Weekend one--I wanted an apple dumpling. The ol’ school kind where you baste the dumplings as they cook (my mom told me about this old world process)! Who ever heard of basting anything but a turkey? I bought the apples to make it, but then I proceeded to eat all the apples during the week. Therefore, no apple dumpling weekend one.
Weekend two--I still wanted an apple dumpling, but had no time to make it; I ended up going out of town. Weekend two ended with no apple-y goodness as well.
Weekend three--I was determined to get this apple dumpling. I got home from work on Friday night and had to leave the house for a meeting at 7 PM. That was two hours; I figured I could make it work. And work it, I did! I peeled, cored, stuffed, and rolled the apples in record time considering I had never done any of the above before and I am clumsy with a knife. I got the dumplings in the oven within 30 minutes.
They baked and I basted, religiously, even 15 minutes. As they cooked, the basting syrup developed a nice sticky, sweet, crispy crust on the pastry. I was excited to dig in to one, but had to wait until after the meeting. I got home, made me a bowl topped with Vanilla ice cream and I sprinkled on some roasted slivered almonds. I prepared to dig in anticipating the first bit. It… was… just okay. I mean it was flaky, tender, sweet, and seasoned, but I was not overwhelmed. I only ate half of the dessert I plated in the bowl.
My mom on the other hand, who doesn’t even like baked apples, loved it. She proceeded to eat the other half of the bowl I started… and the three remaining dumplings over the next few days. So, I think this recipe comes highly recommended by others, but I think anticipating this dessert for so long made it dead on arrival with my taste buds.
I made some adaptions and changes to this recipe, but it is pretty fail proof (I think).
grt
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