Apple Dumplings

Apple dumplings are your Personal Pie in a Pastry. If one of the pie eaters in your household continually takes more than his or her fair share of pie, you can keep the big eaters in check by making everyone his or her own personal pie. It's a pomological version of pigs-in-a-blanket.

Ingredients:

Pastry

2¼ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening, chilled
½ cup milk

Filling

6 firm, medium/large apples
½ cup walnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins or dates, chopped
3 Tbs butter

Syrup

1½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 cups water
¼ cup (half stick) butter

Topping

1/3 cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in chilled shortening. When pieces of dough are the size of small peas, add milk, and stir until incorporated. Form into a ball, and wrap in wax paper. Chill until the rest of the ingredients are ready.
Peel and core apples. Fill hollowed apple cores with raisins and walnuts.
To make the topping, combine cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg in a small bowl, and set aside.
To make the syrup combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat; cook for five minutes. Stir in butter, and set aside.
Roll pastry dough into an 18 x 12” rectangle. Cut dough into 6” squares. Place an apple in the center of each pastry square. Dot the tops with butter, and sprinkle with half the sugar/spice topping mix. Moisten edges of dough with water, and fold the corners so that they meet on top of each apple, forming a shell of dough that covers every part of the apple.
Place the covered apples in a 13 x 9” baking dish or other baking pan — just be sure that there is space for about an inch of syrup in the bottom of the pan to bake the dumplings. Pour syrup over apples, and then sprinkle the remainder of sugar/spice mixture over the moistened dumplings.
Bake for 45 minutes. Cool and serve.