These are bundles of joy: easy, indulgent, and a tad mysterious. One of the McCutcheon families concocted this recipe for a church cook off. As the congregation sampled this recipe against all the others submitted by the Sunday church goers it quickly became clear that these dumplings stood out among the crowd. They won over the hearts and stomachs of the entire congregation and won the cook off for the McCutcheon clan.
This idea comes from the tried and true practice of cooking up apple dumplings in soda, often some sort of citrus soda like Mountain Dew or Sprite is used. But I am a big believer in keeping all those nasty preservatives and artificial additives OUT of my cooking. For a few years now, McCutcheon’s has made all-natural sodas in seven tasty flavors (Sarsaparilla, Birch Beer, Grape, Orange Cream, Root Beer, Diet Root Beer, Black Cherry, and Vanilla Cream). The temptation to play around with our sodas and this tried and true classic proved to be too great. I chose to experiment with Vanilla Cream, though I have a feeling Black Cherry or Birch Beer could also prove to be tasty combinations as well. The vanilla cream soda adds a layer of flavor that is pleasant, but almost totally unidentifiable if you don’t know what’s in the recipe. It is scrumptious, Cinnamon-y and all together unexpected. Try these and knock your socks off and maybe those of the rest of the church crowd this coming Sunday.
Church Cook-off Winning Apple Dumpling’s
Ingredients:
- 2 Large Granny Smith Apples
- 2 rolls crescent rolls
- 1 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 bottle McCutcheon’s Soda (Birch or Vanilla Cream)
Preparation:
- Peel and cut the apples into 1/8’s.
- Wrap each slice in a triangle of dough, standing at narrow end of the dough and rolling up.
- Seal the edges
- Please into a greased baking dish, leaving about 1/2-1 inch of space between each bundle.
- Melt the butter, stir in the sugar and cinnamon and then pour over the dumplings.
- Pour the bottle of soda over the whole pan.
- Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until the juices are absorbed and the dumpling’s are cooked through.
- Serve with ice cream or creme fraiche.