Imagine what would happen if an apple pastry and a cinnamon roll had a baby. You would have the tactile pleasure of pulling part perfectly baked dough spirals combined with the fresh bite of sweet apples and cinnamon. Sticky fingers are guaranteed.

These are slightly sweet but not so much that they would be out of place at breakfast. If you have a particularly insistent sweet-tooth, these can be topped with a light vanilla icing.

Makes 12 rolls

Ingredients:

• Dough
  • 1 cup milk (any kind, I used whole milk)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 tsp quick-rise yeast
  • 4 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 egg yolk (save the egg white for later)
• Filling and Decoration
  • 1 cup apple butter
  • 1 egg white

Directions:

Dough:

1. Place milk (1 cup) and butter (1/4) cup in small saucepan or microwaveable dish
2. Heat milk and butter until butter melts, set aside and let cool to luke-warm
3. Stir yeast (2 tsp) into milk mixture
4. Combine flour (4 cups), sugar (1/2 cup) and salt (1/2 tsp) and stir
5. Add dry ingredients and egg yolk to milk mixture in large bowl or bowl of stand mixer
6. Knead together for 8-10 minutes (I suggest using the dough hook on your stand mixer, but if it is arm-day then you can absolutely do this by hand)
7. Cover dough and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour

Filling and Assembly:

1. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch (just over 1 cm) thick, try to make it as rectangular as possible
2. Brush with apple butter (1 cup), spread it evenly right to the edges except leave about one inch (2.5 cm) of one long edge clean
3. Roll dough into a spiral working towards the clean edge, you will need to do this a bit loosely so that the apple butter filling doesn’t squeeze out
4. Brush the clean edge with a bit of egg white to help the roll seal
5. Slice the roll into 12 pieces and arrange in a greased 8×13 casserole dish (or similar)
6. Set aside in a warm place for 30-40 minutes to rise a bit more
7. Brush rolls with a bit more of the egg white (to help them brown)
8. Once the rolls have plumped up again and are about doubled in size, preheat oven to 400 degrees f
9. Bake 10 minutes, until brown and delicious-looking
10. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking dish

Notes:

• No matter how careful you are, the rolls made from the end pieces are going to look a little bit funny. Don’t worry about it. When I say above that this recipe makes 12 rolls, what I really mean is that it makes 10 plus 2 for the cook.

• These don’t have any preservatives in them so they are best eaten the day they are made. If you have some leftover (are you ok?) throw them in the freezer and they will be ready and waiting for you next time.