These fluffy cinnamon rolls are filled with a spiced apple filling and topped off with a chai spiced cream cheese glaze! Bake up a batch for your next holiday breakfast or just because!
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I look forward to Christmas morning breakfast with such anticipation each year. While this Christmas morning will be quite different than most, with no family in town filling our home with chatter and laughter, the air will be filled with the wonderful aroma of Christmas breakfast all the same.
These Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Chai Cream Cheese Glaze smell like a Christmas morning dream that you will not want to awaken from!
Fluffy rolls of dough are filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom, along with a delectable spiced apple filling. A cream cheese glaze flavored with chai spice is the cherry on top for these delicious rolls.
These rolls are perfect for Christmas breakfast because they can be prepared the night before and heated on Christmas morning. Enjoy one of these fluffy, spiced-filled rolls (or two!) with your Christmas morning coffee or hot cocoa.
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How to Make These Cinnamon Rolls
Spice Hunter's ground cinnamon and cardamom really bring the flavors to life in these incredible cinnamon rolls. Spice Hunter's spices are made with the highest quality ingredients and I highly recommend trying out their cinnamon and cardamom in these rolls.
Warm milk to around 110 degrees F. I like to do this by placing milk in a microwave-safe bowl and microwaving it for 40-45 seconds. It should be like warm bathwater. Transfer warm milk to the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Add in sugar, egg, egg yolk, and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Next, stir in flour and salt with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
Place dough hook on the stand mixer and knead the dough on medium speed for 8 minutes. The dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky. If you do not have a stand mixer handy, you can use your hands to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes on a well-floured surface.
Transfer dough ball to a large bowl generously coated in oil, cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour to 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in size. This may more or less time depending on the humidity and temperature in your home.
Another tip for the rising dough is to heat your oven to 175 degrees F, turn the oven off, and place the covered bowl of dough in the warm oven to rise for 45 minutes to an hour. This is the method I use in the colder months.
While the dough is rising, prepare the spiced apple mixture. Chop two medium-sized apples into cubes. Heat two tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat and add apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and simmer until apples are softened about 5-7 minutes. Once apples are softened, remove them from heat and allow them to cool to room temperature.
After the dough has doubled in size, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface and roll out into a 14x9 inch rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough, leaving a ¼ inch margin at the far side of the dough.
In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. Use your hands to sprinkle the mixture over the buttered dough, then rub the brown sugar mixture into the butter. Evenly spread the apple mixture on top of the sugar layer. I recommend using a slotted spoon so that all of the juice from the apples doesn't get into the rolls.
Tightly roll dough into a log, starting from the 9-inch side, and place seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough as best you can. You will probably need to cut off about an inch off the ends of the dough as they will not have much filling in them.
Cut into 1-inch sections with a serrated knife or floss. You should get 9 large pieces.
Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 9x9 inch baking pan or round 9-inch pie dish. Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel and let rise again for 30-45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap and towel and bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until they just start to turn golden around the edges. You don't want to overbake them so they remain soft in the middle. Allow rolls to cool for 5-10 minutes before frosting.
Making Chai Spiced Cream Cheese Glaze
Add cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom to a medium bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.
Add in vanilla extract and one tablespoon of milk and beat to combine. Add more milk as necessary to reach desired consistency. You want a spreadable, but slightly thick consistency.
Spread cream cheese glaze over slightly warm rolls with a butter knife. Slice and enjoy!
A Few Notes for Making Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Don't overheat your milk. It should be between 105-115 degrees F. Anything hotter is likely to kill the yeast, which means the cinnamon rolls will not rise. A simple tip is to dip your finger in the milk - it should feel warm similar to warm bath water but not HOT. If you warmed it up too much, simply wait a few minutes until it cools down enough to touch.
Make sure to use room temperature butter for the filling: a lot of recipes call for using melted butter in the filling, but that will cause the filling to leak out before baking. I prefer room temperature butter.
Rub the brown sugar into the butter: after you spread out the softened butter, it's important to rub the brown sugar into the butter and dough so that it's well combined with the butter.
