Apple Dumplin'

I'm giving in to the season... it's time for baked apples! I'm not much for pies... particularly in a two-person household, a pie is a lot of food. And while you can always give baked goods away, pies in particular don't travel all that well, and even less well in pieces. So I decided to whip up some individual apple desserts in these little dumplings.

I must say that I am feeling a lot more confident with pastry crust these days. It's amazing how just jumping in and trying things makes you realize how silly you were to avoid them in the past. For this one I went back to the crust we've loved most, the cream cheese pastry crust that adorns the best chicken pot pie you'll ever taste. I had to change it up just a little tho - no pepper in these dumplings! But the crust took to a sweet application beautifully and comes together in a flash without being at all fussy.

Another thing I liked about these dumplings is the fact that it fit my kitchen. You see, I actually have a pretty large kitchen but still manage to have almost no usable counter space. Drives me nuts. But with the dumplings, I could roll out a small amount of dough at a time for each dumpling and it worked very well. I also figured out that you can make these in advance and bake them off when you're ready. I stored mine in the fridge for about 8 hours before we baked them and they turned out perfectly. I had extra dough so you could probably get 6 dumplings out of the recipe if you upped the number of apples, but below I've listed what I did this time.

Apple Dumplings
Mollie's Collection

For the Filling
2 large or 3 medium granny smith apples
Juice of one small orange
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

For the Crust
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 cups AP flour
10oz cream cheese, cut into large pieces (I use reduced fat)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
egg white & sugar for sprinkling (turbanado would be great, regular is fine)

Peel the apples and cut them into a large dice, about 3/4 inch pieces. Toss the pieces immediately with the orange juice to prevent browning. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to mix well.

To make the crust, place the butter and flour in your food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until you have a mixture resembling coarse crumbs. Add remaining ingredients and mix until a ball forms.

Working with a handful of the dough at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured surface (don't add too much flour) to a 1/4 inch thickness. You'll need a piece big enough to cut out a square about 6 inches one each side. Cut the square out of your dough and set the scraps aside to roll into the next dumpling crust.

Carefully scoop about 1/2 a cup of the apple mixture into the middle of your pastry square, making sure you get a bit of the syrup that will have formed in the bottom of the bowl. Wet all the edges of your square with some egg white and bring two of the corners together, pressing the seam tightly to seal. Repeat with remaining corners until you get a square dumpling. Cut a small vent in each side of the dumpling and place in a buttered glass or ceramic baking dish.

At this point you can refrigerate for up to one day, covered with plastic wrap. When ready to bake, brush the tops of each dumpling with egg white and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Bake at 325 for about 30 minutes, until apples are tender and the crust is golden brown. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. Fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.