Friday, September 4, 2009

Easy (and Amazing!) Apple Dumplings

We are back up! We are SO very sorry that the blog has been inaccessible for the last two days! Other bloggers, if you're having trouble, try removing the Print Friendly widget. It was too good to be true...



Okay, this recipe goes against everything I stand for. I'm a staunch supporter of homemade pie crusts and am not a huge fan of refrigerated crescent rolls. Cooking with soda is one of those Southern traditions like eating squirrel and pickling okra that I just have a hard time getting behind. And yet...this is easily in my top 3 dessert recipes. Ever. It is up there with pizzookies and that is saying a lot. Maybe it's the radioactive nature of Mountain Dew or the sheer amount of butter involved, but these are A. MAZ. ING. Food-gasmic. Dumplightful, as my husband once called them. Okay, we might be heading in the wrong direction here...


I first found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog. From many vehement comments over there, I discovered that this recipe has dark and mysterious origins--some people claim it comes from Allrecipes, others say that it's from an old Pillsbury cookbook, their grandma, or Recipezaar. I don't know what the truth is, but I do know that the world is a happier place with magical Mountain Dew-spiked slices of apple wrapped in cheap, canned pastry. So no knocking these until you've tried them. Seriously.

Apple Dumplings

2 medium Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
cinnamon (for sprinkling)
12 oz. (1 can) Mountain Dew or Sprite. This bottle is WAY too much Mountain Dew, but apparently it is no longer possible to buy a single can of soda without making a deal with the Devil himself.



Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Peel apples and cut into 8ths. This is where I started breaking rules because I'm a lazy kind of girl and if I had to hand-peel and core apples, they would never get peeled or cored. So I used my apple corer peeler (which slices the apples for me),

cut the cored, peeled, sliced apple in half, and then divided each apple into 8ths.


Open a can of crescent roll dough and carefully separate the dough along the perforations. Place 1/8 of an apple on one segment of dough

and then roll/wrap the apple in the dough. Place in the prepared pan and repeat with remaining apples and dough. Set aside.



In a medium saucepan, melt butter and add sugar and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour butter/sugar mixture over the apples, then pour the can of Mountain Dew (or Sprite, although I've never actually tried it), on top of everything. Sprinkle the pan with cinnamon and bake for 40 minutes.



When the dumplings are done, remove from oven and serve with a ladle-ful of sauce. I usually plan on two dumplings per person, before they go back for seconds. And then breakfast. Then second breakfast. Then a little snack. For true transcendent awesomeness, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


37 Click HERE to leave a comment:

Mary Kelly said...

Honestly, this recipe seems way weird but I trust you guys. Mt. Dew is the sweetest soda out there so why not incorporate it into a dessert right?

Wehrle said...

YUM!!! I really want to make these!! Thanks!

Jessica said...

Love the easy dumpling recipe. My grandma makes THE best dumplings but I'm pretty sure they take 3 days to make. So I'm a fan of the shortcut.

CrystalsCozyKitchen said...

Those look REALLY delicious! The Mountain Dew is a little out there... but hey if it works.

Aubri said...

My awesome neighbor brought me a couple of these last summer...wow...they were good. I'm also a home made pastry, no soda type of gal, but I agree...don't knock it 'till you try it!

OREGON SOUTHWORTHS said...

Yes! I can finally comment!! Can't wait to try these - I'm always looking for a quick-n-easy dessert because we seem to have lots of last-minute visitors on Sunday evenings. Now I just need to remember to keep some of this on-hand!

Brookie said...

i just found this blog and i have been looking over all of your recipes for the last few hours and have been planning a menu for my family...they all look sooo yummy!! this is my new favorite blog. i can't wait to try these out.
thanks for sharing your talent of cooking with us:)

Emily said...

Oooo - I've made these before from PW's blog and they are SOOOO sinfully good!! Seriously.

Love your recipes!!

Fuji Mama said...

Oooh, how fun! These look great, despite their possibly sordid origins! Thanks for the heads up about the Print Friendly Button too--I've been going crazy trying to figure out what the issue was on my blog...PROBLEM FIXED!

Jen @ My Kitchen Addiction said...

Mmm... Sounds so tasty! I love apple dumplings. Just bought a big bag of apples, too!

Megan said...

I'm glad your blog is back again! That was just wrong to be able to see the post behind the IE warning but not be able to scroll down to read more! =)

Brookie said...

hi ladies,
i made your baked scones and homemade honey butter for my family this morning and it was delicious!! i have a question though, how do you store the left over honey butter? in the fridge or shelf? i have never made it before, so i am not sure. thank you.

Sara @ Our Best Bites said...

Glad you liked it Brooke! I store it in the fridge. It does harden when chilled, but you can soften it again by putting it in the microwave at half-power for about 30 seconds.

Danee said...

I endeavor to visit your site on a full stomach. It's hopeless if I visit hungry. Even on a full tummy, I couldn't resist these apple dumplings. Made them today and they are better than good. Thanks!

