Apple Dumplings

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 tart apples, peeled (cortland and gravenstein work well)
  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

GET COOKIN'

  1. Preheat oven to 400º and grease a 9x13” pan.
  2. Using a melon baller, remove the core from the apple. Leave the bottom of the apple in tact.
  3. Cut shortening into flour and salt mixture. Gradually add water and mix with a fork until dough balls up.
  4. Cut pie crust in ½ and on a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into 6 equal pieces. Roll out into thin squares.
  5. Beat egg and water together to make an egg wash and brush onto top of pastry squares using pastry brush.
  6. Place an apple on each pastry square with the cored opening facing upward. Cut butter into 6 pieces. Place 1 piece of butter and brown sugar in the opening of each apple, poking some inside each cored opening and the rest around the base of each apple. Then, sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples.
  7. Bring one corner of pastry square up to the top of the apple, then bring the opposite corner to the top and crimp together. Repeat with opposite sides and seal apple completely inside the pastry. Make a small slit at the top of the pastry. Use remaining egg wash to paint the outside of each dumpling. Repeat with the remaining apples.
  8. Place on prepared baking dish and bake in oven for 50 to 60 minutes.