First time I had apple dumplings was living in Boston; my friend Tina made them for us when we were having a baking night together back in freshman year of college. I literally had no idea what an apple dumpling was, come to find out, they were these parcels of baked dough, stuffed with caramelized apples, and cooked in a caramel sauce. What I love about the concept of an apple dumpling is that they are comforting, with the warming spices, the gooey caramel, and the juicy apple bits making for a delicious celebration of fall. In the case for my rendition of this recipe, I wanted to make these with larger pieces of apple swimming in a spiced miso caramel. Instead of chopping up the apples, which result in a faster cooking time, I kept my apples in halves, just so that they don’t completely disintegrate in the baking process, and also to give my dumplings a bit more height. These dumplings also pay homage to a German plum dumpling, which are made by taking a whole pitted plum, wrapping that in dough, and usually poaching them. We’re doing something very similar to that, but instead of poaching the dough in water, we’re baking them in caramel. While this recipe is scaled to a 2-3 portion size, you can definitely triple it and bake these dumplings in a casserole dish, perfect for the holidays!

For the caramelized apples:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 green apples, peeled, cored, and halved
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp white miso paste
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of clove

In a nonstick pan, heat up the sugar until dark brown in color. Add into that the apples and butter and stir until the sugar and butter melt into the apples. Add into that that the miso and spices. Allow the apples to cook on both sides for 5 minutes, until the exterior begins to soften. Fish out the apples from the caramel and refrigerate them until cool to the touch.

For the dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup cold water
2 tbsp brown butter
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix everything together until a dough forms. Roll the dough out to 3 pieces and wrap each around the cooled apple halves. Place the dumplings bake onto the pan with the caramel and bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.