Mrs said...

My dad actually made these for us! He's a little on the lazy side so he didn't peel the apples (and used sprite) but they were still delicious. The other thing he did differently was to make them in a dutch oven! I guess they have also been adapted by the boy scouts as a camping dessert.

Linda said...
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Linda said...

Um, wow. We made these for girls night tonight. We were skeptical, with the soda and the butter to apple ratio :), but you haven't let us down yet and seriously, amazing! When are you coming out with a cookbook?

Denissa said...

Yum, my husband would LOVE those!! Just wanted to leave a comment to say that I absolutely LOVE your blog!!!! I'm new to it and last week I made 4 new recipes from your blog and every single one was delicious!! Thanks for much for sharing, can't wait to try some more. By the way I think that the Pizza rolls will be one of our weekly staples!! My boys devoured them :)

Margaret said...

I just wanted to let you know, after watching Julia and Julie - OUR BEST BITES is my FAVORITE BLOG! I thought I should let you know :) I was SO bummed when I couldn't log on for 2 days...it felt like forever..and I knew you had something wonderful for me to cook this weekend! I have been following you for quite sometime, and you never let me down. THANKS!

Kate said...

Margaret, you totally made my night! :) And can you believe I haven't seen Julie and Julia yet?? I'm hoping to go with my friend this week if I can manage to shake off the kiddos and the husband...

Jeni said...

Delicious! I baked them this morning for Labor Day breakfast. I halved the recipe though, and it was perfect. Not too many leftovers!

Kate said...

Jeni, I love that you skipped dessert and moved straight on to breakfast. That's why we're friends... :)

Jessica said...

These were amazing! I was with Linda (above) for our girls night when we made the dumplings. Way delish, and oh so easy. Most of our girls nights revolve around some sort of food we decide to make, and 98%of the time it's a BestBites recipe. We have a blast everytime! Thanks for making girls night Yummy.

MEG said...

Okay so I saw this post last minute before going to our family cabin for the weekend. Since it seemed so easy, and the ingredients were all a quick-grab at the grocery store, I decided to give it a try. Besides, Mountain Dew is my beverage of choice - how could I go wrong there? The only issue was trying to keep my husband and brother from drinking my prized bottle of "Dewski" before I could put the dumplings together!

The dumplings were FANTASTIC! They made a HUGE HIT! There were 12 people at the cabin so I doubled the recipe. When I started serving them up a huge line formed in the kitchen. They were gone within about 10 minutes. I can't wait to take them to a family dinner at my husband's sister's house!

Thanks so much for the recipe!!!!

Amy said...

These do look easy AND tasty too! Will be bookmarking this one for apple season which is coming right up. Thanks for sharing.

Mandy said...

I made these today with my little girls - SO AWESOME! I could only find Diet Mtn Dew, so I went with it. Still tasted amazing (and had less calories...every little bit counts, right?!) Thanks for the yumminess!

Patti said...

I made these twice right after Ree posted them and used Sprite instead of Mt Dew since I had Sprite on-hand. It turned out great both times!

Danielle said...

These are way good they make them at McKay but they have about 700 cals each with the recipe they use here!

Laura said...

I liked the top half of these a lot, but the bottom half seemed like there was WAY too much butter. Couldn't figure out why they were sopping on the bottom. Were they like that for everyone or did I do something wrong?

CorazonArt said...

So... made these tonight with a little less butter/sugar and used Virgil's Microbrewed Creamsoda instead of Mt.Dew. Totally forgot the cinnamon but had added in a small touch of nutmeg. Also added in a very small honeycrunch apple with the grannysmith. Overall: Sweet and Fantastic! Guess what I'm baking at the Apple BakeOff this weekend? :) Thank you!

Oh, made the pizza rolls for dinner too, tasty! Thanks again!

akpena said...

wow mom...u really outdid urself this time!!! those were the exact words of my daughter and my husband...they were so delicious we couldnt believe it...and it was sooo easy to make making it harder to believe it was so easy. i just found this page and im so glad...thank u so much!!

Audrey said...

Yowza -- these were amazing, but incredibly sweet. I'd only use about a 1/2 cup of sugar next time around. They really do go great hot out of the oven with a big dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Skinner Family said...

I must say I was apprehensive about trying this, but they are AMAZING! Worked well with sprite. Added a little nutmeg on top as well and they are out of this world, made the recipe three times in a few weeks. Halved the butter though, and you don't even miss it!

christydye said...
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christydye said...

My husband who is not a dessert eater loves these. It is wonderful to finally have a desert that I make that he will eat! Who knew Mountain Dew would be the secret ingredient to make it so YUMMY! Thanks for the amazing blog. I love every recipe that I have tried!

SusanW said...

I made these two times over Christmas and they are a huge hit with my family. They are so easy and they turned out beautiful and delicious. Thanks for making me look so good.

busy mom said...

I made some like this last yr at christmas and I used apple juice and they turned out so good. Thanks for posting all your recipes ( real food).

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