Who knew that crescent rolls, cinnamon sugar apples, brown sugar, butter and sprite could make the best easy apple dumplings with Sprite ever!
Ditch your old apple dumplings recipe. Do it. Ditch it. These easy apple dumplings have a couple of very minor changes that make a HUGE difference and I’m totally not kidding. I’ll never make another apple dumplings recipe again.
This recipe reminds me so much of my grandma’s apple rolls recipe just because that sugar liquid is so deceiving. You pour it all around the rolls and it almost puts you into a panic attack seeing all of that liquid around the dough, like is this really going to work?! Are they going to be a soggy mess?!
And then those golden, crisp, pillows of dough come out and you’re a real life hero to the whole family.
Creating This Apple Dumpling Recipe
This is seriously the craziest apple dessert recipe. Most apple desserts seem to be inspired largely from the way apple pie is made. Think about it: apple crisp, apple pull-apart bread, and apple pie scones are all takes on the classic apple pie.
This apple dumpling recipe is similar, but as I’ve been making recipes from others over the years I felt like there was always something missing. Sure, it is a good recipe and one that your guests will love you for, but couldn’t it be taken up a notch without changing the whole recipe?
We started experimenting, a lot. Too much. I could hardly stand to look at another apple dumpling recipe, let alone the apple dumpling itself.
And then it hit me, when you’re trying to do something awesome and it’s not coming together, go back to the original recipe.
So I did. And do you know what I discovered? The apples were not like an apple pie, they were completely plain. No, no, no! Apples need a little cinnamon sugar action to really drive home that fall smell and flavor!
Well don’t stop there, I thought. We need a little cinnamon action in the butter mixture as well. Too many recipes called for just butter and brown sugar. No. We need more. We added vanilla and cinnamon. Let’s get this party started!