Apple Ring

Semi-Annual Sweet Rolls

Every six months I make cinnamon rolls. I know . . . that’s an oddly specific timetable for making baked goods, but I’m not the only one who does this. For many members of my church--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--semi-annual General Conference weekend is synonymous with cinnamon rolls. Except this time, it wasn’t. Instead of making my usual rolls, I pulled out this recipe from Grandma’s box. It was time to test the Apple Ring. 

How to make an Apple Ring

As usual, parts of this recipe were vague. As you can see on the card above, the recipe calls for one-half of a basic recipe for sweet rolls. Well, what did that mean? I wasn't sure if Grandma’s idea of a basic recipe would have made twelve sweet rolls or twenty-four. However, I doubted that half of a recipe for twelve rolls would have made enough dough to form a ring. Therefore, I followed a recipe for a dozen sweet rolls and crossed my fingers that it was what Grandma would have had in mind.  

Dough ready, I peeled and cut an apple into small pieces using my Chop Wizard. 

 I then melted the butter. 

Did I brush the melted butter on the dough as the recipe instructed? Nope. Once again, I failed to closely read the recipe, which meant I added the rest of the ingredients to the melted butter. 

I spread this mixture onto my rectangle of dough. It was a bit of a stretch to cover the dough completely. Still, I felt like I was on the right track.  

I rolled it up and pinched the ends together. 

As instructed, I formed the log into a circle, but after the fact, I realized I should have trimmed the ends so they would meet up evenly. 

Next, the instructions told me to “cut ⅔ through and turn pieces up.” I started at the top of the roll of dough and used a serrated knife to saw two-thirds of the way through. 

However, when I went to turn the pieces, I realized I’d done it wrong–they were still attached at the bottom and wouldn’t turn. What I should have done was to cut two-thirds of the way into the roll from the outside of the ring, leaving a small ring of dough in the middle that was still attached. This was easy enough to fix as I sliced the rest of the way through each piece and turned it so that the slices faced upwards, like so.

I let the ring rise until it had doubled, but when I went to put it into the oven, I noticed that little puddles of apple juice had formed around the outside of the ring. Oh no! Would this make my ring soggy? I wasn't sure, but I dabbed up what I could with a paper towel. 

I put the Apple Ring into the oven, and it came out 25 minutes later filling the air with a delicious aroma and looking gorgeous.  

Grandma’s recipe didn’t say anything about icing, but I couldn't imagine sweet rolls without it. I used the cream cheese frosting I typically make for my cinnamon rolls, but once it was spread on, it hid the beautiful swirls.   

The verdict

I cut pieces for each of us,  although tearing them off might have worked just as well. 

Then it was time to answer the real question--would this ring taste as good as it smelled and looked? 

You can probably guess the answer. After all, how does one go wrong with sweet roll dough, apples, cinnamon, and cream cheese frosting? The tang of the apples offset the sweetness of the icing nicely, and the rolls were perfectly baked despite my fear about sogginess.   

There are a few tweaks I might want to try for next time. Now that I know how it’s supposed to be done, I'll cut the rolls thinner and more evenly. I'll make a thinner icing or drizzle it on so that the rolls peek out from beneath. I might also increase the amount of cinnamon. In other words, I will fiddle, even though fiddling isn't necessary. This Apple Ring is nearly perfect as written, and its wreath shape means that it just might make an appearance at our Christmas brunch.  

You will want to try this Apple Ring yourself.