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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

Apple dumplings are sweet pastries made with biscuit dough, apples, sugar, butter, cinnamon, and baked in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Make a rich biscuit dough with more shortening.

  2. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into round pieces using a coffee saucer.

Assemble the dumplings

  1. Sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of butter on each chopped apple.

  2. Place the apple in the center of the dough, fold the ends over, and seal tightly.

  3. Arrange the dumplings in a deep pan, smooth side up.

  4. Top each dumpling with a small piece of butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour boiling water into the pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Baste with the liquid once while baking.

  3. Serve with cream and sugar sauce or pudding sauce.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the biscuit dough that encloses the apple.
Lard
Adds fat that makes the dough short and tender rather than tough.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so it rises and stays light.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple filling and helps the surface brown in the syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor into the apple and dough.
Apple
Provides the filling that softens and turns sweet-tart as it bakes.

The step that matters

Sealing the dough around the apple. Seams that are not sealed tightly can open during baking, letting filling and juices escape and leaving the dumpling dry or misshapen.

“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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