I'm just making a guess here.... -Grainlady

APPLE DUMPLINGS
(MORE Heart of the Home Recipes - Favorites from Capper's Weekly)
"These dumplings have a tender, flaky crust and swim in a sweet and spicy sauce." [I wonder if your MIL used the sauce to baste the dumplings?]

2 bottles (7-oz. size) lemon-lime beverage
1-1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 c. butter or margarine
6 medium apples
2 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
3/4 c. shortening
1/2 c. milk
6 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
3 T. butter or margarine

Combine lemon-lime beverage, 1-1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 t. cinnamon and 1/4 t. nutmeg in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Add 1/4 c. butter and stir until melted. Set aside.

Pare and core apples, leave whole. Sift flour, salt and baking powder; cut in shortening. Add milk all at once and stir until moistened. Roll out and cut into six 7-inch squares. Place apple in center of each square. Combine the 6 tablespoons sugar and 1 t. cinnamon and sprinkle about 1 T. of mixture in center of each apple. Dot with butter. Fold corners of pastry to center and pinch edges together. Arrange in 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking dish. Pour sirup [their spelling, not mine] into pan. Bake in 425-degree F. oven 35-40-minutes. Serve warm with sauce. (Recipe submitted by Kate Marchbanks - October 1, 1963.)

I found the following recipe that I think you may be able to adapt.

These dumplings are pictured in Williams Sonoma's November catalogue. The recipe (from the sous chef at Amada, Philly) is on their web site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Dumplings

Yet one more... (I have waaaaaaay too many old cookbooks ;-)
-Grainlady

APPLE DUMPLINGS
(source: Farm Journal's Country Cookbook)

Spicy, sweet-tart apples hide under crisp pastry jackets.

3 T. butter or margarine
3/4 t. cinnamon
e/r t. allspice
3/4 t. nutmeg
1/3 c. sifted brown sugar [yes, that's what it says - sifted]
Pastry based on 2 c. flour
8 medium apples, peeled and cored
3 T. jelly
1-1/2 c. boiling water
1-1/2 c. sugar
3 T. fruit juice (orange, lemon, pineapple, apricot, etc.)
Food color (optional)

Make paste of butter, spices and brown sugar.

Roll out pastry 1/8-inch thick; cut into eight 6-inch squares. Place apple in center of each; put jelly or orange marmalade in cavity, and spread spicy paste over each apple.

Moisten edges of pastry; bring points together over apple; seal sides firmly. Roll leftover pastry; cut into "streamers" to lay across tops of dumplings.

Place in large greased baking dish, about 11x15-inches; bake in moderate oven (375-degrees F) 30-minutes.

While apples are baking, make syrup of water, sugar and fruit juice; simmer to dissolve sugar. Pour over apples; bake 10-20 minutes more, BASTING FREQUENTLY, to give attractive glaze. A little color may be added to syrup. Serve warm with cream. Makes 8 servings.

The syrup will have to be concentrated enough to reach the hard crack stage. So less water in proportion to sugar. One way to get this is to cook it on top of the stove until almost that point (marked on candy thermometers) and then baste.

The apple dumplings here in PA Dutch land don't have the hard shell, but it sounds good. (Maybe it's an ideal that doesn't usually get reached in practice.) And they don't look at all like the Williams-Sonoma version.

Here is an old time favorite:

Joan Nash's Apple Dumplings

pie crust recipe for a double crust
4-6 cooking apples

Prepare crusts. Roll out and cut in 5" or larger squares; put 2-3 quarters of peeled, cored apples in one square of pastry. Fold up corners and pinch seams closed.

Place in a greased 9x13" pan. Make sauce and pour in pan around dumplings.

Sauce:
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar or honey
1/2 stick butter
dash cinnamon

Boil together for one minute. Bake sauce and dumplings in a preheated 375 degree oven until the pastry is browned.

Baste sauce over apple dumplings while they cook? Use less butter to get a stickier sauce? Boil sauce for longer than 1 minute?

You might have to experiment to get that hard crack layer on the dumplings. But I know this TnT recipe is excellent!

Teresa

Oh! Am I glad a brought back 5 bushels of apples from the mountains last week. Looks like I'll have to try all of the recipes to find out :.) Thanks so much. I agree with y'all that leaving out the butter may be the trick, however, I think too that cloudy_christine's "cook to near hard crack" stage on the stove-top may be close too. With basting any of these it sounds like extra care has to be taken to keep from spilling any on exposed body parts. Perhaps the leather gauntlets I use for basting meat on the grill might be best. Thank you all for going to the trouble of finding these recipes! I really appreciate it and my DH will swoon, for sure.

Aside to grainlady - I have 353 cookbooks at last count and that does not include the recipe cards and magazines with post it flags.

Nancy

Grainlady, I have that Farm Journal book and several other FJ cookbooks! Don't you just love them for good old country cooking?

Teresa

I also love the old Farm Journal Cookbooks. I have the very first one (thanks Mom) she gave it to me a few years ago. I also have the 2nd edition main cookbook that I bought way back when... it's falling apart and has it's share of furnace tape on it. I signed up for their automatic book program and have most of the smaller cookbooks too.
I learned more from using those cookbooks than any other way. Good, sound country cooking.

Nancy