The Year of Alabama Food

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Apple Dumplings

Recipe Type: Dessert and Breads

Servings: Makes 6 Dumplings

Ingredients:

Pastry:

2 cups sifted plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup plus

2 tablespoons shortening

1/4 cup water (more, if needed)

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

6 crisp Alabama apples

1/2 cup sugar

11/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Butter or margarine

Directions:

To make pastry:

Measure flour into mixing bowl and mix salt through it. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in shortening until shortening particles are the size of giant peas. Sprinkle with water, a tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork until flour is moistened. Gather dough together with fingers so it cleans the bowl. Press firmly into a ball, then roll out to a little less than 1/8-inch thick. Cut into 6 7-inch squares. Pare and core a medium tart, juicy apple for each dumpling.

Then mix syrup ingredients and boil together for 3 minutes. Place an apple on each square of pastry. Fill apple cavities with sugar-cinnamon mixture; dot with butter. Bring opposite points of pastry up over the apple. Overlap, moisten and seal. Lift carefully and place a little apart in a baking dish (such as a rectangular dish with sides). Pour hot syrup around dumplings. Bake at 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with the syrup and with cream or whipping cream, if desired.