Homemade Apple Dumplings Recipe
Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 Tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons butter
Dough Ingredients:
Making the Dough for Apple Dumplings:
Measure the shortening out and put it into the freezer until you have the rest of the dry ingredients together. It will be easier to cut the shortening into the flour when it’s very cold. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, or you can get your hands in the bowl and rub the mixture between your fingers 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 equally sized dough patches for the apples to sit on or 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 the two equally over each dumpling.
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 after I wrap the apple in dough and mold it around the apple 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.
Decorating the Dumpling
I decorated the dumplings with the scrapes of dough that were left by making two leaves and a stem for the dumplings. For years I made the leaves by just cutting out two oval shapes of dough for each apple and just putting lines on them with a sharp knife to make it look like a leave. If you look online you can find little leaf cutters that do a fantastic job of making pretty leaves for the dumplings.
Pour the sauce we made earlier over top of each apple dumpling. Sprinkle the apples with sugar and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. In my house we eat the dumplings warm with a little milk poured over them or with a scoop of ice cream. After the dumplings are baked you can take any sauce in the pan and coat the apples one more time before you serve them. The apples. the sauce, the dough, the cinnamon…it’s so good, ENJOY!
Homemade Apple Dumplings Recipe, I hope you love these as much as I do!
PIN IT FOR LATER
Homemade Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
- Sauce Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbls butter
Dough Ingredients
- 2 cups all flour
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup Crisco shortening
- 1/2 cup milk
- 6 small Macintosh or Gala Apples about 3 inches in diameter Peeled and cored. Do not cut in half I used Gala, leave them whole.
Instructions
- Make the sauce first so it has time to cool down.
- Make the dough and refrigerate it until you have peeled and cored your apples.
Sauce Directions
- I put all the sauce ingredients together in a medium saucepan. When it comes to a boil, I let it boil a minute or two to thicken a little bit.
For the dough
- 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 the apples. You can keep the apples from turning brown by placing them in cold water while you work.
- I divide the dough into six equal portions and roll them out on a lightly floured surface individually. You can also roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface long enough to fit 6 apples on it and cut the dough into six squares.
- 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.
Video
OMG! I need to make these gorgeous little cuties! Can I use butter instead of shortening? I pinned this! =D
Butter is v good option …go ahed happycooking
can you tell me what shortening is
Crisco – I make my pie crust with lard.
Lillian, I wouldn’t use butter, I’d stick with he shortening. I’ve never made them with butter and I wouldn’t want you to try and have it not work!
Anonymous….I used Crisco shortening…it’s a vegetable shortening. Here’s a link to show you what shortening is…http://www.crisco.com/Products/Category.aspx?GroupID=17
Do you know of a vanilla sauce recipe…. like K-mart used to put over them?
It’s actually vanilla pudding warmed up. My parents used to take us kids to Kmart’s cafeteria for them and that’s what they used.
The brand is Thank You and it’s not easy to find anymore. Kroger is the only place we can find it where I live in Michigan.
It’s amazing and I just made these with the vanilla pudding heated up. Pure heaven!! 🙂
Oh my gosh I have to try it on the apple dumplings! Thank you so much Cas143cas!
Vishnu manohar the chef thanks for helping Lillian Chef!
Anonymous, I found a Vanilla Sauce that went with another dumpling recipe, here it is….
Vanilla Sauce (see note)
about 1¼ cups
1 tablespoon flour
1 to 2 tablespoon(s) sugar or the equivalent of 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar in granulated sugar substitute
1 cup light cream or half-and-half (see note)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine (see note)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (see note)
In a small heavy saucepan, combine flour and sugar. Gradually add cream, blending well. Add butter. Cook, stirring constantly, over moderate heat until sauce is bubbly hot. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled over Easy Baked Fudge Pudding or other desired dessert. Store, sealed, in an airtight glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Note: May substitute a commercial Vanilla Sauce, if desired.
Note: May substitute milk or reduced-fat or skim milk for cream. May also omit butter or margarine, if desired. Flavor will not be as rich.
Note: Use pure vanilla extract rather than artificial vanilla flavoring.
very cool of you to do o much follow-up here. I will be pinning this. I have to find a sub for the lard ( crisco) but looks great!
Thank you Lisa!
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. It’s apple season here in Maine & I can’t wait to try your recipe! You are just so helpful to people posting comments. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Rose for visiting! I hope you come often!
I had no shortening except butter and they turned out fine, thanks for posting such detailed instructions, made all the difference between “afraid to fail” and “courage to try”. They were awesome!!
Joan thank you so much for coming and telling me you made them! You have no idea how much I enjoy hearing you made them and loved them! You are a sweetheart!
Could you add chopped walnuts to the filling?
thank u sooo much for the recipes luks heavenly .I will defenitely try. thank u soo much.
Anonymous, YES you could put nuts in with the butter, sugar and cinnamon. I’d crush them though they’ll go in better that way.
Rema, thank you so much for stopping by! Hope you love them as much as we do!
I like to use lard instead of shortening, do you think that would work? Also, do you think I could make these three night before and keep them in the fridge? Thanks much, this looks wonderful.
I like to use lard instead of shortening, do you think that would work? Also, do you think I could make these three night before and keep them in the fridge? Thanks much, this looks wonderful.
Anonymous, lard would be fine for a sub for the shortening.
Fabulous recipe, thank you for sharing.
When I make baked apple I add Cinnamon Hots candy pieces. When I made this recipe I added them in the center of the apples as well as in the sauce. When the sauce is poured over the pastry it looks like a red apple – so pretty!
where do you buy the leaf cookie cutter?
I pinned this recipe too. Yours look awesome! I have to get a few ingredients and then I am going to try my luck at them this week.