Autumn Favorite - Apple Dumplings

The Inspiration

Two years ago, I found myself with a couple free days in between a job change (WAHOO!), so I decided that I'd try a recipe I'd heard of for YEARS, but had yet to try.

To be honest, at this point in my baking "career", I had never even tried making a pie crust, and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that my first dumpling experiment involved a store-bought, frozen pie crust that well...didn't turn out as wonderfully as initially planned. But homemade or store-bought crust, I don't think there's a way to ruin these puppies.

I was ecstatic to be able to test out this new recipe with one of my favorite cooks (beyond my Mom and sister, of course), Mark's Grandma Vi! (Let's reminisce, shall we?)



After attempting this recipe with Grandma Vi back in October 2008, I decided that I'd best not let another year slip by without trying out this yummy recipe again!  So I organized an Orchard and Dumpling Day with Grandma and some of my other favorite Johnson ladies!

The Orchard

First, of course, we had to check out the orchard and pick up some apples (and pumpkins for decor). We decided to try out the Ocheda Orchard (which is run by friends of ours from First Baptist Church), and we had so much fun finding the perfect pumpkin, and trying to snag a few apples that hadn't fallen from the trees already.

The Prep

We decided to use a recipe I found on about.com, trying 3 different types of apples: Honeycrisp, Haralson, and Courtland.
We started by washing, coring and peeling the apples. I used my handy-dandy little apple corer that I picked up off ebay after Grandma and my dumpling debut 2 years previously, in an effort to make prettier-looking dumplings :)


And while I stepped out for a few minutes, Cousin Megan decided to become Ms. Apple Eyes :)

We then rolled out the pre-made crust (thanks, Grandma!), cut it into squares, and placed each apple on a square. (I don't have a good picture of this step or the next)

Aunt Barb then filled each apple with a cinnamon sugar mixture Jess had mixed together earlier, and then dotted each one with butter Jess had diced up earlier (great job, Jess!).

We then folded up the edges of the pastry around the apples as best we could (we had some pretty large apples and were trying to make do with the pastry we had!)

Aunt Barb had simmered up some wonderful sauce to be poured over the dumplings before sticking them in the oven, consisting of butter, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.


Then, in the oven they went!!

The Wait

While the dumplings baked (apprx 30-40 minutes for normal-sized apples, and more like 40-50 for the large Honeycrisp ones), and Aunt Barb basted them every 5-10 minutes, I made a quick trip over to check out the Fall Showcase at the Historic Dayton House B&B. It was so warm and festive, and I found myself some awesome new mittens (made from used sweaters - how cool!) for the upcoming winter!




I took the long way back from the Dayton House to Dean and Barb's house to check out some of the beautiful fall foilage around Lake Okabena (which was pretty, but lackluster compared to earlier in the week).

Earlier in the week

Orchard Day

The Finished Product!

As I walked back in the door, the dumplings were just coming out of the oven and cooling, ready for some hungry test-tasters!


It was a great day to spend with a few of the Johnson ladies, and boy do we have dumplings growing out of our ears! :) But they're just indescribable - especially with a scoop or two of Blue Bunny Cinnamon Ice Cream!

So thanks to Aunt Barb, Cousin Megan, Grandma Vi, and Sister Jess for such a fun day! And for those who couldn't make it, there are dumplings awaiting! :)