—CHAPTER THREE—

Buckles, Cobblers, and Crisps

There’s a time in late summer when the days, almost overnight, seem to change. Like climbing up one side of a mountain, reaching the peak, then starting down the other, the view is different. Goldenrod and marigolds replace the dandelions and daisies of early summer. The sun starts to slant low in the late afternoon, not after dinner. Fields that were dewy and fresh at summer’s beginning hold a permanent patina of pollen and dust from a long, dry summer. Fall is coming, and our part of the earth is once again turning toward winter.

The growing season draws to a close in August and September, and it does so in a spectacular burst of color and flavor. Seize this moment! Summer is the time to enjoy peach cobbler, blueberry buckle, and cherry crisp while these fruits are at their freshest and best. The possibilities are endless for summer fruits (and year-round fruits, too!). Red plums, black plums, and purple plums; sour pie cherries and Bing cherries; peaches, nectarines, and apricots; raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries: all can be tucked into a pie shell, sliced onto shortcake, wrapped in a turnover, or baked into a crisp.

Living in New England, we’re lucky to be familiar with the complete range of baked fruit desserts native to this region—from the common (crisps and cobblers) to the more unusual and increasingly rare (slumps, grunts, and pandowdies). All are made with fruit, sugar, flour, and butter, in different proportions and configurations. And all are good to keep in mind when it’s apple-picking time, or the strawberries are ripe, or crates of low-bush blueberries, hand-raked from Maine’s windswept coastal fields, are being sold alongside the road. Easy, fast, and delicious, these fruit-based desserts are a godsend to bakers who have fruit (but not time) on their hands and is looking to make something sweet.

Not So Fast!

Most fruit desserts—especially crisps, cobblers, and other juicier recipes—are best eaten warm but not just out of the oven; give them about 30 minutes to rest on a cooling rack. This cooling-off time gives the juices a chance to set, and will also prevent you from burning your mouth on the scalding combination of bubbling fruit juice and sugar.

Crisps and Crumbles

A crisp and a crumble are quite similar—containing toppings of sugar, butter, flour, and sometimes oats—but not the same. The names point simply to their fundamental differences. Crumble toppings contain a ratio of streusel ingredients that tend towards a more crumbly texture, whereas the blend of ingredients in a crisp topping will yield just that: a crisper result.

Classic Apple Crisp

One 9^″ square crisp

With all of the recipes out there, it’s amazing how difficult it is to find a good, basic, go-to apple crisp. This version of apple crisp may seem daunting due to the fairly long list of ingredients, but many are optional enhancements. The base recipe is simply a filling of apples, sugar, thickener, and a touch of spice; and a topping of flour, sugar, butter, oats, and cinnamon. We like using rum or apple cider, but you can also substitute water or the liquor or juice of your choice for the liquid in the filling.

Filling

3 pounds (1.36 kg) whole apples, enough to yield 2 pounds peeled, cored, and sliced apples (about 9 cups)

¼ cup (57g) rum or apple cider

¼ to ¾ cup (53g to 159g) brown sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples

2 tablespoons (28g) butter, melted

2 tablespoons (43g) boiled cider (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

3 tablespoons (21g) unbleached all-purpose flour or tapioca flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Topping

¾ cup (90g) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup (85g) quick-cooking oats

heaping ¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup (142g) brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon baking powder

8 tablespoons (1 stick, 113g) unsalted butter, cold, cut in pats

½ cup (57g) diced pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9^″ square cake pan, or similar-size casserole pan.

To make the filling: Peel, core, and slice the apples about ¼^″ thick. Toss them with the remaining filling ingredients and spread them in the pan.

To make the topping: Whisk together the flour, oats, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder.

Add the cold butter, working it in to make an unevenly crumbly mixture. Stir in the nuts, if using.

Spread the topping over the apples in the pan.

Set the pan on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet, to catch any potential drips. Bake the crisp for about 60 minutes, until it’s bubbling and the top is golden brown.

Remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving. If you serve the crisp hot or warm, it may be quite soft. If you wait until it’s completely cool, it’ll firm up nicely.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 piece, 130g

Apple Crumble

One 9^″ square crumble

The warm, cinnamon-spiced apples in this dish are a perfect base for vanilla ice cream, which gradually sends vanilla-scented rivulets through the crisp, buttery streusel topping, and into the apples. Both tapioca flour and all-purpose flour will thicken the filling equally well, but tapioca flour will make the sauce in the filling clearer looking whereas all-purpose flour will make it opaque. If you like, try using pears in place of the apples.

