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Homemade Apple Dumplings

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  • Author: Cindy Gibbs
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American

Description

These Homemade Apple Dumplings will take you back in time.  The apples are cored and filled with a tiny bit of butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and wrapped in a soft pastry dough.  They get finished with a cinnamon sauce that gets poured over them before baking them to a golden brown.  They are a perfect dessert to welcome Fall or for any time of year!


Ingredients

Units Scale

THE SAUCE

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter

THE DOUGH

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup Crisco solid shortening, cold
  • 7 tablespoons milk, very cold

THE APPLES

  • 6 small Granny Smith apples, or Gala or Macintosh
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • Sugar & cinnamon for sprinkling over apples


Instructions

THE SAUCE

  1. Add the water, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and butter to a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce to medium heat and allow to simmer for about 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool while preparing the dough and apples.

THE DOUGH

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until small pieces form in the size of peas.  Add the milk and mix with your hands or a fork just until it forms a ball.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator while you prepare the apples.
  3. Peel and core the apples.  See more below under THE APPLES.
  4. Place the dough on a floured surface.  Pat the dough into a rectangle.  Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the dough into six equal pieces.  See the pictures above the recipe.
  5. Place one piece at a time on a lightly floured surface.  Roll each piece into a thin piece of dough, big enough to come up the sides and to the top of an apple.  The dough doesn’t need to be a perfect square or anything, just big enough.
  6. Place an apple on a piece of rolled out dough.  Place about 1 tablespoon of butter in the hole of the apple.  You can add more if you like, as long as it will fit.  Generously sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top of the apple.
  7. Wrap the dough around the sides of apple and seal it on the top.  I use a bench scraper to go under the dough all around the apple first, to make sure it’s not sticking to the work surface.  Note:  Cupp your hands around the apple, molding the dough upward against the apple.  The dough doesn’t need to be very thick around the apple.  I try to make it as thin as possible.  Besides, you need the excess dough for making leaves and stems.  Pinch off any excess dough on the top of each apple and save it for the stems and leaves.  Make sure there are no openings in the dough.
  8. Place the apples in a buttered  9 x 13 baking dish, making sure they are spaced at least one inch apart.
  9. Roll out the extra dough and use a small leaf cookie cutter to cut leaves.  Then use those dough scraps to form tiny log shapes to use as stems.  If you don’t have a tiny leaf cookie cutter, you can use a sharp knife and form your own leaves.
  10. Place a dough stem on top of each apple, pressing down slightly on the bottom to mold it into the dough on top of the apple.  Form it however you like.  I slightly bend over the top of the stem.  Place a leaf on each side of the stem and slightly press down on the stem of the leave to mold it into the dough on the apple.
  11. Pour the sauce over the dumplings.  Sprinkle with some additional sugar, if desired.  Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes until the pie crust is a golden brown and the apples are tender when tested with a sharp knife.
  12. Spoon the sauce back up over the apples and serve warm with ice cream or your favorite topping.
  13. Refrigerate leftovers for up to three days.
  14. To reheat, place in a microwave for about one minute.  The sauce will be thicker the second day but tastes just as good.

THE APPLES

  1. Peel and core the apples.  Place the apples in a large bowl of ice water if you don’t want them to turn brown.  However, it doesn’t matter if they turn brown.  They are going to be baked anyway.  If you do place them in ice water, make sure you pat them dry with a paper towel before wrapping them in the pie dough.

Notes

  1. I used Granny Smith apples for this recipe.  However, any baking apple will work.
  2. Make sure to use small apples for this recipe.  I’ve tried using the larger apples and they don’t work as well.  There’s not enough dough scraps to make leaves and stems and they also take longer to bake.