Modern Apple Dumplings

In cleaning out the refridgerator last night I discovered 2 apples, a pear and a single store bought pie crust that were not long for this world. Since the fruit was to soft for eating I decided to see what I could come up on my own in the way of apple dumplings.

Having read several recipies for dumplings in the last few weeks I knew that the general idea is fruit in a pie crust-ish envelope of some kind. With this in view I cored and cut up the apples and pear in to chuncks and placed them into a pot with a bit of water, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, raisins and butter. I heated this to a boil and then turned down the heat to low, covered and went about finishing up my laundry.

About 20 minutes later I checked on the fruit and it was cooked through so I mashed it lightly with a potato masher and added some more raisnins since they were looking kind of sparse. As the mixture was runny (too much water I guess) I cooked it on low with the lid off for another half hour or so and then removed it from the heat to cool.

I then rolled out the pie crust and cut several disks with my biscuit cutter, then putting the scraps together I rolled out a sheet about 6 inches long as well, since this is the more traditional size for an apple dumpling. A dollop of fruit mixture was placed in the center of three disks and then topped and sealed with additional crust discs. Then one side of the six inch piece was filled with fruit and the other side folded over and sealed it with a fork. All this I baked at 350 degrees until the crust was nicely browned.

Testing revealed that the crust discs don't work very well. They are too small and the crust to filling ratio is not balanced well. They were rather dry. The larger, more traditional sized one had a good crust to filling ratio and made a very good breakfast for me this morning. The filling turned out quite well and was very tasty. There was a good amount left over which I freezed and intend to use later as I believe it will serve for many purposes, being good as another filling, as a sauce with pork or perhaps chicken, possibly a topping for pancakes or french toast, or even as a stand alone applesauce type dish for breakfast or dessert.

The store bought crust was wretched and I remembered why the second one never got used when I tasted it. I must learn to make a proper pie crust from scratch, although I understand this can be a challenge.