APPLE DUMPLINGS.—
For dumplings the apples should be large and juicy—pippins, bellflowers, or the best you can get. Small sweet apples make very poor dumplings. Having pared the apples, extract the cores with a tin apple-corer, so as to leave them smooth and whole. Why is it that so many families "have never had an apple corer in their house?" They cost, at the utmost, but twenty-five cents, are to be had at all the tinsmiths' and furnishing stores; and they screw out an apple core in a minute; saving time and trouble. The apples being ready, make a nice paste in the proportion of a small pint of finely-minced suet, to a large quart of flour; one-half of the suet rubbed into the pan of flour, (adding a very little water) the other half sliced thin, and spread all over the sheet of dough after it is rolled out; then folding it, and rolling it out again. Cut the sheet of dough in as many circular pieces as you have apples, allowing them large enough to close entirely over the top, and rolling it thick enough to hold the apple securely without danger of its breaking through. Put an apple on every piece of paste, and fill with brown sugar the hole from whence the core was taken. Squeeze on the sugar some fresh lemon juice, with the grated yellow rind; or, add some powdered nutmeg or mace, or some rose-water. This will make them very nice. They should be boiled in small cloths kept clean for the purpose, dipped in hot water, and sprinkled with flour, and room left for the dumpling to swell. Put them into a pot of boiling water, and boil them steadily for near an hour. Serve them up very hot, as they become heavy when cold. Eat with them butter and sugar, or cream sauce.
PEACH DUMPLINGS.—
Take large fine free-stone peaches. Peel them, cut them in half, and extract the stones; fill the sockets with white sugar, and put the two halves together. Make a nice suet paste, or, if more convenient, of butter, but it must be quite fresh, and very nice. Allow half a pound of butter to a large quart (or a pound) of sifted flour. Rub half the butter into the pan of flour, and make it into a dough, with a very little cold water. Too much water always makes tough heavy paste. Then roll the paste into a sheet, and put on it with a knife the remainder of the butter in regular bits. Fold it, roll it out again, and divide it into circular pieces. Lay a peach on each. Gather up the dough over the top, so as to form a well-shaped dumpling. Boil them in cloths for full three-quarters of an hour or more. Eat them with cream sauce.
Dumplings of raspberries, or blackberries, may be made as above. Also, of gooseberries or currants, made very sweet. Quinces preserved whole make excellent dumplings.
APPLE PUDDINGS—
Are made like large dumplings, with suet paste, and flavored with lemon, or rose, or nutmeg. The apples must be sliced. The pudding should be tied in a cloth; put into a pot of fast-boiling water, kept steadily boiling for two hours or more, and sweetened with brown sugar as soon as it is taken up, cutting a round piece of paste out of the top, and putting in with the sugar a small piece of fresh butter.
Large puddings may be made in this manner of stoned cherries, damsons, or plums, or of gooseberries, or currants—allowing plenty of fruit, and making it very sweet; besides sending sugar to table with it.