Baked Apple Dumplings

A homespun combination of warm pastry, concentrated apple flavor, raisins, butter, and cinnamon, this popular dessert has somehow fallen off the radar. We wanted to bring back this American classic and see if we could improve on tradition. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• Biscuit dough was easier to work with than pie dough and did a great job of absorbing the liquid from the apples without getting mushy.
• Some apple varieties we found didn’t cook through quickly enough, while others turned to mush. We settled on sweeter Golden Delicious, which had the perfect consistency when prepared correctly.
• There’s no reason to bake the dumplings in syrup. To avoid a soggy mess, just make the sauce separately and save it for serving.