This ladies and gentlemen is the best fall dessert. You can keep your pies and candied apples, this is it. My apple dumplings recipe encompasses everything Fall. It is the ultimate cool-weather treat and is best served a la mode.

What you Need to Know About Apple Dumplings

To sum it up, an apple dumpling is a whole apple that is wrapped up in pie dough and baked with a sauce. There are two main factors to making this recipe successful. You need to have a great crust recipe (which I do) and the type of apple can vary on the flavor. I highly recommend Gala or Cortland apples. You need to make sure that your apple is good for baking whatever you do. Some apples turn to mush or are too tart. I do recommend also recommend getting an apple corer. A knife is fine but it is a pain.

Apple Dumplings

Whole apples baked in a pie crust with brown sugar sauce.

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Equipment

9×13 Baking Dish
Apple Corer or a Long, Skinny Knife
Rolling Pin

Ingredients

Crust Recipe

5 cups All Purpose Flour
2 cups Butter Flavored Crisco
1 tsp Salt
1 large Egg
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegr
1 cup Up to 1 cup Cold Water See Instructions for Clarification

Dumplings

8-10 Gala Apples
1 cup White Sugar
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Brown Sugar Sauce

1.5 cups Light Brown Sugar
0.5 cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Water

Instructions

Crust

Combine Flour and Salt in a bowl or Food Processor and Combine/Pulse
Cut Crisco into the flour with a Pastry Cutter/Fork or Pulse in a Food Processor until it is distributed evenly through the flour.
In a liquid measuring cup, beat your egg with a fork and add the vinegar.
In the measuring cup with the egg, fill with cold water until the 1 cup line.
Add liquid to the flour/crisco mixture, pulse/cut until combine.
Dump dough onto surface with flour. If the dough is a bit tacky, work a little flour into it and refrigerate for up to 30 minutes.

Dumplings

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees.
Combine brown sugar, water, and butter in a sauce plan over medium heat. Cook until combine and then remove from heet.
Combine Cinnamon and White sugar in a small bowl.
Core 8-10 Gala Apples, leave the skin on.
Roll out about a fist size piece of pie crust onto a well floured surface.
Place apple in the center of the dough and spoon in 2-3 tsp of the cinnamon sugar.
Using two diagonal corners, pull your dough together. It is okay if it overlaps. You do not want to stretch the dough ideally.
Use your handles to press around the apple to make sure it is sealed.
Sometimes a hole can pop through the bottom and the sugar can pour out. Be careful when you pick it up to place in the baking dish. If there is a hole, slap a little flattened piece of crust on the bottom.
Once all the apples are in the baking dish, pour all of the sauce over the dumplings.
Place in oven to bake for 50-55 minutes.
Baste Apples with the sauce halfway through and at the end.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes.
Spoon Sauce over the top while plating and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Notes

You will have some leftover pie dough potentially. I just save it to make more dumplings or mini pies later on. It can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

The crust and the apples combined with the sauce will make you feel so cozy and happy. I remember getting these with my mother at the Lafayette Apple Festival. It was something that I looked forward to every single year that we would go. My family loves this apple dumplings recipe and I hope you do too.

Check out my walnut brownie recipe here for a chocolate dessert option!