written 10/15/2023
What
Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings: Peeled and Cored apples wrapped in dough and baked
Ingredients
Main: Apples, Brown Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Apple Pie Seasonings (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, or whatever you’d like), Butter (regular or vegan), Dough (handmade or bought pie crust), water/apple juice
Supplies: Peeler, Corer, Baking Dish, Roller, Work Surface, Saucepan, Basting Brush
Optional: Ice Cream
Time
1 hour (peel, core, roll, wrap, and make sauce) + 1 hour (bake) = 2 hours Total
Making
- Choose your apples
- Peel and core them
- Preheat the oven to 375F (190C)
- Acquire and roll out the dough (whether you make it or buy pie crust)
- Place the apple in the middle, and then cut a roughly cross shape
- Using a 2:1 Brown Sugar to White Sugar mix + apple pie spices, put a bit inside the cored-out area, plus a dollop of butter (I topped mine off with some more sugar)
- Add some around the base of the apple
- Wetting the pieces so they stick (I used apple juice), wrap the apple up
- If you’d like, this is where you can get creative with hiding the seams or using them to your decorative advantage (I used some dough to make fun shapes)
- Put apples on a baking dish
- In the saucepan, add butter + brown sugar + apple juice (I used the apple juice from wetting the dough and the sugar mixture)
- Stir it frequently until it becomes a syrupy sauce
- Using a basting brush, brush it onto the surface of the apples
- Bake for 50-55 minutes
- Take it out, and use remaining sauce to drizzle/brush overtop
EAT with ice cream
Notes
I had to bake mine for 1 hour and 30 minutes because I made the mistake of using ALL of the sauce overtop the apples which then created a pool at the bottom of the dish. AVOID THIS. I speculate that’s why it took so long to bake. That’s why I recommend just brushing it overtop and not pouring over the top like most recipes call for
Overbaking causes the apples to dry out and the tops to get super hard especially with the sauce over top
If you don’t like crust (like me), make that dough THIN
I don’t think I’d do this again, instead opting for cut apples in a baking dish and a layer of dough overtop that with fun shapes. I’m not a massive fan of crust
If I were to do it again, though, I’d roll the crust thinner, and maybe add some liquid to the inside of the apple (contemplate leaving the bottom of the apple or making the crust thicker there). It just felt dry even if I did overbake it
Be careful of the seams that will bust open and release any sauce inside