National Apple Dumpling Day

Well it is another holiday.  Great day in that I sure have Golden Delicious apples that I can make dumplings with.  Super simple because you use store bought frozen puff pastry that I always keep in my freezer for occasions just like this.  It makes a beautiful desert.

Apple Dumpling

Stuffing 

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Hand full of chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
4 tsp. butter

Dumpling 

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten to mix

4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled and cored

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, butter, nuts and cinnamon. Set aside.

Wash, peel and core your apples.

On a floured surface, roll out one of the puff pastry sheets to a 13-by-13-inch square. Cut the square in half and cut each half into a 9-by-6-inch rectangle. With the beaten egg, lightly brush 1 inch along the edges of one of the rectangles. Put one of the apples, upside down, in the middle of the rectangle and put your cinnamon mixture in the center of the cavity filling it completely. Don't be afraid to over stuff it. Gather the four corners of the pastry and pinch them together. Pinch the edges together to seal.

With your kitchen scissors, trim any excess pastry from where the edges meet. Repeat with the remaining pastry, apples, and cinnamon sugar mixture.

If you like, use a small knife to cut eight small leaves from the scraps of pastry. Brush the backs of the leaves with the beaten egg and attach two of them to the top of each dumpling.  Make sure you have a small vent in the top.

Chill the dumplings for 15 minutes. Put them on a heavy sprayed baking pan and lightly brush them with the beaten egg. Bake the dumplings for 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to 400 degrees F and continue cooking until golden, 20 to 22 minutes longer. Don't bake too long or the dumplings may burst.  Yield: 4 servings per sheet of pastry you use.

Serve warm with ice cream and adorn it with a cinnamon stick stuck in the middle.

Variation - If it is not sweet enough for you, drizzle some caramel over the dumpling and ice cream and sprinkle with a few more nuts or drizzle it on the plate for a beautiful presentation.

Your home is going to smell amazing.

I bought some ground turkey this week and I'm going to make sweet turkey balls for tonight.  I'll share it with you tomorrow.  Hope you have a wonderful day.  It is suppose to rain here making it a great day to bake.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.