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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

A baked or boiled dessert of apples encased in a flour crust, sweetened with sugar and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Cut in butter until crumbly.

  3. Peel and core the apples.

  4. Roll out the crust to about ¼ inch thick.

  5. Cut out circles to fit the apples.

Assemble the dumplings

  1. Place each apple on a dough circle.

  2. Fill the cavity with sugar and a little cinnamon or nutmeg.

  3. Encase each apple in the crust.

  4. Wet the edges.

  5. Press tightly together.

Boil and serve

  1. Put the dumplings into a kettle of boiling water slightly salted, ensuring they are covered.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. They can also be steamed or baked.

  3. Serve with sugar and cream or any hot sweet 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough that encases the apples and holds them together while cooking.
Butter
Cut into the flour to create a crumbly, tender crust texture.
Baking powder
Lightens the dough so the crust rises slightly and stays tender.
Apples
Soften during cooking and provide the filling and fruity sweetness inside the crust.
Sugar
Sweetens the apple filling and helps it caramelize slightly inside the crust.

The step that matters

Press the edges tightly together. Wet and tightly pressed dough edges form a seal. If they open, water enters and filling can leak out, leaving the crust soggy and the apple dry.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, cream. 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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