OR you can top it with additional homemade frosting and / or caramel sauce. Your choice!
Can This Recipe Be Doubled?
Of course! Double the ingredients and bake in a 9×13-inch pan.
What Kind of Cinnamon Roll Dough Should I Buy?
Any kind you’d like! There are so many varieties on the market now.
I made the apple cinnamon rolls with Pillsbury Cinnabon Reduced Fat dough, but you may use any brand, variety, or flavor you’d like.
You can easily make this recipe gluten-free by using your favorite gluten-free store-bought cinnamon roll rough!
Tips for Making Cinnamon Roll Casserole with Apples
This is a fairly easy recipe to tailor to specific dietary restrictions. For vegan, use non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened cashew milk) and check that your cinnamon roll dough is vegan. For gluten-free, use gluten-free cinnamon roll dough.
You can serve this recipe as a decadent breakfast or dessert. If serving for breakfast, I like to pair it with savory sides like eggs, bacon, or breakfast sausage.
You can always add ice cream or whipped topping if you’re feeling extra decadent, but this is a decadent recipe already and we didn’t need ice cream.
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Caramel Apple Cinnamon Roll Bake
This cinnamon roll recipe with apples and caramel sauce is easy, ready in 30 minutes, and you don’t even have to make scratch cinnamon roll dough. Use two tubes of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough, chop it into pieces, pour a milky egg mixture over the top, before adding apples, frosting, and caramel sauce. As the dough rises around the apples, the apples become trapped in the dough, and every bite is filled with tender, juicy apples. A perfect contrast to the chewy, buttery dough. After baking add frosting and drizzle salted caramel over the top for an added boost of caramel flavor. Perfect for lazy weekend breakfasts, impromptu company, or a special holiday brunch or event.
Ingredients
- two 8-count tubes refrigerated cinnamon roll dough, with icing (I used Pillsbury Cinnabon Reduced Fat
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened cashewmilk)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter butter
- 2 medium/large granny smith apples (about 2 cups), cored and diced small (I did not peel)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons cream or milk (I used unsweetened cashewmilk)
- about 1/3 cup salted caramel sauce (homemade
- vanilla ice cream or whipped topping, optional for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 9×9-inch pan with foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Cut the cinnamon roll dough into 3 even strips, then cut those strips into 3 pieces, making 9 pieces total per cinnamon roll. Scatter in prepared pan, separating the pieces from one another because they stick together if you slice them in stacks; set pan and the icing from the packaging aside.
- To a medium bowl, add the eggs, 1/2 cup milk, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and whisk until smooth; set aside.
- To a large skillet, add the butter and heat over medium-low heat to melt.
- Add the apples, brown sugar, and cook over low heat until the sugar starts to caramelize and thicken, about 10 minutes; stir frequently. Remove pan from heat; set aside.
- Pour the milky egg mixture over the cinnamon rolls, top with the apples and all the caramel sauce in the pan, and evenly drizzle the icing. If the icing is cold, heating it in the microwave for 10 seconds will make drizzling easier.
- Place pan on a baking sheet (insurance against overflow and highly recommended) and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is set in the center and lightly golden brown. Place pan on a wire rack to cool momentarily while you make the frosting.
- To a medium bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons cream or milk, and whisk to combine until smooth.
- Evenly drizzle the frosting and the salted caramel over the rolls, and optionally serve with ice cream or whipped topping. Serve immediately. Cinnamon rolls are best warm and fresh but will keep airtight at room temp for up to 5 days.
Adapted from Buzzfeed
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 621Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 126mgSodium: 557mgCarbohydrates: 92gFiber: 3gSugar: 59gProtein: 9g
More Easy Cinnamon Roll Recipes:
Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Bake — Every bite tastes like the super SOFT, gooey CENTER of a cinnamon roll!! Spiked with pumpkin and flooded with icing, this EASY recipe is an automatic WINNER!!
Overnight Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls – For soft, fluffy, pillowy, perfect cinnamon rolls when you need a larger batch, it’s my go-to. Readers who’ve tried it write with high praise and success!
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls Recipe — Super soft, fluffy, and topped with a cream cheese glaze! Move over Cinnabon, these are better!!
Nutella Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Glaze (Shortcut Recipe) – A can of crescent rolls never tasted so good as when they’re stuffed with Nutella and rolled up. Ready from start to finish in 15 minutes!
1-Hour Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting – Make soft, light, fluffy cinnamon rolls from scratch in 1 hour!
Overnight Eggnog Cinnamon Rolls — The SOFTEST and FLUFFIEST cinnamon rolls with an overnight MAKE-AHEAD option and eggnog frosting adds the perfect touch!! These would be a great make ahead Christmas breakfast option!
Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls — This ultra chocolaty twist on classic cinnamon rolls is made with doctored up chocolate cake mix and oodles of chocolate frosting!! Soft, tender, fluffy, and EASY!! Calling all chocaholics, these are for YOU!!
This looks ahhmazing!! I’m thinking it would be easy to make a gluten free version of this, right? Anyway, this gets me in the mood for fall too! So over this heat!
As long as you know of a good GF premade dough (or if you’re super ambitious you could probably make your own). But yes, some slightly cooler weather would be nice right about now :)
pillsbury has GF dough now! LOVE it
Yay! Great news! Will make this super easy :)
hey girl this looks so yummy!
I had a GF cinnamon roll on the way to my hike yesterday and now all I want to eat are cinnamon rolls all day long, every day. But at $3 each, I need to make them myself, and that seems like a lot of work…which is probably better for my waistline.
$3 each I think is a value in CA! I took Skylar for a small Pinkberry today (fro-yo) and it was 4.95 for the smallest cup ever. Toppings included but still. A black iced coffee at Starbucks is $3 bucks too. But anyway, glad you found a GF cinn roll! That’s great!
You know I’m ALL OVER THIS!!! LOVE.
Honestly one of the best desserts I’ve made in a long time. I had to rehome it :)
I LOVE these flavors all year round!
May as well break out an early ‘fall’ recipe…as it’s 90F in the shade here. lol
This is a nice marriage of apple pie and cinnamon roll and it does look decadent! I rhink the granny smith apples would be a nice balance to the sweetness of the frosting and caramel sauce. This sounds so good right now!
This was the perfect marriage of apple pie and cinnamon rolls. I seriously wish I could make this every week :)
Wow. This is THE fall party dessert. I can’t wait to serve it to mobs of screaming fans! And using salted caramel sauce is definitely the way to go. It’s so much better that way!
You will definitely have a mob of screaming fans after this one! So, so good. One of my faves in a long time!