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Baked Apple Dumplings

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Baked Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Roll out the Yeast-Raised Pastry into squares large enough to cover the apples.

  2. Peel and core the apples, leaving them whole.

  3. Place the apples in the center of the dough squares brushed with water.

  4. Fill the hole in each apple with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and currants.

  5. Fold the dough over the apples from all sides and place them smooth side up on greased baking sheets.

  6. Prick the sides of the apples with a fork to allow steam to escape while baking.

  7. Make a hole on top of each apple reaching down to the core.

  8. Let the dumplings rest for 20 minutes.

  9. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  10. Once baked, sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, then return to the oven for 2 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Cinnamon + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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