Oh hello!
Today we're making fashionable apple dumplings, and for this we need dishcloths.
My kitchen maids have been busy knitting and I'm just casting off for them.
For this recipe you will need:
apples
marmalade
and suet crust.
First, you need to peel and core the apples.
Edgar has done as requested and found me apples roughly the same size.
This is ideal, for the cooking as well as the presentation.
Now, I'm going to put in the centre of the apple: marmalade.
This is orange marmalade - my recipe made by Mrs. Warwick, the housekeeper.
To make the apples into dumplings, I'm going to wrap suet crust around it.
So I'm going to roll out the crust until it's nice and thin.
Suet pastry is the easiest pastry to make, so when my maids are learning
I always get them to start with this.
Suet is the hard fat from around the kidneys of animals. We tend to use beef suet.
Now that it's nice and thin, we're going to wrap it around the apple.
We need to make sure it's nice and smooth all the way over.
Cut off any extra paste and make sure that it completely seals around the apple
until it's smooth all over.
And now wrap it in a dishcloth that's been covered with melted butter.
Tie it with a string and make sure it's really tight.
And now to boil them.
Make sure the water is already boiling, otherwise the dumplings will disintegrate.
Keep it at a simmer for just under an hour
depending on the size of your apples.
Now that they're done, I'm going to take them all out so they stop cooking.
And I'm going to carefully take off the cloth.
Eliza Acton's recipe says they
should be served on a plate with a doily, so that's how I'm going to serve them.
I'm going to serve these as they are
but if there are any leftover tomorrow they are lovely baked and then can be
served as a luncheon dish.
There we are - fashionable apple dumplings.