As I've mentioned here before, I'm a pretty big fan of the Southern restaurant chain Cracker Barrel. Their buttermilk biscuits are the lightest, airiest biscuits around. The chicken & dumplings and hashbrown casserole are pretty rockin', too. But once in a blue moon I'll indulge in their most decadent menu item of all, baked apple dumplings.
Up until a few days ago, Cracker Barrel's apple dumplings were all I knew. Spicy-sweet apple chunks are tucked into a mini gratin dish, snuggled under a buttery pie crust, and sprinkled with a crunchy pecan streusel. Once baked, they're drenched in a rich and creamy caramel syrup and topped with heaping scoops of vanilla bean ice cream on their way out to the table. Talk about guilding the lily!
You might imagine my surprise when a Google search revealed no recipes that even came close to the Cracker Barrel apple dumplings of my past. According to the internet (and some reputable cookbooks) a true apple dumpling is a whole apple that is peeled and cored, sprinkled with butter and cinnamon sugar, and swaddled beneath a flaky pastry crust. A similar concept as Cracker Barrel's, but different. Still sounds pretty tasty to me.
Feeling up to the challenge, I decided to play with the traditional version since it is considered the "classic." (Really, I have so many apples squirreled away right now it wouldn't be a big deal to make both. As long as someone helped me eat them!) There's a decent amount of recipes available for apple dumplings around the web, all varying in some small degree or another. The main differences seemed to be the crust type, ranging from frozen puff pastry, pie dough, or pâté sucrée.
I ended up trying out a few different versions, one using my favorite butter pie crust from America's Test Kitchen and the one you see below. Both have their pros and cons — the Test Kitchen crust had a great butter flavor and nice cooked texture, but was really difficult to shape when it came time to wrap the apples. The shortening crust you see below on the other hand, lacks the mild buttery flavor of the first crust but came together super quick and proved much sturdier. They're both great, so feel free to use whichever you're most comfortable with.
I really did fall hard for this new-to-me version of apple dumplings. I served a batch as the grand finale at a recent potluck I hosted, to rave moans and groans from the crowd. I can't wait to make them again, although now I need to take a quick trip to Cracker Barrel to get my fix of theirs... Dang!
Do you have an heirloom recipe for apple dumplings you'd like to share? I'd love to hear your version.

Baked Apple Dumplings
Makes 6 dumplings
(Note: I just remade this recipe using a double batch of Anne Willian's pâte brisée, and it was the best of both crust worlds. The egg yolks yielded a very pliable dough, and the butter added the flavor that was missing from the shortening version. I highly recommend you check it out! It may just be my new "go-to" pie crust recipe.)
For the Crust
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch kosher salt
4 1/2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup milk (or just enough to make the dough stick together)
For the Filling
Juice from one lemon
6 extra small baking apples (such as Gala)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
For the Caramel Sauce
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup water
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
Pinch of kosher salt
Vanilla ice cream, to serve.
For the dumplings, in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles small peas. Add milk — 1/4 cup at a time — and stir until a shaggy ball of dough just begins to form. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and roll into a large rectangle or square, about 1/8-inch thick.
Cut a piece of parchment paper into a 6-inch square. Using the parchment paper as a guide, cut out 6 total squares from the dough, gathering scraps and re-rolling as needed. Layer the dough on pieces of parchment paper and refrigerate while preparing the apples.
Preheat the oven to 450°.
Add the lemon juice to a bowl of ice water. If necessary, slice off the bottom of each apple so it sits level on the counter. Peel and core each apple and place in the lemon water to prevent browning.
To make the filling, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle the bottom of a square of dough with sugar mixture. Place an apple in the center of dough. Put one pat of butter in the core of the apple and sprinkle additional sugar mixture inside. Bring the four corners of dough up around the apple, pinching the edges to seal and folding over excess if necessary. Continue with all of the apples.
Arrange the apple dumplings in a large cast iron skillet, leaving about 1-inch of space between each apple. Bake until the crust begins to turn golden brown, about 20 - 25 minutes. Meanwhile make the caramel sauce. Remove the par-baked dumplings from the oven and pour the caramel over top and around the apples.
Reduce oven to 350°. Continue to bake the dumplings until the sauce is thick and bubbly and the apples are very tender when pierced, about 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before eating. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
To make the caramel sauce, combine the brown sugar, water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 2 -3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and pour over dumplings before returning to the oven.

(Images: Nealey Dozier)
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Comments (20)
How do you core an apple without cutting it into several pieces?
A little historical perspective.
Cracker Barrel Boycott
In 1991, Cracker Barrel, a restaurant chain headquartered in Lebanon, Tennessee and prolific in the American South, fired eleven gay and lesbian workers for violating a new policy banning the employment of persons "whose sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society." The blatant homophobia of this action, legal in the cities and states in which the employees worked, touched off a wave of national criticism and protests at Cracker Barrel restaurants throughout the country, and a boycott called by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
In the face of bad publicity, the company soon rescinded its explicit policy banning the employment of homosexuals, but it stubbornly refused either to rehire the dismissed employees or, for many years, to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy.
After years of protests, as well as vigorous debates on shareholder resolutions (sponsored principally by the New York City Employees Retirement System, a major stockholder) at the company's annual meetings, in December 2002 the board of Cracker Barrel's parent company voted unanimously to add sexual orientation to the company's non-discrimination policy. In response the boycott was ended, though many glbtq people still refuse to patronize the company.
