Monday’s Aren’t All Bad

Dumplings!

I had leftover apples from a pie I made last week and wanted to bake more so here’s the result.  Usually, I leave the yummy recipes to my talented cousin, but couldn’t resist this today (especially because I’m eating one of them for breakfast as I write – decadent!)

It’s just pie dough (I did a bit of cream cheese and the rest butter) rolled out, cut into squares and wrapped around whole, cored apples.  I don’t have an apple corer so I just peeled them, cut them in half to seed them and then stuck them back together.  I did have one of them fall apart but that just means we ate it as soon as it came out of the oven.  You know, to keep it from ruining the rest of the dumplings’ confidence.

Inside each apple, I put a mixture of softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt right before wrapping them in their pie dough blankets.  10 minutes after they started baking, I added the syrup and then basted them with the syrup every 15 minutes or so.   The syrup is butter, water, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt whisked together, and then added a thinly sliced lemon and boiled the whole thing for 5 minutes before adding it to the dumplings.  I got the recipe from the Joy of Cooking and I have to say, it is an excellent one.

And suddenly, Monday wasn’t so bad.