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Apple Dumplings Recipe

I began helping my grandma with this recipe when I was about 5 years old. It started me on a lifelong enjoyment of baking.

This recipe is for old fashioned apple dumplings recipe, popular in Northern Indiana in the the first half of the 20th century, and probably earlier.

Ingredients

  • About 6 apples, more or less. It depends on how big the apples, and how thin you roll the pie dough
  • 3 cups flour1
  • 1.25 cup shortening2
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional, I usually omit)
  • Ice water, a few tablespoons, as needed

Instructions

There are only two elements in this simple recipe–the apples and the pie dough.

  1. Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the seeds/core. A potato peeler works well in peeling the apples. Try a small paring knife for the halving and coring.
  2. Grease and flour your pan with a bit of extra shortning and flour. Set it aside.
  3. Make the pie crust / dough. See pie crust for a complete description.
  4. Roll out the pie dough using about half the amount in this recipe. The thickness should be about the same as for ordinary pie crust / dough.
  5. Cut the rolled out pie dough into about any shape you like (square, triangle, etc.) in an area you can use to cover on apple (both halves)
  6. Put two apple halves together. Put a section of cut dough around them, and seal the apple in the dough, by gently molding with your hands. Add another piece, if you are little short on dough.
  7. Put this dumpling in the pan. Repeat until you run out of apples and/or pie dough. Or add more, as needed.
  8. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. About 50 minutes to an hour.3
  9. SERVING: I prefer apple dumplings, either warm or cold, with milk and sugar. This is the way my parents and grandparents ate them. My wife and some of my children prefer the dumplings warm, with ice cream on top. Or they taste good alone, either warm or cold.

Culinary Tradition:  USA, midwest, circa first half of 20th Century
My Rating (out of 5 stars):  ★★★★★

NOTES:

  1. plus a little extra to “dust” the rolling surface and the baking pan ↩
  2. plus a little extra to grease the baking pan ↩
  3. I never had an oven on which the temperature settings were very accurate. Keep on eye on your apple dumplings as they bake. The color is more important than the time. ↩

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Raisin Pie — Edgar Guest’s Birthday

On this year's Edgar Guest Day, observing the 130th birthday of Edgar Guest, K_Line Christian Online is proud to reprint his immortal poem, Raisin Pie!

Edgar Guest1 (1881 – 1959)

(Some people2 consider raisin pie to be the high water mark in the American culinary arts. There is tasty recipe for old fashioned Raisin Pie on this blOg.)

Raisin Pie by Edgar Guest

THERE’S a heap of pent-up goodness in the yellow bantam corn,
And I sort o’ like to linger round a berry patch at morn;
Oh, the Lord has set our table with a stock o’ things to eat
An’ there’s just enough o’ bitter in the blend to cut the sweet,
But I run the whole list over, an’ it seems somehow that I
Find the keenest sort o’ pleasure in a chunk o’ raisin pie.

There are pies that start the water circulatin’ in the mouth;
There are pies that wear the flavor of the warm an’ sunny south;
Some with oriental spices spur the drowsy appetite
An’ just fill a fellow’s being with a thrill o’ real delight;
But for downright solid goodness that comes drippin’ from the sky
There is nothing quite the equal of a chunk o’ raisin pie.

I’m admittin’ tastes are diff’runt, I’m not settin’ up myself
As the judge an’ final critic of the good things on the shelf.
I’m sort o’ payin’ tribute to a simple joy on earth,
Sort o’ feebly testifyin’ to its lasting charm an’ worth,
An’ I’ll hold to this conclusion till it comes my time to die,
That there’s no dessert that’s finer than a chunk o’ raisin pie.

Edgar Guest
Edgar Guest
Edgar Guest was born on August 20, 1881, in Birmingham, England. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1891. Edgar began working, in 1895, as a copy boy for the Detroit Free Press. He worked there for almost sixty-five years.

Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio from 1931 to 1942. In 1951, he began “A Guest in Your Home” on NBC TV. Guest published more than twenty volumes of poetry. It is estimated that he wrote over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called “the poet of the people.” His poems usually portrayed a sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself “a newspaper man who wrote verses.” Edgar Guest died on August 5, 1959.

FOOTNOTES:

  1. SOURCE: Poets.org ↩
  2. e.g. Tom Truex ↩

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Country Style Vanilla Ice Cream (requires cooking)

Smooth custardy recipe. Requires cooking. See the general instructions on making home made ice cream, previously posted on K_Line Christian Online

Recipe: Country Style Vanilla Ice Cream

Summary: Home made vanilla ice cream, printed years ago in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Requires cooking. Note, this is a 5 quart recipe. See variation for 6 quart recipe. This ice cream is very creamy, and has a custard texture. It is a little more work, but worth it, in my opinion.

Ingredients

  • 5 eggs (6 eggs for 6 quart recipe)
    3 1/4 cup sugar (4 cups for 6 quart recipe)
    5 cups whipping cream (6 cups for 6 quart recipe)
  • Approx. 6 1/2 cups milk (8 cups for 6 quart recipe). NOTE: Only 4 cups is cooked
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract (3 tablespoons for 6 quart recipe). ADDED AFTER COOKING
  • about 3 bags of ice
  • Rock Salt

Instructions

  1. Combine eggs (beaten), sugar, cream and 4 cups of milk
    2. Cooking the ice cream ingredients
    Cooking the ice cream ingredients
  2. Cook mixture until 160-165 degrees F. The recipe in the Sun-Sentinel says, “lightly coats spoon and finger leaves a path when drawn across back of spoon.” Frankly, this method of checking the temperature never works for me. However, there are two important reasons to achieve this temperature–which is pretty hot but NOT boiling–so it is probably best to use a thermometer. First of all, cooking the mixture fundamentally changes the taste and texture of the final product. Secondly this temperature is what is needed to kill any salmonella bacteria.1
  3. Chill completely in fridge or ice bath. If warm, you may churn flakes of butter. I put the can in the ice cream freezer, and add the ice, but DON’T start the motor/cranking, for about an hour until the mixture in the can is cool to the touch.
  4. Add the additional ingredients. Note the milk is added last, and the amount listed is only an estimate. Add until the fill line.
  5. Crank the ice cream per the general instructions.

CulinaryTradition: USA (Traditional)

My rating: 5.0 stars
*****

  1. Apparently the risk of contracting salmonella is small. However, this factor is why I personally recommend skipping the “raw egg” ice cream recipes, unless you use an “egg substitute.” There is an excellent article on point at MissouriFamilies.ORG ↩

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