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Dessert

Apple Dumplings a LA Creole

Apple dumplings made with apples, dough, cinnamon, and baked with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings a LA Creole

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Peel and core the apples.

  3. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Cut in butter until crumbly, then add milk and vanilla to form a dough.

  2. Roll out the dough and cut into squares.

  3. Place an apple in the center of each square, sprinkle with cinnamon, and wrap the dough around the apple.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the dumplings in a baking dish and pour water over them.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the filling that softens and sweetens as the dumplings bake.
Flour
Forms the dough structure that wraps around the apples and holds its shape.
Butter
Cut into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the dough.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the dough rise and lighten.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the dough and apples brown.

The step that matters

Cut in butter until crumbly. Butter cut into flour in small pieces creates layers and tenderness as it melts in the oven. Overworking the dough develops gluten, making it tough, so mix only until it just comes together.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

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

“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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