Baked apple dumplings a simple but elegant dish

Baked apple dumplings are literally as easy as pie and one step shorter. I always forget this dessert until there are fresh apples, so this week when I thought of it I decided, even though no one asked, to give you a recipe for them. Only one other apple dessert, apples simply baked, is easier and so much appreciated that when I serve them to company, there are all these appreciative “mm, mms” around the table and people start reminiscing about apples.

A baked apple dumpling is merely a baked apple with pie crust around it. Start with the same nice cooking apples you like for pie. My mother liked Cortlands and Baldwins, and I use them, too, but Granny Smiths are good. Maybe you are lucky and have an old apple tree in your yard that you can harvest from. Why not visit a local orchard and see what they recommend? Maine still has small orchards growing traditional apple varieties, and it is nice to get away from the old Delicious and MacIntosh scene with something like a Wealthy or Wolf River.

A baked apple is good for dessert in a hurry, because all you have to do is core them, put a few raisins in the hole with a bit of brown sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a tiny dot of butter. Put them in the oven at 350 degrees F. for a half-hour to 45 minutes or more until they are soft enough to split and foam a bit. Served hot with some cream or ice cream, they are fine even for company.

If you bake a few more than you need for dinner, they make a nice breakfast. Under the inspiration of the old saying, “Apple pie without the cheese is like a hug without the squeeze,” I thought why not put cheese in the core hole? Or a bit of crumbled bacon, sausage or ham, even a bit of onion? That makes them more a savory than sweet dish, perfect for breakfast or brunch.

Apple dumplings need a bit more planning because you have to make a pastry crust. But rolling it out and wrapping it around the stuffed apple and baking it is no big deal and makes a fancy looking little item. Two hundred years ago, cooks put a pastry-wrapped dumpling in a corner of a pudding cloth and boiled it, but most of us don’t like the over-cooked pasta texture of boiled apple dumplings. To serve them, the dumplings were put on a plate, cut on one side and butter and sugar added to melt into them. That still sounds good to me, and you can do that with your apple dumpling if you want, instead of going the cream or ice cream route.

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Apple Dumplings

Serves as many people as there are apples

Pastry enough for two 9-inch pie crusts

6 to 8 baking apples

Raisins

About 2 teaspoons of brown sugar per apple

A shake of cinnamon per apple

1/2 teaspoon butter per apple (optional)

Optional: About 1 tablespoon of bacon, cheese, ham or sausage per apple

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare the pie crust and divide it loosely into 2-inch balls of pastry and chill. Prepare the apples by coring them (I actually like to use a melon baller for coring). Put in your filling of choice. Roll each ball of pastry into a 6- to 8-inch rounds, and put the apple into the center. Draw the pastry up around the apple, pressing it gently together and over the top. If you feel festive, decorate the top with a leaf shape cut from pastry, and glaze with an egg-white wash. Set each into a baking pan, separated. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the crust is golden and a tester inserted on the apple’s side shows the apple is tender. The baking time may vary depending on the apples you choose.