Name: Baked Apple Dumplings
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; ½ pound unsalted butter; ½ pint cold water; 2 ounces powdered sugar; 6 medium-sized pippin apples; 2 ounces granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons cold milk

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

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

Sift the flour onto a clean surface and make a hollow in the center.
Add the butter to the hollow and mix it slightly with the flour for 5 minutes.
Make another hollow, pour in the cold water and powdered sugar, and mix until a firm dough forms.
Roll the dough into a ball and let it rest in a cool place for 5 minutes.

Fill and shape

Peel and core the apples, then sprinkle flour on the surface.
Roll the dough into a rectangle about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide, and cut it into 6 equal squares.
Place an apple in the center of each square.
Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon, and fill the cavities of the apples with this mixture.
Beat the egg with the cold milk in a bowl.
Moisten the edges of the dough squares with the egg mixture, then fold them over the apples to enclose them completely.

Bake

Place the dumplings on a baking pan and brush the tops with the remaining egg mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or 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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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 structure of the dough that encloses the apples.
Unsalted butter: Adds fat that makes the dough tender and flaky as it bakes.
Pippin apples: Provide the fruit filling that softens and becomes tender during baking.
Egg: Glazes the dough, helping it brown and seal the edges.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the cinnamon filling and aids browning of the crust.

The step that matters

Rolling and folding the dough around the apples. If the dough is too thin or the edges are not sealed with the egg mixture, it can tear or leak during baking, exposing the apple and its sugar filling.

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

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

More apple dumplings recipes

Baked 92 Boiled 30 Steamed 8 See all 219 →

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Apple Cake80 recipes

Apple Meringue75 recipes

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Baked Apple Dumplings