Homemade Apple Dumplings Recipe (2024)

By Mary Bostow / 129 Comments

Homemade Apple Dumplings Recipe

Is there anything better than warm Homemade Apple Dumplings? Not today there isn’t! I am obsessed with this apple dumplings recipe! I was management in a family style restaurant in the town I lived in many years ago. I worked 5 days a week. During the Fall I would take one of my days off and go to the restaurant and make triple batches of these apple dumplings.

My customers would ask me what day I was going to make them. The next question was always…when will they be done? They would come in just before they were ready to come out of the oven, have dinner and a warm apple dumpling with a little milk on it for dessert.

These are the only apple dumplings I’ve ever made. This recipe is so good that I have never actually looked for another recipe. The crust is so very soft! The sauce that’s poured over the dumplings before baking and then after they are baked, is just delicious. Everything about this recipe is pretty much perfect as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve always used Macintosh apples to make the recipe. Macintosh apples are an eating and baking apple. They’re also not as big as a Granny Smith or other baking apples. I wanted a small apple, like the Macintosh to make a one serving apple dumpling that wasn’t overwhelming to eat in one setting for dessert. Let’s gather the ingredients and make it together.

Homemade Apple Dumplings Ingredients:

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1 Tsp cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter

Dough Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 Teaspoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon salt

2/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup milk

6 small Macintosh or Gala apples about 3 inches in diameter, peeled and cored. Do not cut the apples in half, leave them whole

The very first thing we’re going to do is get the sauce made that’s poured over the dumplings. It needs to cool before it’s poured over the dough wrapped apples. Place 1 cup of white sugar , 1 cup of water, one teaspoon cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons of butter together in a medium saucepan. Heat the mixture on the stove under medium heat until the butter melts. After the ingredients come to a boil, let it boil a minute or two to thicken it a bit. Set the sauce aside while we make the dough for our dumplings.

Making the Dough for Apple Dumplings:

Measure the shortening out and put it into the freezer until you have the rest of the dry ingredients together.It will be easier to cut the shortening into the flour when it’s very cold. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, or you can get your hands in the bowl and rub the mixture between your fingers then add the milk to the mix all at once. Mix the dough with a fork just until it forms a ball. The dough will be very soft.

Flour your board, you can roll the dough out into one big piece and cut individual equally sized dough patches for the apples to sit on or take the dough and divide it into 6 equal potions and roll them out individually. Place your peeled and cored apple in the center of the dough. Put enough butter into the hole of the apple to fill it. Sprinkle sugar ( be generous) over the apple, then sprinkle cinnamon on top. I’ve never measured the sugar or cinnamon out, I just sprinkle the two equally over each dumpling.

Wrap the dough around the apple until it’s completely covered and looks like a ball. I take it in my hands like a ball after I wrap the apple in dough and mold it around the apple and seal any opening, the dough is very easy to work with. Check the bottom and top of the apple to make sure there is enough dough at those points so none of the butter , sugar and cinnamon can leak out.

Decorating the Dumpling

I decorated the dumplings with the scrapes of dough that were left by making two leaves and a stem for the dumplings. For years I made the leaves by just cutting out two oval shapes of dough for each apple and just putting lines on them with a sharp knife to make it look like a leave. If you look online you can find little leaf cutters that do a fantastic job of making pretty leaves for the dumplings.

Pour the sauce we made earlier over top of each apple dumpling. Sprinkle the apples with sugar and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. In my house we eat the dumplings warm with a little milk poured over them or with a scoop of ice cream. After the dumplings are baked you can take any sauce in the pan and coat the apples one more time before you serve them. The apples. the sauce, the dough, the cinnamon…it’s so good, ENJOY!

Homemade Apple Dumplings Recipe, I hope you love these as much as I do!

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Homemade Apple Dumplings

Homemade Apple Dumplings - These apple dumplings are delicious and so easy to make. The homemade dough is easy to make, the recipe comes together fast, the results are wonderful.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: #apples, #dessert, #easy, appledumplings

Servings: 6

Author: Mary Malone

Ingredients

Sauce Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbls butter

Dough Ingredients

2 cups all flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup milk
6 small Macintosh or Gala Apples about 3 inches in diameter Peeled and cored. Do not cut in half I used Gala, leave them whole.

Instructions

Make the sauce first so it has time to cool down.
Make the dough and refrigerate it until you have peeled and cored your apples.

Sauce Directions

I put all the sauce ingredients together in a medium saucepan. When it comes to a boil, I let it boil a minute or two to thicken a little bit.

For the dough

Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender. Add milk all at once. Stir with a fork until the dough just forms a ball. Place in the refrigerator until you have peeled and cored the apples.
Peel and core the apples. You can keep the apples from turning brown by placing them in cold water while you work.
I divide the dough into six equal portions and roll them out on a lightly floured surface individually. You can also roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface long enough to fit 6 apples on it and cut the dough into six squares.
Place the apples on a dough square, fill the center with butter, sprinkle sugar over top then sprinkle cinnamon over top.
Mold the dough around the apple, making sure there are no opening for the filling to escape from. Place the apples in a 13x9 inch baking pan. Spacing them about an inch apart. Pour the sauce over the dumplings , then sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. Spoon the sauce on the bottom of the pan over the apple dumplings after they come out of the oven.

Video

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ABOUT MARY

My children are grown now and I’m a Gramma. I hope you visit Bunny’s Warm Oven and take with you some tasty recipes that catch your eye. I also hope that you will make them and share. Read more...