Home › The Principles of Cookery › Apple Dumplings, Baked
Apple Dumplings, Baked
For a change, apple dumplings may be baked instead of boiled. They are made exactly in the same way as the preceding, but instead of being tied in a cloth and boiled, they are placed upon a buttered tin, and put into a moderate oven. Time to bake, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 2d.each
A cross-reference recipe: it assumes you have already read the boiled apple dumpling entry above it, which wraps a whole cored apple in suet crust. Only the cooking method changes, but baking rather than boiling alters how the pastry behaves.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350F/175C, and the stated three-quarters of an hour should suit dumplings built around a medium apple. Larger apples may need longer; check that a skewer slides through the fruit without resistance.
- "A buttered tin"A shallow baking tin or tray, greased. A rimmed sheet is better than a flat one, since sugary juice will escape from at least one dumpling and is easier to lift off a lined tray than a bare one.
- The crust changes characterBoiled in a cloth, suet crust steams to something soft and pudding-like. Baked, the same paste dries and browns, closer to a rough shortcrust. Some cooks prefer a plain shortcrust for the baked version for exactly this reason.
- Seal the seams underneathWithout the cloth there is nothing holding the parcel together. Gather the pastry over the top of the apple, pinch it firmly, then invert so the join sits on the tin and the weight of the fruit keeps it shut.
- ApplesA cooking apple that softens well inside the crust is what is wanted here: Bramley in Britain, or a firmer substitute such as Granny Smith where Bramleys are unavailable. Cored, and if you like with sugar and a clove or a strip of lemon peel pushed into the cavity.
- GlazingThe original says nothing about it, but a brush of milk or beaten egg and a dusting of sugar gives the baked version the colour it otherwise lacks after three-quarters of an hour at a moderate heat.
- Cost and yieldTwopence each in late-Victorian money; one dumpling is one serving. Serve hot with cream, custard or a plain sugar-and-butter sauce.
Apple dumplings were among the cheapest sweet dishes an English kitchen could produce: one apple, a little sugar, and a crust made with suet, which was cheaper than butter. Cassell's gives the boiled version first; boiling needed no oven, the dumpling being cooked in a floured cloth — a real consideration in households cooking over an open range or sharing a baker's oven. The baked variant, offered here simply "for a change," suits homes with a reliable closed oven, and its brevity is typical of the dictionary format, which cross-refers rather than repeating itself. The dish is old and widely made across England, and versions travelled to America, where baked apple dumplings in a sweet syrup became a familiar form.