Use a room temperature egg in the dough: if you use a cold egg, there's a chance it could affect the yeast or mix with the melted butter and cause it to coagulate. To bring your eggs to room temperature simply place them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
Make sure you flour your work surface and the rolling pin to prevent the cinnamon rolls from sticking to the surface or the rolling pin.
Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Chai Cream Cheese Glaze can be prepared the night before, then warmed in the oven and frosted the next morning when ready to serve.
You can also prepare them through step 9 of the below recipe, place them in the fridge overnight them allow them to rise at room temperature for 30-45 the next morning before baking.
Here you can find the Spice Hunter spices used for this recipe:
Spice Hunter Cinnamon, Highland Harvested Saigon, Ground
Spice Hunter Cardamom, Guatemalan, Ground
Head over to SpiceHunter.com to check out their full selection of quality spices! And don't forget to use code ASHLEY25 to get 25% off your order of $25 or more plus free shipping! Offer good through 3/31/21!
Recommended tools for this recipe:
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📖 Recipe
Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Chai Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
- ¾ cup warm milk - whole milk recommended, 110 degrees F
- 2 ¼ teaspoons quick rise or active yeast - one ¼-ounce package yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk - room temperature
- ¼ cup unsalted butter - melted
- 3 cups bread or all-purpose flour - plus more for dusting
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar - light brown sugar also works
Brown sugar filling
- 1 ½ tablespoons Spice Hunter ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Spice Hunter ground cardamom
- ¼ cup unsalted butter - softened
Spiced apple filling
- 2 medium apples - chopped into cubes
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Spice Hunter ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon Spice Hunter ground cardamom
Chai cream cheese glaze
- 4 oz cream cheese - room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Spice Hunter ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon Spice Hunter ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Warm milk to around 110 degrees F. I like to do this by placing milk in a microwave safe bowl and microwaving it for 40-45 seconds. It should be like warm bath water. Transfer warm milk to the bowl of a stand mixer mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Add in sugar, egg, egg yolk and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Next stir in flour and salt with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.
- Place dough hook on stand mixer and knead dough on medium speed for 8 minutes. Dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky. If you do not have a stand mixer handy, you can use your hands to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes on a well-floured surface.
- Transfer dough ball to a large bowl generously coated in oil, cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour to 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in size. This may more or less time depending the humidity and temperature in your home.
- Another tip for rising dough is to heat your oven to 175 degrees F, then turn the oven off and place the covered bowl of dough in the warm oven to rise for 45 mins to an hour. This is the method I use in the colder months.
- While dough is rising, prepare spiced apple mixture. Chop two medium sized apples into cubes. Heat two tablespoons of butter over medium high heat and add apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and simmer until apples are softened, about 5-7 minutes. Once apples are softened, remove from heat and allow them to cool to room temperature.
- After dough has doubled in size, transfer dough to a well-floured surface and roll out into a 14x9 inch rectangle. Spread softened butter over dough, leaving a ¼ inch margin at the far side of the dough.
- In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. Use your hands to sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough, then rub the brown sugar mixture into the butter. Evenly spread apple mixture on top of sugar layer. I recommend using a slotted spoon so that all of the juice from the apples doesn't get into the rolls.
- Tightly roll dough into a log, starting from the 9-inch side and place seam side down making sure to seal the edges of the dough as best you can. You will probably need to cut off about an inch off the ends of the dough as they will not have much filling in them.
- Cut into 1-inch sections with a serrated knife or floss. You should get 9 large pieces.
- Place cinnamon rolls in a greased 9x9 inch baking pan or round 9-inch pie dish. Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel and let rise again for 30-45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap and towel and bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until they just start to turn golden around the edges. You don't want to overbake them, so they remain soft in the middle. Allow rolls to cool for 5-10 minutes before frosting.
Chai cream cheese glaze
- Add cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom to a medium bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.
- Add in vanilla extract and one tablespoon of milk and beat to combine. Add more milk as necessary to reach desired consistency. You want a spreadable, but slightly thick consistency.
- Spread cream cheese glaze over slightly warm rolls with a butter knife. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
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