Apple Dumplings

I saw these Apple Dumplings while flicking through Australia The Beautiful Cookbook.  They just looked so interesting that I had to try them.  They were really tasty too.  The apples just seem to melt inside their crust and hidden inside somewhere was the sweet pile of honey and walnuts.  The original recipe used golden syrup instead of honey and made a quantity of 4.  I reduced the ingredients to only make 2.

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbspn sugar
60g butter
2 tablespoons iced water
2 Granny Smith apples
1 tbspn honey
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg, beaten
Extra sugar

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, stir in sugar.  Rub in butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Sprinkle water over the top and mix with a knife to a firm dough, adding extra water if it's too dry.  Wrap in plastic film and chill for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a ball.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a large circle large enough to wrap around the apples.  Peel and core apples.  Mix honey and walnuts together and use to stuff apples.  Place an apple on each pastry square, dampen edges of pastry and wrap around apple.

Place dumplings seam side down on a greased baking tray.  Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes at 200°C.  Reduce heat to 180°C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until apples are soft when tested with a skewer.  Serve dumplings warm with custard or ice-cream.

We really liked these, they were really yummy and not that hard to make either. We'll be making them again for sure, perhaps with some different nuts next time.