Apple Dumplings

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hrs
  • Servings: 6
  • About This Recipe

    “This is from an Amish recipe book and truly delicious!”

    Ingredients

    Dumplings

  • 6mediumapples
  • 2cupsflour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoonsbaking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoonsalt
  • 2/3 cupshortening
  • 1/2 cupmilk
  • Sauce

  • 2cupsbrown sugar
  • 2cupswater
  • 1/4 teaspooncinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoonnutmeg
  • 1/4 cupbutter
  • Directions

  • Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
  • Peel and core apples.
  • Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  • Cut in shortening until crumbs are size of small peas.
  • Sprinkle milk over mixture, and press crumbs together lightly, working dough only enough to hold it together.
  • Roll dough as for pastry, and cut into 6 squares.
  • Place an apple on each square and fold pastry to surround apple.
  • Place in a casserole dish.
  • Combine brown sugar, water, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan.
  • Cook for 5 minutes then remove from heat.
  • add butter and stir.
  • Pour sauce over dumplings.
  • Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, brush pastry with sauce twice during baking.
  • Reviews

  • “Perfect!”

  • “Oh Soooooo Gooood, Delicious. These apple dumplings are like my mother use to make. I have been looking for a REALLY GOOD recipe, this is it. My husband had the last one for breakfast this morning.”

  • “This is my mom’s recipe, one I’ve been baking for more than 40 years! For the sauce, we always used white sugar and tinted it a pale pink (and only 1 1/2 cups of sugar and water, each).I’m going to try the brown sugar version next time! We use an old apple peeler/corer machine which also slices the apple but leaves it in a whole spiral.We sprinkle the apple with cinnamon and sugar and dot a bit of butter in the core. Then it gets wrapped in the dough.
    These can be frozen successfully, too.I place the unbaked dumplings on a baking sheet and freeze them,then package them in zip bags.I make the syrup up as I thaw the dumplings on defrost in the microwave (5 minutes will do it).Then, I nestle the dumplings in the baking dish, pour on 1/2 the syrup, bake for 20 minutes, then pour on the remaining syrup, sprinkle with some sanding sugar (for sparkle) and bake 20 to 25 minutes more.That gooey sauce in the bottom, and yes, the soggy bottom of the dumpling crust, is just wonderful! Thanks for posting this…now I’ll always know where to find this recipe!”

  • “These are easy to make. I used my peeler, coer and spiral cutter to prepare the apples and then filled the core with blueberries. This was a nice easy treat to make. Thanks for the recipe.”

  • “I made these today..delicious.the only thing I did differently was I added the sauce in the last 15 minutes so the dumplings wouldn’t get soggy.Served with vanilla ice cream.These were wonderful”

  • “Very easy to make.I had smaller apples and used a 8X8 glass pan so I had to divide one apple into quarters to make them fit.I didn’t even roll out the dough.I divided it into balls and just pressed them out on a plate.Yum.”

  • “Authentic and perfect!I grew up in Lancaster County, the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and this recipe is definitely the one.Apple dumplings must be done with brown sugar and the soggy (but cooked) bottom shell is just part of the heavenly taste. I’ve always made my dumplings without a recipe, so thanks for putting it in print –“

  • “Great recipe!!!Was a little nervous about the amount of sauce while pouring it over the dumplings, but it produced a thick, rich sauce that was perfect.Had to cook it a little longer to make sure the dough was sufficently cooked in the sauce.”

  • “Oh wow these were delicious!Dessert or even a special treat breakfast.Simple, wonderful presentation and full of comfort flavor.”

  • “wow this was amazing! Rolling it out didn’t work so I just kind of covered the apples with the dough by hand. I didn’t have nutmeg so I doubled the cinnamon….delicious!”

  • “Made this tonight and was pretty good.I was in a hurry so I used premade pie crust and I think it would be better with the crust recipe posted.I will make again using that crust.Thanks.”

  • “MMMMMMMMMMMM! Thanks so much for this one,”

  • “Thanks for making me look like a cooking goddess!This was some serious comfort food with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream on the side.People licked the dish clean, it was so good.”

  • “This was outstanding. I used golden delicious apples. I followed the recipe exactly. I was looking for a apple dumpling recipe that used whole apples. I also made this for the “Bake-A-Thon for Cool Monday. Thanks Birgit 2 for sharing such a wonderful recipe.”

  • “this is perfect.my MIL said her mom would put homemade dumplings in their lunch bags & this was close, but even more delicious w/the sauce!”

  • “My family loved it but I made a few changes.I filled my pastry with crab apples that were cut and frozen in my freezer [skin on], but I thawed the apples first.I just took a handful and wrapped the pastry around it to form a ball.Then I rolled the ball in cinnamon sugar [white sugar] because I was scared that the apples might be too tart.I baked in the oven for 45 minutes (some of my pastry balls fell open, but still delicious!)I was unsure about the directions to “cook [the sauce] for 5 minutes then remove from heat.Do I boil?I didn’t.I heated it until steaming then I melted the butter.The sauce thickened in the oven and was beautiful.I probably didn’t need the extra cinn.sugar, for the sauce was sweet, sweet, sweet!I will use a full teaspoon of cinnamon in the sauce next time, though.”

  • “My husband–who does not like apple desserts–loved these.I had to make them dairy- and soy-free, so I used water in place of milk and olive oil in place of butter.I was surprised at how easy it was to make these, will definitely make them again (with the milk and butter next time!)”

  • “Mmmm! Very good.My Dad gave me the thumbs up which really means a lot!”

  • “My husband’s greatest weakness is apple dumplings, but I usually leave it to his mom to do that for him- too much work! lolAnyway, decided to be extra nice and make them myself- these were fantastic! They are a bit of work, but totally worth it. I’m no chef, and these turned out so well- I will definitely not wait another 5 years to make them again. 🙂 I’ll probably stick a few raisins in the middles next time, because hubby likes them. Otherwise, perfect!”

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