Cinnamon Apple Dumplings

It has been a while, hasn’t it?

Work hasn’t been taking up all my time this last week or so – travel has. I went to Kentucky to visit with Ox and her husband and celebrate Pascha with them – it’s the Easter celebration in the Orthodox Christian church. Since it is the end of the Lenten fast (which is a no meat fast at the minimum – Ox and her husband gave up most dairy as well, I believe), after the services on Saturday night there was a potluck banquet / feast. It was a fun and enlightening trip, and actually kind of relaxing considering how much time we spent running around. I would guess that was because Ox and I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen.

We cooked a lot of food. I myself made two pans of quick fudge and a batch of cookies. Ox made bread – a good sweet bread, to be exact – which took a little while to do, so some of the things she had hopped to fix were kind of pushed aside. Admittedly, so was my original idea, since I had wanted to cook a few batches of 40 Cloves and a Chicken but couldn’t find enough good-looking whole garlic to get the cloves I would need. Ox’s husband made this soup that he learned to make from somewhere, which was very tasty soup, but good luck getting the recipe out of him.

I’ll put the fudge and cookie recipes up a little later. For today, though, Ox has a request.

A few days before I went down, a new cookbook came in the mail, which I have not looked through very much as of yet. It’s specifically for small meals – one or two servings at the most – and it came with a little dessert booklet that had a recipe Ox asked me for. Since I forgot to give it to her while I was visiting, I’ll post it here for everyone.

Cinnamon Apple Dumplings

Serves 2

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
3 tablespoons ice water
2 medium tart apples
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Half and half cream

For the Sauce:

1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons red-hot candies OR ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cornstarch
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
Additional half and half cream, optional

In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With a fork, stir in the water until the dough forms a ball. Roll out on a floured surface to a 14 x 7 inch rectangle, then cut pastry in half.

Peel and core apples. Place one on each square of pastry. Combine sugar and cinnamon and spoon into apples. Moisten the edges of the pastry and gather around the apples. Pinch and seal. Place dumplings into an ungreased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, or a shallow 1 ½ quart baking dish. Brush with cream.

In a small saucepan, combine the first five sauce ingredients (sugar, red-hots, cornstarch, water, and butter) and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Boil for 3 minutes. Pour sauce between dumplings.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and apples are tender. Serve warm with cream if desired.

Source: Desserts for One or Two, from Reiman Media Group, Inc. © 2003

Notes from the Hare

Nothing today – I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet.