The Tragedy of the Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Those words should not even be strung together with "tragedy" out front, but alas, such is the case.

I tried to make these glorious sticky buns the other day and it was pretty much a great and terrible disaster. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman and I don't know why her creations were so beautiful and mine were so terrible.

Actually, I do know why. I tried to cram way too many delicious little fat, fluffy rolls into too few pans. So then they were just sad. I baked them as instructed and the ones in the center were totally doughy and raw--not even a little bit cooked--and then when I popped them back in the oven they all got sort of charred and scorched and the caramel burned and the apples were all brown and dry and all in all, it was not one of my more successful ventures.

But I will not be thwarted! Well, not for eternity, anyway. When I'm brave enough I'll try them again. But with some changes:

1. You know the rolls are going to get real fat. Prepare for that. Maybe you won't get to have the buns in a nice circle shape like the PW because you do not own nearly enough cake pans to make that happen. So give them more room to live! I imagine more space will also prevent the innermost rolls from being too insulated, so they can actually bake. It's hard to say.

2. Any time you're going to be baking with caramel in the bottom of the pan, do yourself a favor, and line the pan with foil first. Everyone will be happier that way. (I usually line the pan with foil when I do cinnamon rolls because it makes the cleanup suck so much less, but for some reason I didn't think that through with these puppies. Even though the recipe has you pour the caramel DIRECTLY ONTO THE PAN. Sometimes, I am not as smart as I like to think I am.)

3. Give the sticky buns a chance to cool a little before you turn them upside-down. The caramel ran straight all over every surface it could find because I think I flipped them way too soon (but I wanted to eat them so bad!) and the caramel sauce didn't have a chance to thicken. So give the babies some time to congeal. The rolls will still be warm, and the caramel will stick be sticky, even after waiting a bit, I bet, so it will still be able to drizzle and cascade over the rolls.

So. Now we know. Or at least, now I hope I am better armed for when I go about this in the future.

Because seriously. Who doesn't want these in their mouth?

Pioneer Woman, you are a cruel mistress.