Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings are one of the most comforting desserts of American country cooking. These are no ordinary baked apples: here, whole apples are wrapped in a spiced dough and baked in a sweet, buttery syrup until the dough is gooey on the bottom and crispy on the top.

Here is the recipe as grandmas made it:

🍎 Apple Dumplings
Ingredients:

For the dough:

250 g of fine flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

150 g of cold butter (diced)

1.5 dl of cold milk

For the filling:

6 medium apples (e.g. Granny Smith or Jonathan – which will hold their shape)

50 g of butter (room temperature)

A mixture of sugar and cinnamon

For the syrup:

200 g of sugar

4 dl of water

50 g of butter

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Step-by-step preparation

1. Assemble the dough
   Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Crumble the cold butter into it until you get a crumbly consistency. Add the milk and knead quickly (don’t overwork it!). Refrigerate while you prepare the apples.
2. Preparing the apples
   Peel the apples and use a corer to remove the cores, leaving the apples whole.
3. Filling and wrapping
   Roll out the dough into a large rectangle and cut into 6 equal squares.

Place an apple in the center of each square.

Place a little butter and cinnamon sugar in place of the cores.

Bring the corners of the dough up over the apples and press the edges together well to completely enclose the fruit.

4. The syrup and baking
   In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar, butter and cinnamon to a boil until the sugar dissolves.

Place the dumplings in a greased baking tray, spaced evenly apart.

Pour the hot syrup around the dumplings (not directly on them, so the dough doesn’t soak through).

Bake at 190°C for about 35-45 minutes, until the apples are soft and the dough is golden brown.

What makes this dessert special?

The magic of the syrup: The syrup thickens during baking and mixes with the apple juice to form a heavenly caramel sauce on the bottom of the tray.

The duality of the dough: The top of the dumpling is fried, puff pastry-like, while the bottom, which has been sitting in the syrup, is soft and sweet.

Serving tip: This cake is a must-serve warm! Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of cold whipped cream – the contrast between the hot apple and the cold accompaniment is indescribable.

Would you like me to tell you how to make a “quick” version of this with store-bought puff pastry and cinnamon soda (Mountain Dew trick)?