Apple Dumplings

When fall is in the air, the oven begs to be used. Which is especially good when you have a fridge full of some of autumn's finest..apples!

Lucky me, we've always have a willing bunch of taste testers in our small group. And this recipe was calling from Pinterest, the fridge, the oven....I was sold. And so was everyone else. Definitely a keeper in my book. The only "problem" is that you need ramekins for every serving. Not that I am ever searching for a reason to buy kitchen utensils... :o)

Apple Dumplings
recipe by Midwest Living

• 5 medium cooking apples, peeled and sliced (5 cups)
• 3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
• 1/2 cup dark-colored corn syrup
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust Pie

Directions

1. In a saucepan, combine the apples and apple cider. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 5 to 7 minutes or until just tender.
2. Stir in the corn syrup, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Combine the melted butter or margarine and the cornstarch. Stir into mixture in saucepan.
3. Cook and stir the mixture over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.
4. Prepare pastry. Roll out 2/3 of the pastry to form a 15-inch square. Cut into four 7-inch circles. Ease pastry circles into four 10-ounce custard cups or baking dishes. Do not trim edges. Roll out remaining pastry to an 11-inch square. Cut into four 5-inch circles for top crusts.
5. Fill each pastry-lined dish with 1/4 of the hot apple mixture. Top with remaining crust, cutting slits for steam to escape. Fold extra pastry under bottom crust and seal. Flute edges.
6. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until crusts are golden. Cool slightly on wire rack. Serve the dumplings warm. Makes 4 servings.

Apple Muffins

It's been a while...I know, I know. I have been baking and cooking I promise. Sometimes I remember to take pictures, and sometimes I don't...who would have thought that it would be so "difficult" to keep up a blog with a newborn :op

Anywho, the three of us went on our first vacation the other week to New York where we got to lounge around, explore western New York, visit Niagra and...go apple picking! Of course we got a ton of apples and I couldn't wait to get them home to bake something! Now, last year I had tried to make apple cinnamon muffins and they turned out pretty horrific. And this year, I vowed to try again.

So glad that I did because the recipe that I used this time is definitely a winner. LOVED it! I haven't been able to stop eating them and neither has Brad. I made them this past Saturday, and in the past 3-4 days, just the two of us have eaten 19. Yikes. Oh, and my brother ate 1 when he came over this morning.

The recipe was simple enough. I didn't do anything different except kept the peels on the apple only because 1) I didn't read that you were supposed to peel them until after I cut the first one and 2) You never know when the "Big Boy" is going to wake up so I was trying to be as fast as possible and peeling would have just created an extra step. Also, the recipe said it would make 18 but I ended up with the 20. Definitely didn't mind having the extra two! And two of our apples yielded 3 cups, but we picked pretty large apples. Oh, and 24 mins wasn't long enough for me but perhaps that was due to high moisture content of orchard apples? Not sure, just don't be alarmed.

Apple Muffins
found on The Girl Who Ate Everything (recipe by Marissa Pinon)

 
2 cups sugar 

2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
• Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. 

• Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

• Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.

• Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Makes 18 muffins. 

Heirloom Apple Dumplings

fall is here! i love it!

The name of a well known children's book among teachers and the exact sentiments of my emotions when autumn comes around. One beautiful thing about fall, is the apples. Fresh, crisp orchard apples. Not the ones that you can buy in the supermarket but rather the ones you get from a farmer's stand or a small independent grocery store if you can't make it to the orchard yourself. I miss my mitten state.

With apples, comes lots of warm and tasty apple desserts. And to be honest, I've already gone through about 3 large bags of apples. ^_^  What? I can't help if it I just come across way to many tempting recipes.

Anyway, my brother's future mother-in-law heard of my love of orchard apples and offered to bring me a large bushel of apples and apple cider. Yes! Yes! Yes!

My first goal was apple cider donuts, but that is for another day. My second spree came in the form of Apple Dumplings. I had never made these before and after looking at a variety of recipes, realized that "dumplings" is a very loose term as there were quite a bit of variations out there.

I finally settled on "My Sister's Kitchen", not only because the dumplings looked great but also I became partial to the blog name. It also appeared to be a unique recipe, using an apple peeler/corer/slicer and an entire apple.

So I flipped on my food processor to blend up some dough and got out my apple peeler/corer/slicer and cranked out some apples and went to work. An hour later, I packed up the dumplings and rode my bike over to my brother's apt to deliver the goods. And goods, they were. Even Angela who had said she was going to swear off sweets couldn't resist.

Oh, as far as the recipe goes. I got a little over excited and didn't allow the syrup to thicken enough in the beginning but then decided to put it back on the stove top. So when you look at the preliminary pictures, the glaze does look liquidy so please imagine it being more of a thick syrup. Thanks! Oh yeah, and I definitely cut this recipe in half so that I could get 6 servings rather than 12.

Heirloom Apple Dumplings
by MySistersKitchen

Crust: The crust is important, so you can’t use a pre-fab freezer crust.

