Applesauce With Dumplings

by LEON BOUTEILLER

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and preparations for the feast are almost done. All to be finished is roast the turkey and assemble the final ingredients for the side dishes and gravy. No doubt the desserts await their final decorations. What if desserts have escaped your mind? Perhaps the pie dropped as it came just out of the oven? The order for a dessert made by a local purveyor, got lost?e I have a dessert made easily and won’t take oven space. This applesauce treat is something that comes together fairly quickly, more quickly if you have applesauce on hand. It may be in the freezer, the result of too many apples from the local orchard or a store-bought jar of sauce to be doctored to taste homemade.

This dessert is made on the stovetop. The applesauce can be made ahead and reheated. Leave the skins on while cooking to give the sauce more color and flavor. Put the cooked apples through a food mill to remove the skins and make it smooth and silky.

My grandmother used to make this dish. The same process can be used to make a tasty dessert with berries and/or stone fruit. It’s not much fuss, no need to make pastry dough to bake a pie.

This recipe has a similar flavor and ingredients as a Swedish pancake served with applesauce and sour cream. Here the dumplings are steamed. After spooning the batter over the hot sauce, the cover is placed over the pan until the dumplings are cooked. There is no browning.

Alternatively, the whole dish can be placed in a hot oven after the dumplings have been placed on the sauce and baked. It becomes another dish for the dumplings brown and crust.

I like the tender steamed version, placing the cover on the pan and cooking on the stovetop. It can be served as is with some ice cream or, as my grandmother would have served it, with some heavy cream on top.

APPLESAUCE with DUMPLINGS
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients for the applesauce:

2 pounds cored and chopped apples. Best if several varieties are used
¾ cup apple cider
⅓ cup natural sugar
3 pieces candied ginger, or substitute 1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 cinnamon sticks, or substitute 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt

Method for the applesauce:

Place all ingredients in a sauté pan with a cover and bring to a low simmer
Cook until the apples are tender, about 20 minutes, then put through a food mill removing the skins, ginger and cinnamon sticks
Return the applesauce to the pan and keep warm at a very low flame while making the dumpling batter

Ingredients for the dumplings:

½ cup fine cornmeal
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons natural sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
¾ cup milk plus 1 tablespoon
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method for the dumplings:

Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and give it a stir
Add the butter and cut into the flour with a fork or rub it in with your hands
Combine the milk and vanilla and stir it into the flour mixture just until the flour is incorporated
Spoon the batter in dollops over the hot applesauce.
Place the cover on the pan and cook over medium low heat until the dumplings are cooked through, about 15-20 minutes

Serve to your guests while the applesauce is still warm with some ice cream, whipped cream or, per my grandmother, a little heavy cream.

Easy to do and might even serve as breakfast.

Enjoy!