This apple season I decided to step outside my norm of making apple pie. For a little background, I'm not a huge pie person. This makes me pretty picky about my pies, they have to be handmade or really it's not worth eating. My three favorite pies are apple (gotta use a tart apple that will hold up to baking) berry (since always homemade I prefer raspberry and blackberry only) and lemon meringue, (the tarter the better!) If this isn't how you make your pies, I'm not saying you are wrong, I just don't want to eat them. That being said, I had an apple peeler/slicer/corer malfunction on me while helping kids make applesauce. The slicer wasn't working so it just peeled the apple, this got me thinking, a whole apple peeled APPLE DUMPLINGS! That sounds delicious and you could really customize it for each person, some might enjoy golden raisins, others hate raisins ( I don't understand the loathing, not my go-to snack but delicious in a bread pudding.) My sister insists brown sugar would be lovely. I decided I also wanted to make a caramel sauce to drizzle over (please hold while I wipe my drool.) So I set out to make dumplings and made sure I had plenty of willing taste testers.
To begin pick firm, tart baking apples. The size of the apple matters here because you leave it whole. If you want smaller portions, pick a smaller apple, or if you don't mind cutting it in half or thirds than a bigger apple would work. I went with larger apples for a ratio of dough to apple I think would be yummy.
Some varieties of apple that will hold up to baking include Granny Smith, Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Pink lady, and Winesap.
Honey Crisp and Pink lady are my two favorite eating apples and Pink lady aren't available until late October so I opted for Honeycrisp for my dumplings. I also opted to listen to my sister and add brown sugar, not use raisins (this time), add a touch of Brandy just for fun (it cooks off), and make salted caramel to drizzle over the top.
prepare pie dough, enough for a double pie, this should give you plenty of dough to work with and depending on apple size you may be able to make 5-6 dumplings. I used the recipe below
all butter pie dough recipe
so I did some research and found a great article which is why I'm using an all butter recipe. I would have subbed out cold vodka for ice water if I'd had any, seriously if we are taking the time to make homemade pie dough, let's make it the best we can! When making pies I will buy store bought because I tend to make 4+ pies at a time for a holiday, Pillsbury works great and I found the Immaculate brand that doesn't have a bunch of stuff I don't wanna feed my family too.
Here is the article, complete with photos if you wanna geek out on baking science:
Butter vs Shortening & Water vs Vodka
peel and core 6 apples (make as many as you want and adjust the recipe, it's just a little math)
My peeler/slicer doesn't have the corer attachment and a friend had recently reminded me of my apple slicing injuries (it involved a mandoline) so I purchased an apple corer.
Roll out the pie dough and cut into roughly 8" squares, recipe above.
Place an apple in the center of a square
add 2 Tablespoons brown sugar; about 1 T down the center hole and remaining Tablespoon sprinkled around outside
add 1 Tablespoon butter to the center of the apple, I just shoved it down knowing it would melt out the bottom too, it will mound a bit and that's fine.
Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on the apple (I didn't measure, use good judgment)
bring the sides of the dough together and pinch, it's easier with slightly wet fingers. I just kept the ice water from making dough for this.
place covered apples in 9"x13" glass pan (I read glass cooks better for dough)
Repeat!
When done, place apples in a preheated 400-degree oven for 50-60 minutes.
While apples are baking make salted caramel.
Best served right after baking with some vanilla ice cream! Delicious!
I forgot to add Brandy! and they were delicious, I'll make another batch and add for comparison and let you know. I did get rave reviews from this batch! -Lo
***I think I need to visit you ASAP. I need this and I want my place to smell like fall! Love, Ro
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