Elevate The Fall Flavors In Your Cinnamon Rolls With This Cozy Spice Blend

Sweet-toothed foodies with a scorching case of fall fever eagerly anticipate the perennial arrival of fall baked goods. To transition a comforting, familiar favorite into the flavor palate of the season, upgrade your classic homemade cinnamon rolls with warming chai spice. Chai spice blends are available to purchase in many grocery stores and from a variety of online retailers. Rani brand chai masala is a flavorful option loaded with warming spice for fall-loving foodies who might want to buy larger quantities for a myriad of seasonal recipes.

Or home cooks can whip up their own batches of chai spice by combining ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and coriander. Other chai spice blends include fennel seed, black peppercorns, star anise, or nutmeg. The benefit of making your own chai spice blend at home is the maximum potential for customization. While it's stocked in your pantry, you could even use your chai spice blend to make other fall-themed recipes like this chai chocolate chip banana bread or this roasted chai apple butter.

To give your cinnamon rolls an autumnal kick, you can either incorporate chai spice into the cinnamon filling, the glaze or frosting, or the actual pillowy dough. Whichever method you choose, serve your chai spiced cinnamon rolls warm from the oven and pair with a cup of hot coffee or cocoa. Or to really drive the flavor profile home, this cozy oat milk chai latte would make an excellent sipper and can be made with the same spice blend from earlier.

Probably the easiest way to add chai spice to your cinnamon rolls without veering from your regular recipe is to stir it into the cinnamon filling. To do it, use three parts chai spice blend to one part cinnamon mixed with the regular amounts of brown sugar, flour, and butter as called for in your recipe. For instance, to alter our classic homemade cinnamon rolls recipe with the chai filling, instead of one tablespoon of ground cinnamon, the filing would be made with ½ tablespoon of ground cinnamon plus 1½ tablespoons of chai spice. Simply brush or sprinkle the filling onto your dough and bake as normal.

To incorporate chai spice into the glaze for your cinnamon rolls, add ¼ teaspoon of chai spice per ½ cup of powdered sugar. Alternatively, if cream cheese frosting is more your style for topping cinnamon rolls, use roughly 1¼ teaspoons of chai spice per six ounces of cream cheese. To bake chai spice directly into your cinnamon roll dough, about 3½ teaspoons of chai spice is enough per dozen cinnamon rolls. Simply whisk it in with the flour and other dry ingredients as you form your dough. If you're making a smaller batch of six cinnamon rolls, reduce the amount of chai spice to 1¾ teaspoons, and so on, adjusting to taste as desired.