Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Individual Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Butter six muffin rings and set them on a shallow pan which has been well buttered.
Fill the rings with sliced apples.
Make the dough
Make a dough of one and one-half cups of pastry flour sifted.
Add one-half teaspoon of salt and three level teaspoons of baking powder to the dry ingredients.
Chop one-fourth of a cup of shortening into the dry ingredients, and gradually add three-fourths of a cup of milk or water.
Drop the dough onto the apples in the rings.
Bake and serve
Let bake about twenty minutes.
With a spatula, remove each dumpling from the ring, place on a dish with the crust side down.
Serve with cream and sugar, hard sauce or with a fruit sauce.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Pastry | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
What each ingredient does
- Pastry flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough that holds each dumpling together.
- Shortening
- Coats flour particles so the dough bakes tender and flaky rather than tough.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the dumplings rise and turn light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form a workable dough and adds moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Chop in the shortening and add the liquid gently. Overworking the dough once the milk goes in develops gluten, which makes dumplings tough and dense instead of tender. Stop mixing as soon as the dough just holds together.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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