Filling

2 pounds (907g, about 5 medium to large) Granny Smith apples

1 pound (454g, about 2 large) McIntosh or Cortland apples

¼ cup (56g) rum or apple cider

2 tablespoons (28g) butter, melted

2 tablespoons (28g) boiled cider (optional)

¾ cup (159g) brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

3 tablespoons (21g) tapioca flour or unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Streusel Topping

½ cup (60g) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup (49g) old-fashioned rolled oats

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ cup (106g) brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon baking powder

8 tablespoons (1 stick, 113g) unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

To make the filling: Peel, core, and slice the apples into ¼^″ thick pieces. Place them in a large bowl with the remainder of the filling ingredients and stir vigorously to combine. In the process, the apple pieces will break into smaller bits; this is fine. Spoon the apple mixture into a lightly greased 9^″ square cake pan, or a ceramic pan of similar capacity and surface area.

To make the topping: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder. Add the butter, cutting it in with a mixer, your fingers, or a pastry blender as you would when making pie crust. Mix until crumbly; if you work it too much the mixture will clump together, so use a light touch but be thorough. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.

Bake the crumble for 1½ hours, or until it’s bubbly and a deep, golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let it cool to lukewarm before serving.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 square, 122g

Delicious, Defined

Buckle: Streusel- and fruit-topped coffeecake. The topping after cooking has an uneven, “buckled” appearance.

Cobbler: A mixture of fruit and dough baked together. Dough can be cake or pie crust. The name comes from the occasionally lumpy look and ease of assembly; something “cobbled” together.

Crisp: Fruit baked with a topping of sugar, flour, butter, and spices. The top should shatter when pierced with a serving spoon; thus the name crisp.

Crumble: All the components of crisp topping with the addition of oats. The oats give the topping a softer, crumblier texture.

Dumplings: Fruit topped with dough and cooked, covered, as for Grunts and Slumps, or fruit wrapped in dough and baked in liquid. The dumplings are uniformly shaped, round or oval, and, when well made, are light and soft from cooking in a steamy environment.

Grunts and Slumps: Fruit cooked on the stove, topped with biscuit dough and slowly simmered. The finished dish makes grunting noises as the steam bubbles out, and the topping cooks down and slumps over the fruit.

Pandowdy: A double-crust pie with a very liquid filling that’s thoroughly baked. The crust is then “dowdied” (broken up into chunks) while hot and served warm, after the pastry absorbs the fruit juices and the dish thickens.

Buckles

Coffeecake meets fruit in a buckle, which is the most cake-like of all these fruit desserts. Tradition has it that the name comes from the way the cake “buckles” as it bakes, rising around its fruit topping (which is also sinking), so that the cake finishes with a craggy top surface.

Blueberry Buckle

One 9^″ square or round coffeecake

August is a luxuriant time of year, when all growing things are yielding the results of long days and warm nights. Flowers burst into frenetic bloom and we scramble to take in the bounty of summer produce. This rich, moist coffeecake is one of our favorite summer morning recipes, when the blueberries are ripe and abundant. It’s rarely around for more than an hour out of the oven, but should you have admirable restraint, it will still be just as delicious for dessert. If, understandably, you’d like to enjoy this year-round, frozen berries will also work here.

Batter

¾ cup (149g) sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 56g) butter

1 large egg

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cardamom (optional)

½ cup (113g) milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

2 cups (308g) blueberries (fresh or, if frozen, unthawed)

Streusel

¾ cup (149g) sugar

¾ cup (90g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 to 3 teaspoons lemon zest or 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil

½ teaspoon salt

5 1/3 tablespoons (2/3 stick, 75g) unsalted butter, softened

Grease and flour a 9^″ square or 9^″ round pan and preheat the oven to 375°F.

To make the batter: Cream together the sugar and butter, then add the egg and mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Stir in the milk alternately with the dry ingredients and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Gently fold in the blueberries. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.

To make the streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon zest or lemon oil, and salt. Add the butter, mixing to make medium-size crumbs. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter.

Bake the buckle for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and cool it (in the pan) on a rack. Serve the buckle with coffee in the morning, or with whipped cream for dessert.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 square, 72g

Variation

Blueberry Peach Buckle: This variation features one of our favorite fruit combinations: blueberries and peaches.

Prepare the batter from the preceding recipe, substituting ¼ teaspoon nutmeg for the ¼ teaspoon cardamom.

Prepare the topping from the preceding recipe, substituting ½ teaspoon almond extract for the lemon zest or oil.

