Heavenly Baked Apple Dumplings

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Heavenly Baked Apple Dumplings!  Heavenly, warm baked apple dumplings are the perfect fall dessert comfort food.  It seems we can’t get enough of these ooey-gooey delicious dumplings of flaky, homemade dough swaddled around freshly baked tender apples. 

Wait until you taste the amazing brown sugar syrup!  OMG!  More apple?  You’ll love this Apple Cinnamon Bread, this Apple Butter Spice Cake and 4 Amazing Apple Coffee Cakes!

baked gooey apple dumplings recipe homemade

Why We Love These Baked Apple Dumplings

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.  

baked gooey apple dumplings recipe homemade

baked gooey apple dumplings recipe homemade

Best Type of Apples When Making Homemade 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, Winesap, 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!

baked apple dumpling recipe homemade

Ingredients You Need 

Baked Apple Dumpling Recipe

Apples

  • 6 apples peeled & cored, small to medium size

Brown Sugar Syrup

  • water
  • brown sugar, can also use granulated sugar
  • butter

Pastry Dough

  • all purpose flour
  • baking powder
  • salt
  • butter, softened
  • milk of choice

Brown Sugar Mixture for Cored Apples

  • brown sugar can double if you want more sugar in center
  • cinnamon
  • butter

baked gooey apple dumplings recipe homemade

How To Prepare Homemade Apple Dumplings

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

  1. First peel your apples and core them. 
  2. 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. 
  3. 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! 
  4. 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. 
  5. Place each apple onto rolled dough and fill holes with brown sugar cinnamon mixture with a pat of butter on top.
  6. 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.)
  7. 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. 
  8. Spoon the sauce over the apples every 15 minutes to let the juice flavor the dough!  YUM!

baked gooey apple dumplings recipe homemade

Did you know September 17 is National Apple Dumpling Day?  We’ll just keep celebrating with apples all year long though with this scrumptious apple dumpling recipe!  Enjoy!

More Fun Inspiration Recipe Ideas?

Heavenly Baked Apple Dumplings

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 7 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine American, Amish
Servings 6 Servings
Calories

Ingredients
  

Apples:

  • 6 apples peeled & cored, small to medium size

Brown Sugar Syrup:

  • 1 & ⅔ 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
  • 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 by commenting below!

 

 

13 Comments

  1. Kim, I’ve never made apple dumplings, but they were quite popular growing up! I can’t wait to give these a try! And I definitely agree, these would be delicious for breakfast!

  2. I love the idea of walnuts too Ben! Apples and walnuts together are definitely a win! Thank you so much Ben! I hope you get a chance to try them! 😉

  3. This looks and sounds phenomenal! I love baked apples, but It never crossed my mind to use some dough to wrap them up. With all the cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar syrup, this is definitely scrumptious! I would definitely add some walnuts for for myself.

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