Once summer starts, my family maintains a constant pile of peaches on the kitchen countertop and replenishes the supply anytime we pull out four or five to bake a pie. We easily eat two or three pies every week. Heck, we’ve even gone through an entire one in a single night with only three people!
While Mom swoons over the shortbread crust (just pat it into the pie pan—no rolling pin required!), I lust over the filling and topping. Sweet juicy peaches with a hint of almond extract. A generous crumble of butter, flour, and brown sugar. Mix them together and OH MY GOODNESS I’d eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of my life! (Or at least every day of the summer.)
But… I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share her recipe with you. It’s been our family’s secret dessert weapon for this long, and I might get in trouble if I spill the peaches beans!
So instead, I took my two favorite parts—the peaches and crumble—and put them into cinnamon rolls! Now I can eat my “peach pie” for breakfast without an ounce of guilt.
Our pile of peaches just started shrinking twice as fast!
These taste best when still warm! To reheat, place one roll in the microwave for 10-13 seconds.
- To prepare the dough, combine the water, yeast, and 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar in a large bowl. Let it sit for 10 minutes, or until frothy. Stir in the remaining sugar, salt, vanilla, and oil. Add in the flour ½ cup at a time, until a sticky dough forms (about 2½ cups, depending on weather and humidity).
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead for 2-4 minutes, adding additional flour as necessary, or until the dough springs back when you press your index finger into it. Lightly coat a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball, and roll around in the bowl until coated with the spray. Let the dough rest while you prepare the filling.
- To prepare the filling, skin and dice the peaches. Mix together with the brown sugar, cinnamon, and almond extract in a small bowl.
- Lightly coat two 9” cake pans with nonstick cooking spray.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean, well-floured surface. Roll into a 12” x 15” rectangle. Spread the filling across the dough, leaving a 1” border on the two longer sides. Roll up, starting from one of the longer sides, and slice into 12 sections. Place 6 cinnamon rolls into each pie pan, putting 1 in the center and the other 5 around the edge. Lightly coat the tops with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the cake pans in a warm, draft-free spot to rise. Lay a sheet of wax paper over the top, and place a clean towel on top of the wax paper. (See Note.) Let the rolls rise for 1½ hours.
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- To prepare the topping, combine the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter using the back of a fork until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Carefully remove the towel and wax paper from the rising rolls, and sprinkle with the topping. Bake at 400° for 14-16 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before serving to allow the juices to set.
Notes: These rolls are meant to be freeform! The filling is messier than traditional ones, and the peach juice may make it hard to maintain the roll shape as you place them in the pan. But I promise that they’re sweet summer taste is worth the effort!
Dice the peaches into fairly small pieces. This makes it easier to cut the roll into 12 segments in Step 5 without as much filling falling out. One reader also suggested adding 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to the peach filling to help their juices thicken during baking.
In Step 5, you lightly coat the tops with nonstick spray to prevent the wax paper from sticking to the rolls during their rise. Alternatively, you could use deep-dish 9” pans or springform 9” pans and just use the towel. The taller sides of these pans will prevent the rolls from sticking to the towel as they rise.
P.S. You can now buy copies of my Table for Two cookbook as gifts! They’re available here for only $3.99!
These look AMAZING! I loveee traditional cinnamon rolls, and I love peaches.!! YES! Your blog is looking so good, did you update some of the aesthetics recently!? And the cookbook..you are coming so far in the blog world!! Much deserved with your wonderful recipes and awesome personality!
Thanks Brittany! Even better, these are vegan — you could have one! 🙂 My brother helped me redesign the theme a little while ago, so it’s really all thanks to him. You are so sweet; I’m really glad I “met” you through blogging!!
These look & sound amazing, Amy! Gotta love fresh peaches in the summer! Can you believe that until a couple of years ago I thought I hated peaches?! Crazy, huh? Glad I figured out what I was missing!
Thanks Karey! That’s great you changed your mind about peaches; they’re everywhere (and really cheap!) during the summer. What happened to change your mind?
YUM. Peaches are just SO summer… And LOVE those nutrition facts!
Thanks Andrea! Those Nutrition Facts almost justify eating a second one… (Okay, I didn’t need any justification. I ate two anyway.)
You’re using “my” secret! Almond extract in peach pie or vegan ice cream, the best! Can’t wait to make these. Thanks.
Guess it’s not as big of a secret as I thought! 😉 I bet your whole family loves all of your peach treats if you always put in almond extract too!
These looked so amazing even before they were baked! I got 16 huge buns. I used 2 1/2 fabulous peaches from Whole Foods. I threw in a little cornstarch to try to keep the juices under control, which I recommend. I also upped the amount of cinnamon quite a bit. I had so many that for the last 5, I chopped up some pecans and made Cinnamon Pecan Peach buns–how much better could something sound?
Anyway, they turned out great, a real keeper! Thanks!
Andrea, that’s such a great tip about the cornstarch! Thank you for sharing. If you don’t mind, I’m going to add that to the “Notes” section of the recipe; I’m sure other readers would love to hear about your trick! (And my mom would love your pecan version — they’re her favorite nut!)
I’d be honored for you to add my ‘trick’ to the notes. 🙂 And yes, pecans are the BEST, that must be why they charge so much for them! I have some beautiful pics of these guys. They were surprising un-messy.
Your trick is now in the recipe notes — thank you again! 🙂 I’d love to see your pictures; it sounds like your rolls may have turned out better than mine!
Why did I move so far away?!?! I want these right now!!
Awww, I definitely would’ve given you some too! I ate way too many as it was, and gave away even more. Hope you’re enjoying your new home! 🙂
These look amazing! I’ve only discovered sweet rolls this year and I”m going to have to make more of them after discovering your recipe. x
Thank you Emma! I’m the same way; I’ve only recently discovered how many options there are besides cinnamon for sweet rolls. I feel like a kid in a candy store with so many different flavors to try!