Baked Apple Dumplings

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     Yesterday, Lindsey mentioned in her post that we have finally hit winter here in Phoenix!  We have had a couple of nights that have gone into freezing temperatures and highs in the forties during the day, with rain!  Eat your hearts out everywhere else!  But, to us it is cold and Lindsey's delicious chicken soup really hits the spot! 
     Today I am going to share a recipe that will be a perfect comfort food for these cold winter days.  Not only that, it is so cute, I had to make it. 
      I've had this recipe for quite awhile!  It comes from the 1991 Leisure Arts edition of Christmas Gifts of Good Taste. I don't know if you have any of these books, but they have a lot of good ideas and beautiful photographs of things that I rarely actually make.  But, I do get inspired by them quite often sometimes do my own take on the idea.  I have seen the picture of these Baked Apple Dumplings so many times and have wanted to make them.  I have finally done it! (With a few variations.)

     Before I give you the recipe, let me give you a few tips:

The thing that prompted me to actually give these dumplings a try were these large, beautiful apples that were on sale for .97 a pound!

     Since I had pecans left over after the holidays, I was able to use them by chopping them up with my Pampered Chef chopper! 

This is the pecan/sugar mixture that you stuff in the apples! YUM! You will have leftovers and I came up with a plan for those that I will share at a later time!

I only peeled the apples part of the way down. In retrospect, it would have been fine to peel them all of the way.

After the apples are peeled and cored, start filling them with the filling then stick in the cinnamon stick to act as a stem.  Then, I sprinkled the pecan mixture over the outside of the apples as well.  We have a different idea about this step that I will share later. 

     This photo is so I can show off my new French Rolling Pin that Lindsey got me for Christmas! I used it to roll out a big sheet of the pastry dough.  I used an 8" bowl to cut out circles to cover the apples. 

Don't forget to sprinkle them with sugar!

     Do you remember these cute little cookie cutters shaped like leaves that I've told you about before?  They are perfect for this recipe. 

     Okay, here is the recipe! 
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    Here they are out of the oven.

     Here is the inside.

They are very tasty with vanilla ice cream!

Now, here are a few observations and things that we may do differently the next time. 

• Alicia thinks that our regular pie crust recipe would  actually taste better than this butter crust.
• She also had a genius idea using my apple peeler, slicer.  Why not peel, core and slice the apples, leaving them in the spiral apple shape.  Then roll them in the pecan mixture, getting the sugary mix in between the spirals.  Then, shape it back into the apple shape and stuff the middle with the filling as usual.  you will get a lot more of that caramelized pecan filling throughout the entire dessert.  
• These are really filling, one apple could definitely feed two people, with a scoop of ice cream on each. 

    These would make a beautiful dessert when having friends over in fall or winter!  Or, just to curl up with while reading a good book!  Let me know if you enjoy them. 
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