Easy Apple Dumplings

Apple Dumplings

An easy dessert that is sure to impress! Great for company or holidays or just because! Hope you enjoy!

My disclaimer: Don't get freaked out by the "weird" ingredients. Rapadura is just a minimally processed sugar that you should be able to find in a health food store or online. I use this and raw honey as a healthier sweetener but if you can't find them use whatever you normally use to sweetened, maybe 100% maple syrup or maple sugar or dates, etc...I can't bring myself to encourage you to use white sugar so I won't, but it would work in this recipe. I use raw butter because it is a healthy fat, but you could substitute that for regular butter. All my ingredients are raw or organic but again, if you don't have them don't let that stop you from making this.

My recipe also calls for Spring Roll Pastry. You can get this at any Asian Market in the freezer section. They come in squares and a zillion in a bag. If you don't have those you can make your own pastry dough and use that. I just happen to have them in the freezer and was going for 'quick and easy' so I used them...let them thaw from freezer for about 30 minutes.

Apple Dumpling Recipe

Bake: 1 hour

Oven: 350

Makes: 6

2 cups filtered water

1 cup Rapadura

1/4 cup raw honey

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup raw butter

2 tbsp. chopped raisins

2 tbsp. chopped raw walnuts

1 tbsp. raw honey

2 tbsp. rapadura

6 small organic apples

1 tbsp. butter for ea. apple

1 bag of spring roll pastry

1. For Sauce:

In a medium saucepan combine the 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp. of the cinnamon, the 1 cup rapadura (sugar) and 1/4 cup raw honey (or you can use 1 1/4 c sugar/sweetener of choice). Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the 1/4 cup raw butter. Set aside.

2. Prepare Apples:

With a cool apple slicer, corer and peeler, prepare 6 apples. If you don't have this cool gadget you should get one, cause it's really fun and makes it so easy. If you don't have one peel and core 6 apples by hand, you don't have to slice them even though the cool gadget does that for you. Set aside.

A little help never hurts!

Let the kids discover a love for baking too. Pretty soon they'll be making yummies for you!

3. In a small bowl combine the raisins, walnuts, and 1 tbsp. honey. In another small bowl stir together the remaining 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and the 2 tbsp. rapadura (or sugar). Set aside.

4. For Pastry: Use Spring Roll Pastry, thawed. Peel one off the top and dip in warm water just until wet. You can try it 'dry' too. It's really what ever is easiest for you.

5. Assemble Dumplings: Put wet pastry on a flat surface and put 1 apple in the center of the pastry square. Fill raisin mixture into the core, sprinkle with cinnamon mixture and top with 1 tbsp. raw butter. Gently pull sides of pastry up and around the apple and tuck into the core of the apple. Repeat until all 6 apples are like this. Place dumplings in a 13X9X2 inch baking pan.

Look close, the apple is sitting on the spring roll pastry.

I made more than 6 but I also added to the above ingredients.

6. Reheat sauce to a boiling and pour over dumplings.

Sauce looks pretty thin before baked.

7. Bake, uncovered for 1 hour or until apples are tender and pastry golden. Spoon sauce over dumplings. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or by itself. I vote, ice cream!

See how much thicker the sauce looks now baked?

ENJOY!

The inside...YUM!

Raw Date Nut Torte

Raw Date Nut Torte

So I went to a Wellness Seminar at Bethel Church in Redding and now I am inspired more than ever to add raw foods into my diet. Before I went to the seminar I had a few food raw books: Raw Food Real World, The Raw Gourmet, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, and Ani's Raw Food Desserts. I got the first two books awhile back and they are pretty involved. The Raw Food Real World is easier to me than the Raw Gourmet, but I like the variety.

I got Ani's books just this last month and how I LOVE them! They are so much easier and much more doable for a busy lifestyle. I'm learning you really can add more raw into your diet, even if you are busy! One thing I like about Ani's recipes is that she has very few ingredients for each recipe. You can check out more about Ani Phyo online.

At the Wellness Seminar I got to see a live raw food demo by Skyleene. I'll have to get her blog address on here so you can see how amazing she really is. This is her below. She demo'd the Raw Date Nut Torte that I am sharing with you today. Yay Sky! I love her!

Sky at the Wellness Conference 3/2010

RAW DATE NUT TORTE RECIPE

For Cake:

2 Cups Raw walnuts or almonds (soaked 8 hours or overnight)

2 Cups Organic Raisins

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cinnamon

2-4 tbsp agave nectar (optional)

For Frosting:

1 lemon (juiced)

1 Cup of dates (soaked 20-30 min)

Little bit of the soaked date water

Step 1: Soak Walnuts or Almonds.

Okay, this is the deal about soaked nuts. They are really much more nutritious when soaked but if you have to make this NOW and you don't have any nuts soaked just make it without them soaked, but soak em next time. It's more fun and more nutritious. All you have to do is put 2 Cups of nuts in a jar and put about double the amount of water over them. Put it on your counter and go to bed, in the morning they're done. It's that simple.

Step 2: Put dates in water and let them soak for 20-30 minutes.

Step 3: Grind up soaked walnuts or almonds, organic raisins, vanilla extract, cinnamon and agave (optional) in a food processor. Grind until they become a crumble that sticks together when you squeeze a handful.

Step 4: Pour crumble on a plate or platter and mold into a "cake" with your hands. You can make a circular cake or square. Set cake aside.

Step 5: To Make Frosting. Put lemon juice from 1 lemon and 1 Cup of Soaked Dates in Processor or blender until smooth. Add Soaked water to thin if you need to.

Step 6: Spread frosting onto cake and you're done! Now enjoy!!!

This is a rich dessert so you don't have to make generous portions to satisfy, a little slice will make you happy.

A tall glass of raw milk is a perfect compliment to this sweet dessert.