Apple Dumplings

It's Fall and with the change in the calendar comes the wonderful change in the weather. It's especially meaningful to us here in the Midwest since we suffered such a brutal summer this year. My good fisherman friend Ralph, who walks the docks at the marina, also happens to own a few apple trees and was kind enough to bring me a bucket of apples last week. My daughter has been hounding me for apple dumplings so I used the apples tonight to make them. I wasn't on the boat, but rather in my kitchen at home and, to be quite honest, I didn't even think about doing a recipe post until they were all done and out of the oven. So this time all you get is the recipe and the final picture and if you have any difficulty just let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to help.

Ingredients:

15 small apples or 12 larger ones
Juice of 2 lemons
3 recipes of pie crust (see below for the best one ever)
1 cup cinnamon sugar
1 stick of cold butter
Sauce (see below)

Peel apples and leave whole. Place in large bowl and coat with lemon juice to keep from turning brown. Set aside. Make pie crust recipes. Here is the recipe for a single crust which you need to multiply times three if you're doing all of the apples:

1-1/3 cup sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter flavor shortening
1/4 cup ice water

Sift flour, measure, then sift into bowl with the salt. Add shortening and "cut" in with wire whisk until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice water and toss lightly with fork until it comes together in a ball. Divide into balls for how many apples you are using or use the whole crust in a pie.

Roll a pastry ball into a circle. Using one of those apple slicer/corer/wedger things, press down on apple and remove core. Place a pat of butter in the middle and cup your hands around the apple, squeezing the butter in the middle to hold it together. Place apple on crust circle and spoon in a teaspoon or two of cinnamon sugar. Wrap crust up around apple and press together. Place in a 9 x 13 pan. Repeat for all of the apples. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes.

Make sauce:
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup water
2 tsp cinnamon.

Mix sugar and water and cinnamon and boil for 1 minute. Spoon over dumplings and return to oven for another 20 minutes or until apples are tender when tested with a sharp knife.

Spoon syrup over apples from bottom of pan and let cool slightly before serving. These are good with ice cream or in a bowl with milk.