• 2 c. shortening
• 4 c. flour
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. cold water
• 3 TBSP lemon juice

• Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl,

 

then cut in the shortening (we use butter).

 

• Add egg, water, and lemon juice, and work into the dough until just smooth. Refrigerate.

Filling:

• 12 tart baking apples, peeled & cored. (You want the apple to be whole, so if you use the peeler/slicer/corer, which we always do, keep the apple together.)
• 1 TBSP brown sugar per apple
• 1 pinch cinnamon per apple
• 1 tsp. butter per apple

Sauce:

• 2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 TBSP butter
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

•  Combine sauce ingredients in saucepan, cook 3 minutes over medium heat until sugar and butter are melted.

To assemble:

• Divide the dough into 12 balls. Roll out a ball into a circle about 8-10 inches across. Lay carefully into individual pie plate (we use the disposable tins–about 4 ” across.) Set whole apple into crust, put brown sugar, cinnamon and butter into center hole. 

• Wrap the dough circle up around the top of the apple and pinch dough closed. Pour a few spoonfuls of sauce over top.

• Place dumplings on cookie sheet lined with foil. Bake for 8 minutes at 475ºF, then reduce oven to 350ºF and cook for 45 minutes until the apples are soft and the crust is golden.

• If serving immediately, let cool to an edible temperature, then serve in tins or on plates, with scoop of the best vanilla ice cream you can find.

• If storing, let cool completely, then wrap each tin/dumpling in aluminum foil and place in a freezer bag. When ready to serve, remove from freezer and let sit on counter for 30-60 minutes, then place in a 400ºF oven until heated (it’s already cooked, remember–just needs reheating.)
• A note on portions: For someone who is behaving with moderation and discretion, these dumplings are a good size to SPLIT with another person. If, however, you are like US, you will cast discretion to the wind and snarf the whole thing by yourself. A word to the wise….

Apple Butter, My first attempt

Ah, fall...colored leaves, crisp air, and beautifully juicy apples. A long time ago, there was an apple orchard near my house in the Kalamazoo area called Hillcrest Orchards. And somehow it became a beloved tradition for my Abuelito and Abuelita to take me apple picking. I wish I knew where my chord to my scanner was so that I could post of a picture of a two year old me with my Abuelito, standing next to our basket of apples and me attempting to take a huge bite of an apple, completely oblivious of the camera in front of me..or perhaps just too distracted by the apple. Anyhow, through the years we spent a lot of time there not only picking but buying cider, eating fresh apple cinnamon donuts, and just enjoying the fall weather.

Over the years we continued to visit the orchard with my dad, aunt, and cousins picking apples to our hearts content so that we could make apple pie. It was during one of our last visits, as we were checking out, when we got asked "Would you like to use your employee discount?" My dad and my abuelita looked at the cashier for a minute, confused..and then it clicked...she looked at us, a whole bunch of mexicans wearing our "work" clothes, jammed together in a car...why of course we were migrant workers! My dad graciously declined the "offer"...Unfortunately, we only made it back to Hillcrest a time or two before it was bought out and then closed. But nonetheless I still have many found memories.

Wow, I just rambled on for quite a while didn't I? Anywho, some of our friends from our small group asked Brad and I if we wanted to go apple picking with them and of course I jumped at the chance! However, when we got there is started raining which put a little damper on our escapade (haha...hey look, I made an unintentional pun!) but we still left with about 15lbs of apples, some apple cider, homemade honey, and fresh donuts. We almost left with a jar of apple butter, which Brad thoroughly enjoys but we had already spent more than what we had wanted to. Anyway, Erin then came to our rescue and told me that I could make the apple butter with our newly acquired apples and that it was super easy. So of course, I had to try.

I looked through quite a bit of recipes online and finally came across this recipe on recipezaar since it seemed less involved plus did not require you to send the pulp repeatedly through a "juicer". I didn't change anything in this recipe except that I didn't have any nutmeg, cloves or allspice so I decided to add in some of our cider to hopefully add some of that flavor to the butter. Oh and guess what I learned, there is no butter in apple butter...all these years I had shied away from the stuff thinking that there was some form of butter in it.

Okay, enough babblin'...here's the recipe for your enjoyment. And yes, it passed Brad's taste test :o)


Crock Pot Apple Butter
by Pam-I-Am

Ingredients

• 5 lbs apples, peeled and finely sliced
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup apple cider (optional- I added this for the extra flavor since I didn't have nutmeg or cloves)
  

Directions

1. Place apples in slow cooker in thirds, layering sugar between each layer.

2. Add rest of ingredients on top and pack them down as well as you can.

3. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.

4. Reduce heat to low. Open and give it a stir. Keep covered and cook 8 hours or until thick and dark brown, stirring occasionally. (You can do this overnight and can in the morning).Uncover and cook for the last hour on low.

5. If a smoother apple butter is desired, you may puree in blender or food mill.

6. Place in sterile jars with lids and can accordingly