Seasoned with Love
Apple Dumplings
Mrs. Eddie Washington
1/2 cup Crisco
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
up to 1/2 cup milk
4 tart, quick cooking apples,* peeled and cored
4 tsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup light brown sugar
Syrup
2 apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar for basting
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. cornstarch to thicken syrup if necessary
*Use Jonathan, Granny Smith or Rome apples
With a spoon, mix Crisco, flour, salt and baking powder to a crumbly consistency. Add enough milk to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into four pieces and roll each out into eight-inch circles or circles big enough to enclose the apple. Place one apple in each piece of dough. Fill the hollow between the halves with 1 tsp. butter. Combine the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and brown sugar and sprinkle into the openings of each apple. Fold up the dough around the apples and place open side up in a baking pan. Bake in 350º oven for about 45 minutes or until apples are done.
Meanwhile, make a syrup by heating up the syrup ingredients, including any leftover filling, in a pan until apples are soft and sugar dissolved. Add cornstarch if necessary. Baste dumplings with the syrup mixture after the apples have been baking for about 20 minutes, spooning on the syrup at 10 minute intervals. Continue baking until the crust is golden.