PHOTO: A serving of brown sugar dumplings, a very typical Amish dessert recipe…very creative, delicious, and uses very basic ingredients.
Looking for a dessert that is a piece of cake to make but isn’t actually a piece of cake? This might be it! I have to admit when I saw the recipe for “brown sugar dumplings” I was skeptical. First of all, the recipe was very sparse in instructions. The recipe came to me from an Amish woman in Pennsylvania. As is typical of many Amish recipes, there was no baking time given, no pan size, basically a lot of guess-work (for me, but for an Amish cook, it’s all written in their head). But I’m a gamer so I thought in the name of “research” I’d try it and I have to say this is a neat dessert, easy to make and with just the right amount of sweet, not too, too rich as I had feared.
BROWN SUGAR DUMPLINGS
- Dumplings:
- 1 /2 cup white sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 /2 cup milk or water
- Syrup:
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups hot water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- In a medium saucepan put brown sugar, butter, and hot water. The brown sugar dissolves and you'll be left with just liquid.
- Heat until the liquid is boiling. While the liquid heating, mix the dumpling ingredients in a bowl. At first the ingredients were too coarse and dry, like coarse crumbs. So I added a touch more milk and that seemed to do the trick. You want a dumpling dough that is somewhere between coarse crumbs and elastic bread dough. Pour the boiling syrup into an 8 X 8 square baking pan. Preheat oven to 350. Then drop the dough by teaspoon full into the liquid. I dropped by spoon full in three rows of three like in the photo. Put baking dish into the oven and then bake for about 30 minutes until the dumpling dough is golden. You'll end up with a thick dumpling layer on top, with the liquid mixture on the bottom.
- Let cool then cut into squares and spoon into a dish. Add a dollop of whipped cream and spoon more syrup over that.
12 Comments
Barbarainnc
Never heard of Brown Sugar Dumplings, Thanks for posting!! 🙂 🙂 Bet it would be good if you put some apple slices under the dumplings. 🙂
Kevin
Oooh, good idea, Barbara…the possibilities here are plentiful!:)
BethR
Can’t wait to try this – I’m off tomorrow and it just sounds way too easy! Thanks for sharing ~
Loretta
I will definitely try this–and I have an apple, so might put that in, as well.
Kevin, are you sure this was to be baked? Years ago I had a recipe (lost it)
for lemon dumplings, made on top of the stove.
Kevin
Loretta, yep, these are “baked dumplings”, like you, I am more familiar with the range-top variety, but these are baked…good luck with them:)
Bonnie
Well, I’d sure love to see the stove top recipe to try on these hot summer days ..
Noreen Elliott
I made the Brown Sugar Dumplings yesterday just as the recipe said and added some thinly sliced apples to it – came out perfect and delicious!!! I did have to add some more flour to get the correct consistency – guess my 1/2 cup is different from yours Kevin!!
Kathy Davis
I have to try this! It sounds too simple to be good but I think that I will try it with apples or even peaches. Yum!
Fumio
All my life I have been searching for this recipe, even the picture is the one that I remember. Even my mother cannot remember ever making this dish, can’t wait to try it
Thank you very much
Jessica
Alright, now this sounds delicious. Can’t wait to try it.
Kevin
You won’t be disappointed!
brenda
a shortcut is to roll biscuits in a can in cinnamon and put them in the baking dish with syrup and bake as directed.