Updated February 15, 2022

Make soft and gooey Crescent Cinnamon Rolls with little bits of apples browned in melted butter. An easy breakfast treat or weeknight dessert. Great for a brunch buffet too.

Making Crescent Cinnamon Rolls the easy way will look like you spent hours in the kitchen but let it be our secret just how easy these delicious treats really are to make.

Whip up a batch of cinnamon roll crescents with simple ingredients. The apple filling is cooked from scratch and paired with crescent roll dough for almost homemade sticky buns.

This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.

Ingredients for Apple Cinnamon Rolls

• 1 pkg. Jumbo crescent rolls
• 2 medium sweet apples, I use Honeycrisp
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, divided
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. Brown sugar, on Amazon here
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon, this brand on Amazon
• 1/4 chopped Pecans, like these from Amazon
• 1/4 cup Raisins, (optional) my favorite brand from Amazon 
• Caramel ice cream syrup, like this one

Directions

Cooking the apples

Step 1

Peel and cut the apples into small chunks for cooking

Step 2

Place ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup brown sugar into skillet and cook on medium heat stirring until butter is melted.

Add cut-up apples to the butter mixture and cook until apples are tender, stirring occasionally.

Step 3

Cook apple mixture with a lid on the pan, removing frequently to stir and replace each time.

Step 4

Once the apples are soft, remove them from heat. Place the apples into a small food chopper and pulse until coarsely ground. Mix the raisins into the apples and set them aside.

Prepare the Crescent Roll dough

Step 1

While the apple mixture is cooking, prepare your work surface. I like to use these disposable counter covers for easy clean up. Sprinkle a little four onto your work surface.

Open your can of crescent roll dough and carefully remove them. Line all of the crescent roll dough up side by side on your work surface and pinch seams together so that you have one big sheet.

Step 2

Use a rolling pin to roll the crescent roll dough out thinner. (It will be uneven on the edges, that is ok)

Step 3

Spread the other ¼ cup of softened butter over the top of the dough.

Step 4

In a small bowl, mix the 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar with the cinnamon. Then sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture over top of the buttery crescent roll dough.

The secret to success is rolling out the crescent rolls so that you get those soft doughy layers we all love in cinnamon rolls.

Step 5

Spread the apple and raisin mixture over top of the dough. Do not drain the melted butter from the mixture.

Step 6 Making the rolls

Starting at one end, gently roll the dough into a log. Take care to roll as tight as possible.

Step 7 Cutting into rolls

Use a serrated knife to slice the log into pieces about 1 inch each.

Tip

One trick for making sure your cinnamon rolls are close to the same size is to cut the entire roll in half. Then cut each half in half and keep doing this until you have about 12 rolls.

Step 8

Prepare a large cookie sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper. Place your cinnamon rolls onto the prepared baking sheet.

Sprinkle chopped pecans on top of each roll.

Step 9 Baking the cinnamon rolls

Bake in preheated oven at 325° for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until dough is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool before adding the caramel drizzle.

Drizzle caramel ice cream topping over each roll.

Serve and enjoy!

The next time I make this, I plan to slather them with this Cream cheese icing recipe.

This is a great recipe to make for Christmas morning, weekend mornings, or a Mother’s Day brunch buffet. You will want to double the recipe if you are feeding a crowd.

More Recipes Using Crescent Rolls

Homemade Crescent Roll Apple Turnovers

Crescent Roll & Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Pecan Apple Raisin Crescents

More Delicious Recipes Using Apples

Roasted Maple Drenched Pork Tenderloin With Apples is a delectable Fall weeknight meal idea.

You can make these apple-stuffed cinnamon rolls for a good fall dessert during apple season or cheat with canned apple pie filling.

Make these Maple Glazed Pork Chops and Apples in the Crockpot for an easy weeknight meal.

You can whip up these Apple Dumplings in the Crockpot in just a few hours. There are only three ingredients involved and if you like, a dollop of ice cream would be perfect on top.

We make the apples on the bottom become the top in this recipe for Upside Down Caramelized Apple Pecan Biscuits. A delicious fall breakfast treat.

Our Gluten-Free Baked Apple Crisp is also free of refined sugar. Loads of deliciousness included fresh apples and that yummy oat and almond topping.