Spread half the batter in the prepared pan. Layer with the peach slices. Fold the blueberries into the remaining batter and dollop it on top. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter. Bake as directed.

Grunts and Slumps

These are recipes whose name alone will bring a smile to the face of anyone familiar with traditional New England desserts—and a quizzical look from those unfamiliar with them. To understand the provenance of the terms “grunt” and “slump,” it helps to picture how they’re put together and cooked.

To make a slump or a grunt—the two terms are interchangeable—take a quart of berries or diced fruit, stir in some sugar and water, and put the mixture in a cast iron skillet or casserole dish that can sit on a burner. (Grunts used to be cooked in an open cast iron Dutch oven over the coals of a fire.) Then top the berries with spoonfuls of biscuit dough and let the mixture cook very slowly.

As the concoction begins to heat, bubbles slowly work their way up from the bottom of the pot to break through the biscuit dough topping. The wet snufflings you hear bear some resemblance to an animal’s grunt. Once served, the dessert slumps on the plate in a sweet, juicy heap of warm biscuits. (Really, this is much more appetizing than it sounds.)

Maine Blueberry Grunt

1 grunt

A blueberry is just a blueberry until you’ve tried freshly picked low-bush blueberries, which grow in profusion on low, scrubby bushes scattered over rather barren land in Maine and over the Northeast (although the tiny tart ones from Maine are by far the most famous). If you can find those small berries, use them—but this recipe is absolutely excellent regardless of where you get your fruit.

Fruit

1 cup (227g) water

1 cup (198g) sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice (if the berries aren’t tart)

½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 quart (680g) blueberries

Dough

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 56g) butter

1 cup (227g) buttermilk

To make the fruit: Blend the water, sugar, lemon juice (if using), and cinnamon (if using) in a skillet and stir in the blueberries. Bring to a gentle boil over low heat.

To make the dough: While the blueberries are heating, blend the dry dough ingredients together in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips. Quickly stir in the buttermilk.

Drop the dough in blobs over the blueberry mixture. Cover and cook over low heat until the biscuit dough is done, about 15 minutes. To serve, scoop up the berries and a biscuit and invert on a plate, so that the berries fall over the biscuit. Spoon any extra berry mixture over the biscuit.

Nutrition information per serving: 1/11 skillet, 142g

Blueberry Slump

One 9^{̋ x}13^″ slump

Louisa May Alcott named her home in Concord, Massachusetts, “Apple Slump,” perhaps because it evoked for her the same thing that her apple slump did: warmth and comfort. This blueberry version of slump is an offspring of Apple Dumpling Slices (page 101). By adding some fat to the dumpling dough, you change its nature enough so you can bake it, rather than steam it, and produce something tender and crisp rather than tough and rubbery (which is what would happen to a “lean” dumpling dough if baked). The dumplings will continue to absorb the syrup and will taste even better the second day.

Syrup

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 56g) butter

1 cup (224g) water

1 cup (213g) brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon (14g) lemon juice

Dumplings

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (18g) baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (¾ stick, 84g) unsalted butter

¾ cup (168g) milk

Filling

1 quart (680g) blueberries

Melt the butter in a 9^{̋ x}13^″ baking dish.

To make the syrup: In a small saucepan, warm the water, brown sugar, spices, and lemon juice over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

To make the dumplings: Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips, a pastry blender, or two knives. Pour in the milk and stir together until you have a shaggy dough.

To assemble: Pour the blueberries into the dish. Place dollops of dumpling dough on top of the blueberries and pour the syrup over the top. Bake the slump in a preheated 350°F oven for 40 minutes, or until it’s golden and bubbly. Serve warm.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 serving, 127g

Cobblers

A cobbler, which is made of up fruit baked under (or in) a blanket of crust or cake, is a distinctly delicious dish. Its name is said to come from the phrase “to cobble,” meaning to patch something together roughly; to “cobble up,” put something together in a hurry; or perhaps from the fact that the combination of fruit and dough on top of the dish looks like cobblestones.

Three very different types of crust are what differentiate categories of cobblers from one another. Traditionally, a cobbler’s top crust was simply thick spoonfuls of biscuit dough, similar to slumps or grunts. Later, that dough was rolled out and fitted atop the fruit; still later, pastry (pie crust) dough was placed over the fruit, making a cobbler akin to a deep-dish fruit pie without the bottom crust. More recent variations have a cake-like batter poured over the fruit (or fruit layered over the cake batter); the fruit and batter create a “marbled” effect, each remaining distinct though melded. Any way you put together a cobbler, the fruit and crust end up mixing and mingling, the fruit softening some of the crust, the crust absorbing the fruit juices.

