Heat cream, water {or juice}, and sugar to 110 degrees and then add yeast. Let sit until nice and foamy - usually around 10 minutes or so. Add in two cups of flour and use a mixer to combine until nice and smooth. {I used my stand mixer.} Once smooth, add eggs, melted butter, and remaining 2 1/2 c flour and beat until combined.

Transfer the dough to a buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap. {I prefer plastic wrap to a towel because you can see how much the dough has risen without lifting the towel and releasing the heat.} Let the dough sit in a nice, warm place until doubled in size - about 1 hour. I divided my dough into two bowls at this point so it would be easier to work with later.

Let's make the caramel sauce. Homemade caramel sauce is the BEST. You will have to overcome the desire to eat this stuff by the spoonful - your sticky buns need it! Place the butter and brown sugar in a heavy-bottomed pot. Why a heavy pot? Keeps the sugar from burning!

Let it go for a few minutes before stirring. Once the sugar is completely dissovled, add in the cream. Let the mixture come up to a boil without stirring. Let it boil for 1-2 minutes and then turn off the heat and walk away.

Now it's time to prep for the rolls. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and melt the butter.

Peel and dice the apples. If you want to put apples on the bottom of the pan, dice up four. If you just want to put them inside the buns, peel three. I also read somewhere tha it's a good idea to use different types of apples when baking so I used two Granny Smiths and Galas. At least I think they were Galas...the boys picked them at Apple Hill :)

Fill the bottoms of both greased round baking pans with caramel sauce. Use about 1/4 of the caramel sauce for each pan leaving half of the caramel sauce remaining. You want just enough to cover the surface. If your caramel has thickened on you, just heat it up again to make it nice and runny.

If you want apples on the tops of your sticky buns sprinkle some apples onto the caramel sauce now. I did one with apples on top and one without. My hubby and boys both preferred the one with more apples.

Now it's time to make the Sticky Buns. Roll out half the dough onto a well-floured surface. Aim for a rectangle shape - it doesn't have to be perfect! My cutting board measures 14x17 inches so that's what I did but something smaller or larger will work fine too. Spread 4 Tbls melted butter onto the dough.

Sprinkle on half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Drizzle half of the remaining caramel sauce {1/4 of the total amount of caramel sauce} on top. Now sprinkle the apples over the top. You can really add as many or few apples as you want here just make sure you have a nice fine dice.

Roll 'er up! Starting at one long edge, start rolling the dough into a log. I totally want to take a bit of this right now!

Cut the log in half and then make five more cuts so you end up with 12 buns.

Place those sweet little buns into the pan all snuggled up together and looking so yummy!

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for another 30 minutes or so. About halfway through, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place pans in preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until nice and golden.

Let buns cool for abut five minutes.

Run a knife along the edge of the pan and place plate on top. Carefully invert the pan and plate so that the pan is upside down like so:

Use a knife to pull the pan off of the plate. Peek-a-boo!

Voila! Caramel Apple Sticky Buns!