DUMPLINGS, FLUMMERIES, AND OTHER INEXPENSIVE ARTICLES FOR DESSERT.
Apple Dumplings (boiled).
The best and most healthful crust for them is made like cream tartar biscuit, or with potatoes, according to the directions under the head of Pastry. It is better to make one or two large dumplings, than many small ones; because in drawing up the crust, there must necessarily be folds which, when boiled, are thick; and thus, in small dumplings, the proportion of crust to apple, is too great. Make a large crust and let the middle be nearly a third of an inch thick; but roll the edges thin, for the reason above mentioned. Wring a thick, square cloth in water, sprinkle it with flour, and lay it into a deep dish; lay the crust into it, and fill it with sliced apples; put the crust together and draw up the cloth around it. Tie it tight with a strong twine or tape, allowing no room for it to swell, and be sure to draw the string so close that the water cannot soak in. Boil a dumpling holding three pints of cut apple, two hours. When taken out of the pot, plunge it for a moment into cold water, then untie it and turn it out into a dish. Eat with cold sauce, or butter and sugar. Molasses and butter boiled together make a very good sauce for apple dumplings. The process of boiling molasses takes away, in some degree, its strong taste; and improves it for this purpose, and for making gingerbread. All boiled dumplings and puddings should be put into boiling water. Some persons prefer to boil dumplings in a buttered bowl, with a cloth tied close over it. This is a very good way.
Fill a tin pudding pan or pail three quarters with sour, sliced apples, lay upon the top a plain crust about an inch thick. A piece of light bread dough, with a little butter rolled into it, or a crust made like cream of tartar biscuit, is better than pie crust for this purpose. See that there is room for the dough to swell. Shut the lid close, and set it on the top of the stove or range, an hour and a half before dinner time. If the apple juice boils over, move the pan to a cooler part of the stove. Make a sauce, or use instead, butter and sugar.
Baked.
Pare large, fair apples, and take out the cores, lay each one into a piece of plain pie crust, just large enough to cover it. Fill the centre of the apple with brown sugar, and add a little cinnamon, or small strips of fresh orange peel. Close the crust over the apple, and lay them, with the smooth side up, into a deep, buttered dish, in which they can be set on the table. Bake them in a stove an hour and a half. If, after an hour, you find that the syrup begins to harden in the bottom of the dish, put in half a gill of hot water. Make a cold, or melted sauce as you choose.
Blackberry (baked or steamed).
Put a small cup of berries and two teaspoonfuls of sugar into a crust large enough to contain them. To close the crust well, dip your fingers in water and then in flour, and thus paste the folds together. Lay as many dumplings as you wish to have into a deep patty-pan, because blackberries are a very juicy fruit. Bake them an hour and a quarter in a moderate heat. Make a cold sauce for them.
To steam them, put the fruit and crust into a tin pudding pan, exactly like steamed apple dumpling.