Nov 12

Apple dumplings

"The crust, unhindered by a heavy filling, expands and flakes like puff pastry. When you cut into each, a trickle of buttery brown sugar caramel floods your plate. And the best part of it is actually the mess — chunks of spiced baked fruit, buttery layers of dough, a mingled puddle of juices." Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

Deb Perelman's Apple dumplings shown here were the inspiration for today. They came in one of her recent newsletters - well it was autumn over there in America. Which is actually the most frustrating thing about my Guardian, Ottolenghi and Smitten Kitchen updates - it's always the wrong season. Mind you apples are always available and here in Australia we produce gorgeous apples, although not, very sadly, Cox's orange pippins, which were always my favourites as a child. What apple dumplings need, however, are Bramleys - cooking apples - so Granny Smiths.

In a way it's one of those very ordinary and not all that remarkable desserts, but seeing her recipe induced a wave of nostalgia because I remember being served apple dumplings in my childhood. Except I don't really. Having now explored the possible recipes to recommend from online and my cookbook library, I cannot now recall exactly what they were like. I just know we had them and I liked them. They were probably served with custard.

I have tried to find origin stories, but all I have found is that they are old - dating back to at least the early 18th century but probably from a long time before. It's peasant kind of food isn't it? Wrap an apple in pastry and cook it. Well that's the simplest form - and I think the pastry would have been suet pastry as well. The Americans, of course, have made them their own, but I think they were originally British - maybe German?

The first thing of interest that I found was that none of my old gurus - Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson in particular who both had books on English Food, had nothing. Neither did Delia, or Jamie.

Having now found various different methods and innovations I suspect that Deb Perelman is actually pretty close to how they would have been made originally. I think the basic form is to peel and core an apple, place it on a square of pastry - stuff it with sugar, and butter, maybe some sultanas and raisins, fold the pastry over and bake in the oven. Sometimes - especially these days - some kind of gooey sauce is poured over them, so that they look glossy and brownly beautiful, as well as adding to the general sugariness of it all. This particular version - Old-fashioned apple dumplings is from a website called Brown-eyed Baker, which, I'm pretty sure, is American.

Sainsbury's in Britain also has a fairly traditional version which they call Devon apple dumplings and Kate Young, writing in The Guardian, also goes traditional with her Apple dumplings. I did also see Herefordshire apple dumplings which had marmalade and orange juice in the stuffing. Doubtless there are lots of variations around the country, but you can see what the basic idea is and go from there. Deb Perelman halved her apples, some slice them, but I think the original idea is the coring and stuffing thing.

Then of course, there are those who subvert. Dan Lepard - a big name in terms of British baking makes Apple dumplings in brandy syrup but his are not at all the same, and I have to say they don't look that great though they probably taste OK - maybe even delicious. Here the apples are chopped and mixed with the flour, and flavourings, rolled into balls and then cooked in a syrup. Ottolenghi's Fried apple dumplings with coconut caramel look great of course, but have a quite different shape, and he uses tinned apple slices (it was an article of tinned food), and various exotic flavours,before frying them. Alyn Williams, also in The Guardian offers Crispy apple dumplings with walnut butter and anise cream - also fried - and they have a delicious filling of cooked and mashed apples. Nigel - dear old Nigel - goes savoury - adds Stilton to the filling and tops with a red onion chutney for his Apple and Stilton dumplings - but they do look good.