One of the simple, delicious pleasures of summer (or any time really) is a hearty Dutch oven meal prepared in the great outdoors. Although there are many ways to cook in a Dutch oven, I am going to be cooking with charcoal today. Just the scent of charcoal burning sends aromatic signals of anticipation…you just know that some fabulous dish is close at hand! Today’s recipe is Dutch Oven Caramel Apple Pie made with Rhodes AnyTime!™ Cinnamon Rolls. I love this recipe because it’s easy to prepare and quick to cook. I used 2 bags of AnyTime!™ 9 count Cinnamon Rolls, but you could also used 3 tins of 6 count rolls.

Let’s get outdoors…my mouth is watering already!! Here is what you will need:

• 18 Rhodes AnyTime!™ Cinnamon Rolls, thawed but still cold
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
• ¼ cup chopped pecans

Caramel Icing:

• 2 packets cream cheese frosting (included with rolls)
• 1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping

To begin, get your charcoal fired up in a charcoal chimney or some other similar device.

Next, prepare your Dutch oven. For the purists, you can oil your oven or spray it with non-stick cooking spray and cook it right in the bare oven, but I prefer to make clean-up a snap and line it with heavy foil and spray the foil with cooking spray. Great for busy folks who would rather have time to play than scrub pots!

Now let’s chop the apples. If you need to, you can cut them a little ahead of time and put them in a bowl of water to keep them from browning too much.

Now we’ll cut those delicious-smelling cinnamon rolls into quarters…I’m getting hungry!

Drain the apples and mix them with brown sugar, crackers crumbs, pecans and cinnamon.

Place the cut rolls evenly in the bottom of the Dutch oven…

Cover the rolls with the apple mixture. It should look like this…

Now just put the lid on and add the white-hot charcoal. We prepared this in a 12” oven, so a good rule of thumb is to use that same amount of coals for both the top and the bottom, but then taking 3 from the bottom and adding them to the top so that the majority of the heat is on top. This works out to be about 350°, which is just perfect. We just placed them evenly, top and bottom, in no particular pattern and it turned out perfectly in about 45 minutes.

Ok, are you ready for the grand finale? Mix the caramel with the cream cheese frosting…

…and pour on the gooey goodness, covering the pie with every precious drop!

Now scoop up a big serving for yourself…

…oh mercy, where is my fork!?! This is one of those dishes that will bring choruses of ooohs and ahhhs from all who partake. We served about 20+ people and they all loved it. I hope you’ll give it a try soon!

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