I have My husband thinks that I problem with scale…determining appropriate sizes.  My issue mostly comes into play where Christmas trees are involved.  Without guidance, I will always buy too big.  For our first Christmas tree, I decided to go to a Christmas tree farm for the “perfect” tree, and surprise my husband by having it all set up when he came home from work. With my sister, her friend, and I gathered around the “perfect” tree,  and not being able to see each other, I should have realized that it was too big.  Once this “perfect” tree was in place I cut the binding, and as the tree “unfolded” we had to run to get out of it’s way.  This was so not a good surprise. We almost couldn’t get it out of the house.

Then there was the first tree in our newly purchased home.  I’d gone to FixPlay, a store that sold decor and fixtures to department stores(this should have been a clue…I lived in a house, not a department store).  The tree was so big, it was just the right size to place between two escalators in a department store.  There were no refunds.

Since my issue had been confined to Christmas trees, I thought nothing of the 8lb bag of apples that I purchased at Wegmans*.  Mind you, I buy apples all of the time, 3-4 apples every couple of weeks, more if I’m making a pie. But, 8lbs for $5.99 seemed like something I couldn’t pass up. After 2 weeks of eating a daily apple, I found myself with about 7 apples remaining and they were starting to get soft.  Apple butter? Caramel apple sauce? Apple dumplings!

Let me tell you, the creation of these apple dumplings were worth the over-purchase in apples!  Most apple dumplings are made with apples/wedges covered in pie dough or crescent roll dough and cooked in a sugar syrup, sometimes made with Mountain Dew(something that I absolutely have to try!).  I went a different route…yeast roll dough*!  My apple wedges are enveloped in yeast roll dough that had been coated with a delicious mixture of butter, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. The dumplings were then baked in a syrup using the same butter/sugar/cinnamon combination that ends up as a caramel-cinnamon sauce.

So now, I’m two down and five to go on those apples…I’m thinking apple butter!

Thawed dough ready to be rolled out…

Spread each piece of dough with the butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture before topping with an apple wedge.

Place dumplings seam side down in a buttered baking dish.

The syrup that you made creates a rich cinnamon-caramel sauce while the dumplings bake.

Apple Dumplings
makes 12

2 apples
12 pieces frozen yeast roll dough, thawed(I used Bridgford brand)
1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 stick unsalted butter, divided
2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar(for sprinkling)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon(for sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Peel an cut apples in half, cut each half into three wedges and core each piece.  In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Mix well to blend.

Sprinkle work surface with flour and roll out dough pieces to about 3 x 2 pieces.  Spread each dough piece with the sugar mixture, leaving about 1/4 edge free of mixture.  Place an apple wedge, centered atop the coated dough.  Roll dough, longer end over, to cover apple.  Use a small about of the 2 tablespoons of water to seal dough.  Place each dumpling, seam side down, in a buttered 9 x 9 baking dish.  Allow dumplings to rest and dough to slightly rise for about 15 minutes.  In a saucepan, add remaining sugars, cinnamon, 3/4 cup water, and 4 tablespoons butter.  Heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to boil.  Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and carefully pour into dish with dumplings.  Dot dumplings with remaining 1 tablespoon butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Bake for 40 minutes. Carefully remove from oven, the syrup is hot!