Use your imagination to pair various fruits with different flavors in the crust. There are very few desserts as flexible as this one.

For cake-style cobbler, pour the batter over the fruit
in a prepared pan.

Basic Fruit Cobbler

One 9^″ square or 11^″ round cobbler

This basic recipe follows the format of fruit piled atop a cake-like batter. Note that cobbler can be made with many different fruits, alone or in combination. First a few words about measuring. This is not an exact science, because fruit is an inexact ingredient. It can vary in size, water content, sugar or acid content, and pectin; all of those have an impact on the other ingredients with which it may be combined. When we give fruit measurements, they are meant to be general guidelines. Your experience and common sense may cause you to vary both the type of fruit and the amounts, and when the result is a success, you’ve become a real baker.

Any fruit you’d use to make a pie is appropriate for cobbler. Berries of all sorts; stone fruits (cherries, peaches, plums, and nectarines); rhubarb; and apples and pears are all good candidates. Whichever fruit you use, it should be peeled and cored (if necessary), and cut into small bite-size pieces; berries should be hulled, but unless they’re mammoth strawberries, can remain whole. Taste your fruit! If it’s quite ripe and sweet, dial back the sugar. If not, use the full amount called for. You can adjust to your taste here as well. If you’d like to omit the liquor, increase the milk in the recipe to ¼ cup and use a mixture of 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon almond extract, and ¼ cup of water in place of the liquor.

1 cup (120g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups (297g) sugar

2 tablespoons (28g) butter, softened

2 tablespoons (28g) milk

½ cup (112g) sherry, brandy, or bourbon

3 to 4 cups fresh fruit (large fruits sliced; berries left whole)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9^″ square pan (or similar-size casserole dish) or an 11^″ round quiche dish.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Beat together the eggs and 1 cup of the sugar. Add butter and milk. Add the flour mixture, stirring just to combine. Pour the batter into the greased pan.

In a medium saucepan, simmer together the sherry and the remaining ½ cup of sugar for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the fruit and stir to coat with the syrup. Pour this hot fruit mixture over the batter in the pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Nutrition information per serving using cherries as fruit: 1 square, 171g

Peach and Raspberry Cobbler

One 9^″ round cobbler

This pie-crust-cobbler variation features the seductive combination of peach and raspberry; surely the great chef Georges Escoffier must have thought it so when he created the classic Peach Melba dessert for one of his favorite customers, Australian opera singer Nellie Melba. Peach Melba’s got nothing on this cobbler!

Crust

1 cup (120g) unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 56g) butter, cold

¼ cup (46g) vegetable shortening, cold

2 to 4 tablespoons (28g to 56g) ice water

Filling

5 cups (12 to 13 peaches, 4 to 4½ pounds, 1.81 to 2.04kg) peeled, sliced peaches

1 cup (120g) raspberries

1 teaspoon lemon juice

¾ to 1 cup (161g to 198g) sugar (to taste)

1 tablespoon (7g) cornstarch*

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons (28g) coarse white sugar

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

To make the crust: Butter a 9^″ round cake pan or pie dish. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl, or use a food processor, then cut or pulse in the butter and shortening until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Add just enough water to form a cohesive dough (bring the dough together with your hands, or if using a food processor, pulse just enough times for the dough to form a ball in the bowl). Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To make the filling: Combine the peaches, raspberries, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Mix together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and nutmeg, and stir into the fruit. Spoon the filling into the prepared pan.

Roll out the crust to a 9^″ circle and place on top of the fruit. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Cut several vents in the top and bake the cobbler for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 350°F and bake for an additional 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is golden and the juices are bubbling. Remove the cobbler from the oven and cool it on a rack.

* Use an extra tablespoon of cornstarch if the peaches are very juicy.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 serving, 139g

Mixed Berry Cobbler

One 9^″ round or square cobbler

A delicious mix of berries (use any you like) offsets the mildly sweet and tender biscuit topping. It’s a winning combination.

Filling

2 pounds (about 8 cups, 1.14kg) fresh or frozen berries

1 tablespoon (7g) cornstarch

1 cup (198g) granulated or brown sugar (213g)

Crust

2 1/3 cups (280g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar

1 tablespoon (12g) baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 56g) butter

¾ cup (170g) buttermilk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9^″ round cake pan, preferably one with 3^″ sides. Or use a 9^″ square pan or 2-quart casserole dish, or something that’s approximately the same size. The cobbler will bubble up and spill over if you try to bake it in something smaller or less deep.

