Barb's Apple Dumplings

Is there anything better than a warm Homemade Apple Dumpling?  Not today there isn't.
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Before I came to Kentucky I was management in a family style restaurant in the town I lived in.  I worked 5 days a week. During the Fall I would take one of my days off and go to the restaurant and make triple batches of these apple dumplings.  My customers would ask me what day I was going to make them, the next question was always...when will they be done?  They would come in just before they were ready to come out of the oven, have dinner and a warm apple dumpling with a little milk on it for dessert. 

These are the only apple dumplings I've ever made, they're so good, I've never looked for another recipe.  The crust is so very soft, the sauce that's poured over the dumplings before baking and then after it's baked, is just delicious.  Everything about this is pretty much perfect as far as we're concerned.

The very first thing we're going to do is get the sauce made that's poured over the dumplings, it needs to cool before it's poured.  Get your sauce ingredients together, heat on the stove until the butter melts, then I let it come to a boil a minute or two to thicken it a bit.  A note about the amount of cinnamon in the sauce...I always use more, more as in  1 teaspoon instead of 1/8 teaspoon.  I like my apples with some cinnamon!

Making the dough:

Measure the shortening out and put it into the freezer until you have the rest of the dry ingredients together.  It'll be easier to cut into the flour when it's very cold.   Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, then add the milk to the mix all at once. 

Mix the dough with a fork just until it forms a ball.  The dough will be very soft.

Flour your board, you can roll the dough out into one big piece and cut individual patches for the apples to sit on , I take the dough and divide it into 6 equal potions and roll them out individually.  Place your peeled and cored apple in the center of the dough.  Put enough butter into the hole of the apple to fill it.  

 

Sprinkle sugar ( be generous)  over the apple, then sprinkle cinnamon on top.  I've never measured the sugar or cinnamon out, I just sprinkle.

Wrap the dough around the apple until it's completely covered and looks like a ball.   I take it in my hands like a ball and mold it and seal any opening, the dough is very easy to work with.  Check the bottom and top of the apple to make sure there is enough dough at those points so none of the butter , sugar and cinnamon can leak out.  

I decorated the dumplings with the scrapes of dough that were left by making leaves and a stem for the apples.

Put your dumplings in a 13x9 inch pan and space them about an inch apart.  Pour the sauce over each of the apples.

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Sprinkle the apples with sugar and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes.

In our house we eat the dumplings warm with a little milk poured over them or with  a scoop of ice cream.  The apples. the sauce, the dough, the cinnamon...it's so GOOD!!  I hope you love these as much as we do!

 

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Barb's Apple Dumplings

Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1/8 tsp cinnamon ( I use about 1 tsp)

1/8 tsp nutmeg ( I don't use)

2 Tbls butter or margarine

Directions

Place the sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg into a small saucepan.  Bring to boiling point.  Add butter and stir until melted.  Remove from heat and set aside.  ( I put All the sauce ingredients together in the pan, including the butter.  When it comes to a boil, I let it boil a minute or two to thicken a little bit.)

Dough

Ingredients

2 cups enriched flour

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup shortening ( I used Crisco cold)

1/2 cup mlik

6 small Macintosh Apples about 3 inches in diameter ( I used Gala) Peeled and cored. 

Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.  Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender.  Add milk all at once.  Stir with a fork until the dough just forms a ball.  Place in the refrigerator until you have peeled and cored the apples.

Peel and core apples.  You can cut them in half or leave them whole. I leave them whole. You can keep the apples from turning brown by placing them in cold water while you work.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface long enough to fit 6 apples on it.  Cut the dough into six squares. ( I divide the dough in to six equal portions and roll them out individually.)  

 Place the apples on a dough square, fill the center with butter, sprinkle sugar over top then sprinkle cinnamon over top.  

Mold the dough around the apple, making sure there are no opening for the filling to escape from.  Place the apples in a 13x9 inch baking pan. Spacing them about an inch apart.  Pour the sauce over the dumplings , then sprinkle with sugar.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes.  Spoon the sauce on the bottom of the pan over the apple dumplings after they come out of the oven.