Okay, so I mentioned on my other post that I’m starting to have a little bit of an obsession with Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. I love it so much, in fact, that after using one of the containers and mixes they sent me to make last night’s amazing Coconut Amaretto Layered Brownies, I decided to buy more of the Starters and Flavor Mixes. In fact, I went to four different stores to locate them, and finally found them at Hy-Vee. Tonight’s creation was made with one of those that I purchased… the oh-so-yummy caramel.

I knew the second I read the flavors for the frostings, I wanted to do something that played on a caramel apple idea. You just can’t beat that pairing of flavors… they are two things that just GO together.

This recipe was easy. I mean, super easy. The hardest part? Not pulling it out of the oven and devouring it while it was baking. It is truly that good.

I’m going to preface this by saying that this is the perfect evening dessert. But it would also be great as a fall treat. Or a brunch. Or mother’s day breakfast. Or church event. Or, really… anything. It is a treat that could truly be enjoyed at any time of day.

So here it goes… my delicious, amazing, caramel apple sticky buns.

You need to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9×9 baking dish. Grab 2 cans of crescent rolls. Unroll your crescent roll dough, and pinch the seams together. You’ll want to do each can of crescent rolls separately in this step- it makes for easier rolling and cutting if you don’t try to roll these super thick.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and spread the melted butter evenly over your spread out crescent rolls. Sprinkle them with 1/2 a cup of white sugar, and 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Optionally, you could also sprinkle this with 1/4 cup walnuts at this step. Now, take two really tart apples. Grate them on top of the cinnamon-sugar-butter mixture on your rolls.

Roll them up. Cut them into 1 inch slices, and position them, cut side up (like a cinnamon roll!) in the pan. Cut another apple into chunks and insert the chunks in any empty-ish looking spots in the pan. You can add another 1/4 cup of walnuts in these empty spaces, too, if you want.

Sprinkle this with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and then shake some cinnamon over the top. Bake it for 40-45 minutes.

While you’re baking it, go ahead and do your frosting. You’ll take 1 container of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter and 1 packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Caramel Flavor Mix. Make a hole in your frosting with a butter knife, pour your powder in, and stir like crazy, making sure it’s all mixed in. When you’ve finally got it all mixed in, wait for your rolls to finish baking.

Pull them out of the oven when they are turning golden brown.

Let them cool for about 5 minutes, then frost with the caramel frosting. It’s going to sink in and it’s going to get gushy, giving them that sticky bun quality.

We found that it was easier to cut them like they were bars or brownies, rather than trying to serve them like a cinnamon roll or sticky bun. Also, these are best WARM! I decided to garnish mine with some apples, and you could also top it with a few walnuts, too, if you wanted.

 

These things were amazing. There’s just enough apple and caramel flavors to really make it very caramel apple-like, but also enough of the dough to really make it more of a sticky bun. It’s that perfect hybrid and I just can’t get enough of it. This flavor of Duncan Hines Flavor Creations is my favorite of the two I’ve tried, and I’m so excited to be bringing some more recipes your way soon! I have so many great ideas for the remaining flavors… I’ve purchased 3 of the remaining ones, but I’m really thinking I may have to turn this into a 12 recipe series with all of the flavors, don’t you? Haha- I have an addiction to this stuff!