Monday 18 August 2014

Dessert Dumplings {Recipe}

As you read this I am sitting my first WSET Diploma exam. Wish me luck!

There is no Happy Monday post this week because most of my happy moments were eating blocks of Dairy Milk with my head buried in a very dry textbook about grapevines. Thanks to the magic of the internet (let's just think about our lives 15 years ago- this invisible internet being really is magical) I was able to schedule an alternative post to pop into your life this morning. I hope it makes you happy. Dumplings always make me happy.

These little critters are comfort food to the max! Warm, syrupy, and doughy and crunchy at the same time. And remarkably easy to make.
butterscotch apple dumplings recipe woman's weekly

The recipe is one I photocopied out of a Woman's Weekly in 2002 (with a few modifications). Misspent youth I'm telling you- collecting recipes. Thank goodness for the convenience of the internet or there would be even less room in my bookshelves.
You will need:
1 cup self-raising flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons suger (I used raw caster sugar)
60g unsalted butter, chopped
2 Tbsp water
1 apple, peeled and chopped into eight 2 cm cubes
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup macadamias (or nut of your choice), chopped

For the butterscotch sauce:
30g butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 cups water
pinch of flaky salt or ground sea salt


Preheat oven to 180C
Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, add sugar. Rub in butter with your fingertips until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs. Add water and mix to a soft dough


Divide dough into 8 little balls. Flatten each ball and wrap it carefully around the apple cubes. Place dumplings into a shallow oven-proof dish.

For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and then remove from heat.

When it has stopped bubbling, pour the sauce over the dumplings.


Bake, uncovered for 20 minutes. Then remove from oven, spoon sauce over the top of the dumplings again and scatter with nuts

Bake another 10 minutes or until dumplings are brown and nuts are lightly toasted.

This recipe should serve four but we managed to plough through 3 each:)

Plate up with some ice cream or custard, drizzling the sauce over the top.
butterscotch apple dunlins macadamia nut recipe

A little glass of muscat seals the deal.

12 comments:

  1. Oh my those dumplings look incredible, that second last photo with the creamy ice cream and dark syrup looks so lush.

    Good luck on your exam miss!

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    1. Thank you!
      The pics do leave a bit to be desired but getting there. Have started researching a new camera, now just need the $$ (am trying to just win one actually :)

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  2. I need these dumplings in my life, they look so good and I also adore macadamia nuts.

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  3. Mmmm dumplings!! Yep my food of choice was also chocolate when studying for exams... best motivator!!! Hope it went well! xxx

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    1. Oh gosh, I ate WAY too much chocolate this week. I may have to wait for a few detox weeks before launching into these dumplings again.

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  4. Oh these look yummy!! I hope the exam went well, looking forward to catching up on your blog.

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    1. I'm going to miss your travel shots but an definitely happy you are back in the blogosphere- there has been much less Spark(e) in my life :)

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  5. oh wow! These look good.
    I still have a large collection of torn out recipes that I shall one day organise and use.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fortunately at some stage during my free and easy early working days, I did sort them roughly into 2 displays folders but it is still a bit of a jumble.
      Thank goodness for the internet, now i can just 'pin' or 'bookmark'

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  6. Mmmm these look delicious! Perfect sweet reward/break from studying!

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  7. Butterscotch and stodge, parfait!
    M x

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I love comments, whether you agree or disagree with me I would love to hear what you think.