@leeinTN I core apples by (carefully!) using a sharp paring knife to cut out a column from the center of the fruit.
You can also use an apple corer, if you want to keep a specialized tool around for the task.
OXO makes an apple corer as well as Cuisipro. Search on Amazon, not too expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisipro-747150-Apple-Corer/dp/B003AN7EW6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319134971&sr=8-3
I know I am going to get a lot of flack for this but these look exactly like the apple dumplings in the frozen section of Trader Joe's. I've been eating them for years and they are delicious. I know nothing beats fresh and these seem like a fun Sunday project, but if you want to save quite a bit of time, check them out next time you are grocery shopping.
I too have searched in vain for a recipe for cracker barrel apple dumplings, they are still the best I've ever tasted.
Mmmm Cracker Barrel, it's been ages since I've been there. I need to go, just to recipe test these, all in the name of research :)
I have a recipe from the Mennonite Community Cookbook (I'm PA Dutch, so apple dumplings are very close to my heart.) It's very similar to your version:
Dough:
2 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2/3 C shortening
1/2 C milk
Fill the cavity of the apples with sugar and cinnamon (no measurements given). Wrap up in the pastry.
Sauce:
2 C brown sugar
2 C water
1/4 C butter
1/4 t cinnamon or nutmeg
Also, you don't serve these with ice cream. You pour milk or cream over them and eat them for dinner!
If you are ever in Philadelphia, get a hot apple dumpling with heavy cream at the Dutch Eating Place in Reading Terminal Market. I was on vacation there this spring and I ate one every morning!!
JUST made these, they were amazing! I really layered on the cinnamon and sugar mix, and baked them plain without the caramel sauce and added caramel ice cream topping when I served them. Definitely a keeper recipe for me.
I see Charlotte already mentioned the apple dumplings at the Reading Terminal Market.
Skip the cheese steak. Get a dumpling.
So funny! I was just describing these wonderful little gems to DH last week. My mom's work caf used to make these from scratch. She'd save her dessert and bring it home for me. They're so, so good if they've been chilled in the fridge. You've convinced me that they're worth the trouble of making. Yummy!
One of my favorite (though also one of the fussiest) recipes I developed for my book, Farmers' Market Desserts, is Baked Apple Dumplings with Cinnamon Caramel. A little cream cheese in the crust along with butter keeps the pastry easy to handle. You can find recipe tester extraordinnair Rachel Boller of Scratch making it here:
http://tinyurl.com/2bqr8ys
another PA dutch girl here and my grandma made the best apple dumplings! and monkey milk is right, they taste best with milk. i don't have my grandma's recipe, but use one similar to the one you posted and they are delicious, one of my favorite fall traditions.
Is it really necessary to prevent browning on apples you're going to wrap in pastry and bake?
Doing the lemon water to give them an extra little punch of bright tartness makes sense, but not to prevent browning on something you're BAKING.
Can anyone made these approximate the measurment of 6 extra small apples? These look so good...but I am a newbie and I question my eyeballing. :)
Love the idea of the cramel sauce and I will be trying it with a basic short pastry that we use in the UK (without the cheese)
In the UK apple dumplings are always made with a short pastry, I prefer one with cheshire cheese in. The choice of adding cheese to pastry to go with apple has to be tried to be believed:
8oz plain flour
2oz lard
2oz vegetable shortening
pinch of salt
1oz grated strong Cheshire cheese (purely because it goes with the apple so well)
cold water to mix
beaten egg and brown sugar to coat before baking
Rub the dry ingredients together to form a mixture like breadcrumbs. Using very cold water mix to just bring together as a dough. Do not overwork it but place between two pieces of clingfilm to roll out thinly.
Then peel one side off place the stuffed apple in the centre and with the cling film still attached form it around the apple leaving a small hole at the top. Remove the cling film and decorate if wished brush with beaten egg and a sprinkling of brown sugar and bake in the oven.
I core the apples but not peel and stuff with home made mincemeat mixed with a little brown sugar, brandy or rum (for an adult version) and walnuts.
Serve with ice cream, thick cream or even better English vanilla custard.
Here is the cracker barrel recipe. Enjoy!
1 (17 1/2 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and halved
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
pecan streusel
2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons melted butter
Directions:
1
Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2
Roll out each sheet of pastry to measure 12x12 inches. Cut into quarters, to make 8 - 6 inch squares.
3
In a small bowl, combine sugar, bread crumbs, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4
Brush a pastry square with beaten egg.
5
Place 1 tablespoon bread crumb mixture in center.
6
Place one apple half, core side down, over bread crumbs.
7
Top with another tablespoon of mixture.
8
Pull up four corners of pastry and pinch sides together to seal seams completely. Repeat with remaining apples.
9
Brush each dumpling with beaten egg.
10
Top with Pecan Streusel.
11
Place in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking 25 minutes more, until lightly browned.
12
Drizzle with icing.
13
Let cool completely at room temperature.
14
PECAN STREUSEL: In a small bowl, combine 2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans, 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, 2/3 cup all-purpose flour and 5 tablespoons melted butter. Mix with a fork until mixture resembles moist crumbs. Use as directed in recipe. Make more or less as desired.
15
To make icing, combine confectioners' sugar and vanilla and enough milk to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cooled dumplings. Serve the same day.
I never heard of apple dumplings,but that sounds like a good idea.It looks yummy and I wanna try sometime.
I have been having issues with my pie crust on dumplings too, so I am looking forward to trying the pate brisee this week to see how that works! We love apple dumplings, thanks for sharing your version!