Joan's Apple Dumplings

This is my sister in law's recipe which gives the dumplings a nice orange taste to them. (reminds me of the Pillsbury orange rolls, but with apples, too) I usually double the recipe and make it sugar free by using splenda. Here is her original recipe and mine is below:

Joan's Apple Dumplings recipe:

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 can crescent rolls
1 c. orange juice
1 c. sugar
1 stick butter
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon

Roll each quarter apple up in a crescent roll. Place in greased baking dish. Mix and boil orange juice, sugar, butter and vanilla. Pour over dumplings. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Sherri's variation:

2 Granny Smith apples, sliced in 8 pieces each, I don't peel them (that's where the vitamins and nutrients are) I have also used red delicious, Fuji, and honey crisp apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 c. orange juice*
2 c. splenda or sugar
2 sticks butter or margarine
2 t. vanilla
2 t. cinnamon

Same directions as Joan's, except I added the cinnamon to the orange juice mixture, too. *Depending on what size apples are used,  you may not need this much liquid. I like my apple dumplings to have enough liquid to pour over them when they are done baking, but not so much that they spill over when transporting them in the car. Bake in a sprayed 9x13 dish for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. YUM!! (I've made this the day before and baked for 40 minutes, since it has been in the refrigerator. Still yummy!) *May need to cook longer than 40 minutes if the apple qtrs are very big. Cover dish with foil to keep the dumplings from burning.

**another friend substituted mountain dew for the orange juice, pouring it over the dumplings before baking, (after boiling the margarine, sugar and cinnamon) and baked for 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. and said it was wonderful! I haven't tried that yet..