I am no Martha Stewart, and I’m definitely not the Pioneer Woman. Dishes that come out of my kitchen can be best described as “semi-homemade.” I recently needed a recipe for a dessert to bring to a potluck, and I was searching for something that was quick, easy, and felt like fall. Buckle up, ladies, because this cinnamon bread recipe is all three, and in my humble opinion, it tastes even better than Dollywood’s famous cinnamon bread. I left my potluck with a nearly empty dish, and if that isn’t the measuring stick of kitchen success, I don’t know what is.
What you will need: 
- A loaf pan or a square pan (make sure it’s not too shallow)
- A medium sized saucepan
- 2 Granny Smith apples
- 2 tubes of canned crescent roll dough
- 8 oz lemon lime soda
- 1.5 sticks of butter
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
Directions:
Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350F. Peel and slice the Granny Smith apples.
Open up the cans of refrigerated dough and unroll them. Put an apple slice in each triangle before rolling up the crescent roll, almost like you’re making a pig in a blanket. This will end up making your bread taste like apple pie, but without the hassle of actually making an apple pie. 
Smush the crescent rolls into the pan right next to each other. As they bake, you’re going to want them to become half bread/half dumpling. If you have enough crescent rolls, you can make a second layer and start piling them on top of the others. You will likely have leftover apple slices as well. Slide those in between the crescent rolls in the pan.
Put a medium-sized saucepan on the stove and set it at medium heat. Melt your stick and a half of butter, continuously stirring while slowly adding in the cup of brown sugar. Sprinkle in the pinch of salt and the tablespoon of cinnamon and keep stirring until everything is fully mixed, melted, and just a little bit bubbly. This is where the magic really happens.
Pour that magic sauce all over the crescent rolls in the pan until they are fully coated. It’s going to look really soupy, but trust me — it will cook down. Make sure that your pan is deep enough and your sauce/crescent rolls aren’t too close to the top of the pan. You need to leave some room for the bread to rise, and you don’t want your sauce to bubble up and run over the sides, burning the bottom of your oven (not very magical at all). That happened to me once, and there was so much smoke, I thought I was going to have to call the fire department.
This is the weirdest step: you’re going to crack open your lemon lime soda and pour it around the perimeter of the pan. Focus on the sides (don’t pour it directly into the middle) and let the carbonation really foam together with the sauce that’s already there. You may not need to use the entire 8 ounces. If it looks like the level of liquid is getting too high in your pan, definitely stop pouring (I cannot stress the risk of the burning oven situation enough).
Your oven should be done pre-heating by now. You’re going to want to bake this for 30 to 35 minutes. Test it out if you can when you remove it from the oven to ensure that you’ve got a bread/dumpling consistency and it’s not too doughy in the middle. Serve it warm (but honestly, it’s still good if you’re eating it directly out of the pan that you pulled from your fridge at 11:30pm while watching bad reality TV…don’t ask me how I know).
