Heavenly Baked Apple Dumplings

Heavenly, warm apple dumplings are the perfect fall dessert comfort food.  It seems we can’t get enough of these ooey-gooey delicious dumplings of flaky, home-made dough swaddled around freshly baked tender apples with an amazing brown sugar syrup!

Whole, cored apples are filled with cinnamon, brown sugar and butter, wrapped in dough, then baked in a buttery, brown sugar syrup is the ultimate old-fashioned dessert. Fit for kings and queens and my mom! 

Apple dumplings are one of her favorite desserts of all-time, besides this peach cobbler and custard pie.  Growing up, I can remember my mother and grandmother making apple dumplings every fall during apple harvest season.   They were soooo yummy.  Sometimes we would have an apple dumpling as an evening meal or have it for breakfast with some milk.  

To prepare home-made apple dumplings

(also referred to as Amish apple dumplings or Dutch Pennsylvania apple dumplings)

First peel your apples and core them. 

We used whole apples, but  are sometimes quartered and placed on a portion of dough.  To core, use an apple corer to make it easy to remove the core.  If you wish to make this even easier, it’s fine to leave the skin on the apples, it’s just a preference which you prefer. 

The hole from the core is filled with cinnamon, brown sugar and dotted with a pat of butter on top. Sometimes raisins and walnuts are added in as well if you want an extra surprise! 

The dough is easy to make and it doesn’t need refrigerated. Just mix everything together to get a soft dough ball and divide into 6 balls.  Roll each one out onto a lightly floured surface. 

Place each apple onto rolled dough and fill holes with brown sugar cinnamon mixture with a pat of butter on top.

The dough is folded over the apples and sealed. We created a sweet, buttery brown sugar sauce on top of the stove and let it cool.  (If you pour the sauce over the dough while it’s still boiling hot, it can melt your pastry dough.)

We then poured the syrup over the dough covered apples and let the apple dumplings bake in the sauce until they become tender and the pastry is golden brown. 

Spoon the sauce over the apples every 15 minutes to let the juice flavor the dough!  YUM! 

Best type of apples for apple dumplings

Apples do make a difference when baking.  The best apples for baking keep their structure, which keeps the chunks of fruit from turning into apple mush.  Granny Smith is my favorite apple of choice because it’s tart and sweet and holds up well when baked!  But other types you can use include McIntosh, Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Winsap, Pink Lady and Mutsu.

Depending on the apple size, will depend on how long the apples will bake.  Small apples bake 45 mins, medium apples bake 60 minutes.  Each dumpling is an individual serving, so that also is a good way to base what size apples you would want to use.

Bake more if you need to, by checking apples by sticking a fork in the dumplings to check if they are tender.

Apple dumplings can be served hot, cold, or room temperature for breakfast, dessert, or as a main dish are served sometimes with milk, cream, whipped cream or ice cream.  Talk about dreamy! 

Did you know September 17 is National Apple Dumpling Day?  Happy belated National Apple Dumpling Day!  We’ll just keep celebrating with apples all year long though!  Enjoy! 

Heavenly Baked Apple Dumplings

Kim Lange

Heavenly, warm apple dumplings are the perfect fall dessert comfort food.  It seems we can't get enough of these ooey-gooey delicious dumplings of flaky, home-made dough swaddled around freshly baked tender apples with an amazing brown sugar syrup!

5 from 6 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 45 mins

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine American, Amish

Servings 6 Servings

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Apples:

• 6 apples peeled & cored, small to medium size

Brown Sugar Syrup:

• 1 & 2/3 cups water
• 2 cups brown sugar can also use granulated sugar
• ¼ cup butter

Pastry Dough:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup butter softened
• ½ cup milk

Brown Sugar Mixture for Cored Apples:

• 6 tablespoons brown sugar can double if you want more sugar in center
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter cut into 6 slabs evenly

Instructions

 

Apple Prep

• Prep apples by peeling and coring apples using apple corer or cut out cores manually. It's very time consuming doing it manually, so you may want to cut apples in half if you don't have an apple corer.

Brown Sugar Syrup:

• In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, water, and butter together. bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes; remove from heat and let set while you make dough.

Pastry Dough:

• In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in the butter, then add in the milk an mix until a soft dough forms.
• Split the dough into 6 balls.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball of dough and place a cored, peeled apple in the center of each piece of dough. Make sure it's rolled out enough to cover apple completely and pinch all seams together

Brown Sugar Mixture for Cored Apples:

• Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon together and spoon a tablespoon into each apple core. Top with a slab of butter.
• Fold the dough around the apple and press it together to form a ball.
• Set these dumplings in a 9×13 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
• Pour the Brown Sugar Syrup mixture over the dumplings and bake them at 375 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the dough is golden brown. (Baste apples with syrup every 15 minutes or half-way through if you want to give more flavor to the pastry dough).
• Serve with milk, cream, ice cream or whipped topping if desired.

Notes

Be sure to store Apple dumplings in an airtight container and will last in the fridge about 4 days. Warm them in the microwave before eating them if preferred.

Freeze for up to two months in an airtight container. Allow them to defrost fully in the container before reheating.

Pastry shortcut: Use store-bought pastry for double-crust pie (Two 15 oz. packages refrigerated pie crusts.  ).  Divide each pie into 3rds and roll out for dumplings instead. Use flour to dust before rolling on rolling pin and surface.  Follow instructions to continue finishing apple dumplings.  Tip: Use 2 fresh store-bought crusts and not frozen and then thawed.

Keyword amish desserts, apple, apple dumplings, baked dessert, brown sugar, syrup

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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