First you make the brioche dough. Cut three sticks (twelve ounces) of butter into small pieces and put it back into the refrigerator. (This is a time to splurge on cultured, high-fat, European or European-style butter.) Put two and a half cups of bread flour and a quarter cup of sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined. Bring a couple of inches of water to a boil in a saucepan, and find a heatproof bowl that can sit atop the saucepan without touching the water. Put six large eggs and a quarter-ounce packet of active dry yeast into the bowl and whisk them together. Then set the bowl atop the saucepan of simmering water and whisk the egg-yeast mixture for about a minute, until it is just warm to the touch.

Pour the egg-yeast mixture into the flour-sugar mixture and mix on medium speed (still with the dough hook) for about four minutes, until the dough has come together into a ball. With the machine running, slowly add a tablespoon of kosher salt, and then start adding the refrigerated butter, one piece at a time but quickly. Keep mixing on medium speed for about six minutes, at which point the glossy dough should be slapping against the sides of the bowl.

Take the dough from the bowl and pass it back and forth between your hands for about four minutes, “bouncing it up and down and folding it back into a ball, until the dough begins to tighten.” I would stretch it slightly between my hands, attempt to fold it into a little packet in the air, and then bounce it up and down a little before starting over again. At four minutes it seems to be offering a little more resistance and spring, which means it’s time to plop it into a big buttered bowl. Then you cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow two hours at room temperature for rising.

The dough is supposed to double, but I can never tell, so I just go by time. After two hours, give the dough a few folds: slip your hand underneath and pull the side over the middle three or four times. Re-cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or for at least six hours).

In the morning, the dough will be shockingly hard—all that butter! Pry it from the bowl and roll it out anyway. Muscle it into an eighteen by eight inch rectangle about half an inch thick. Spread a cup of apple butter evenly over the dough, leaving an inch of dough exposed along the top edge. Then roll the dough from the bottom into a log; when you get to the top, press the top edge gently to the outside of the roll to seal. If you have trouble getting the roll started, it sometimes helps to wiggle a bench scraper under the bottom edge. Wrap the log tightly in plastic wrap and freeze until it is firm enough to cut—at least one hour but up to a week.

About an hour before you plan to bake, slice the frozen log into twelve equal pieces. I like to use a serrated knife. (For me, this is the frustrating and difficult part of making sweet rolls. The good news is that no matter how much each roll seems to come undone or leak filling, you just smush them back together and they always turn out fine.) Put the twelve rolls, spiral-side up, into a standard twelve-cup muffin tin. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake the rolls in a 375 degree oven for half an hour, until they are truly golden brown on top. If they still look pale or blond, leave them in until they darken. When they come out of the oven, turn them onto a rack (or, if you, like me, or lazy, leave them in the tin). While they cool just a bit, whisk together a quarter cup of cream and a half cup of confectioners’ sugar. Drizzle the warm rolls with icing and eat.