In a pan take all the ingredient for apple filling and cook it for 10-15 minutes until apples soften up and everything looks jammy and thick. There should be no water. (This can be prepared in advance and stored in fridge)

In a large mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients; all-purpose or bread flour (whatever you are using), sugar, instant yeast, salt and milk powder. Set it aside.

In another bowl, whisk together lukewarm 110 F milk, (the milk should not be too hot, it will kill the yeast, and your buns will not rise. Add butter. Whisk it very well. If you are using dry active yeast, then please dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk before adding to the flour. Read tips.

Add this milk mixture, to the flour mix with the help of dough attachment of kitchen aid mixer, let it form dough. Once the dough is formed, remove it on lightly floured surface, knead it for few minutes 5-6 approximately. Do not use too much flour though.

Transfer the dough to clean greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it in warm place in the kitchen for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until the dough is doubled in size. At this stage you can also keep the dough in the refrigerator for a slow overnight rise.

After the dough has doubled in size, transfer it a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll out a rectangle about 12 X 20 inches. We need 6-7 rolls from it. So, it’s important to roll it longer.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the filling ingredients – butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and cinnamon powder. Butter should be at room temperature, otherwise you will not be able to spread it. (This can be prepared in advance too)

Using an offset spatula, spread the cinnamon mixture over the rolled-out dough. Don’t be shy, spread it all over to the edges.

Roll the dough gently, in a log (widthwise) and pinch the edges to seal. Cut the roll into 6 pieces. If you are using a round pan, you can cut it in 7 pieces too. The pieces should be equal in size, approximately 2 inches.

Place the cut sides down on a lightly greased deep dish or baking pan. (it’s important to use slightly deep dish as these will rise while proofing and baking) Leave some space in between them to rise.

Cover them with a plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours. You can visibly see, they would have doubled, would look puffy and the space in between them will be filled up.

After the rolls have risen, pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Place the buns in the preheated oven and bake them until they have golden edges and top, for 30 minutes. Every oven is different, so you might need few extra minutes or few minutes less.

Once baked, remove them from oven. Let the pan cool on a wire rack.

Make cream cheese frosting, while the buns are cooling. Combine all the ingredients for cream cheese frosting and whisk together to mix properly. There should not be any lumps. It should be smooth looking.

Immediately, scoop it on top of each cinnamon rolls while they are still warm. Drizzle some caramel sauce if you like. I used storebought caramel sauce from Ghirardelli.

Serve them warm at room temperature. They can be stored in cool place at room temperature for 2 days, after 2 days they need to be refrigerated in a container. Just remove them from fridge and warm them in a microwave for 15 seconds.