To make the filling: Place the berries in the greased pan or casserole dish. Mix the cornstarch into the sugar and sprinkle over the fruit. While the sugar begins to draw the juice out of the fruit, make the dough.

To make the crust: Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. With your fingertips, mix in the butter until the blend looks like coarse cornmeal. In a smaller bowl, beat together the buttermilk and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk / egg mixture. Quickly mix these together with a spoon; it should take about 20 seconds. The dough will be quite wet and sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead until it’s reasonably cohesive. When you’ve shaped the dough into a nice ball, gently roll it out until you have a circle that will roughly cover the berries. Place over the fruit and bake for about 45 minutes.

The cobbler is done when the top is lightly browned and the fruit is soft and bubbling. Remove it from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes. Serve it “right-side-up” with whipped cream or ice cream. You can attempt to flip it, but the combination of hot pan and hot fruit is a tricky, messy, and dangerous one to execute!

Nutrition information per serving: 1 piece, 201g

Apple Pandowdy

One 9^″ square pandowdy

Apple pandowdy is a traditional American dish dating to the early 1800s. A combination of pie and pudding, the name likely comes from the method: After an apple-based filling is baked in a crust-topped casserole dish, the baker takes a fork and “dowdies” the crust, breaking it into pieces that manage to remain crisp despite being partly immersed in the filling. (Some claim the origin of the name stems from the dish’s humble, “dowdy” appearance.)

The filling is juicy; don’t be surprised when you cut into the crust and find a sea of liquid. As the dish cools, the “dowdied” crust absorbs a lot of the juice, leaving you with an almost pudding-like confection. This dish is best served right from its pan.

1 recipe pie crust for double-crust 9^″ pie (see page 358 for medium-flake pie crust)

7 or 8 large apples

1 cup (198g) sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup (56g) water

½ cup (170g) molasses or maple syrup (156g)

3 tablespoons (42g) butter, cut into pats

2 tablespoons (28g) milk

Put the oven rack on its lowest rung and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Divide the pie dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Roll out the larger piece to fit into the bottom and up the sides of a casserole dish (a 9^″ square pan, or equivalent, is the right size). Peel, core, and cut the apples into ¼^″ slices. You should have about 9 cups. Toss the slices with ½ cup of the sugar, the salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon apples into pie crust.

Mix water and molasses or maple syrup and pour over apples. Dot with butter.

Roll out second piece of dough and fit it over the apple mixture. Brush the edge of the bottom crust with the milk and squeeze together the edges of the bottom and top crust, sealing them; the protein in the milk will act as glue, keeping a tight seal while the pandowdy bakes. Brush the top crust with the milk and sprinkle lightly with the remaining sugar. (This will make a brown, sugary crust.)

Bake for 45 minutes, then decrease heat to 325°F and continue to bake until the crust is well browned (the initial 45 minutes may be enough for the browning; each oven is a bit different).

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, take a knife and slash, in a random pattern, all the way through the pandowdy. With a fork and spoon, gently lift pieces of crust from the bottom and submerge pieces of the top crust; in effect, you’re really messing this whole thing up. Don’t get carried away; crust pieces should remain in fairly large (2^″ square) chunks. Let the dish cool to warm before serving; if you serve it too hot, it will be very runny.

Use a fork and spoon to “dowdy” the crust for apple pandowdy.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 square, 149g

Dumplings

Dumplings come in both sweet and savory versions, and the two resemble one another in shape only. The sweet dumpling category comes in two styles as well: fruit that’s surrounded with a pastry crust and baked (as with traditional apple dumplings); and baking powder biscuit–like dough that’s simmered in a sweet sauce and often served with cream. Savory dumplings run the gamut from biscuit dumplings simmered in soup or stew to quenelles (ground meat or seafood mixed with egg and poached in salted water) to gnocchi (small rolled shapes of flour and potato, usually simmered in a savory sauce) to stuffed wontons and some types of dim sum.

The two types of dumplings we’ll concentrate on are the sweet, fruit-filled pastry ones and the ones based on biscuit dough that simmer in another medium, be it sweet or savory.

Berry Dumplings

26 to 28 dumplings

These dumplings are cooked in a delicious bath of simmering fruit, then finished with a dusting of cinnamon or confectioners’ sugar. The liquid from the fruit will thicken slightly as they cook. Resist the temptation to peek under the lid: It will keep the dumplings from being as light as they should. We think these would make a very comforting breakfast on a snowy morning.

Filling

1 quart (680g) fresh or frozen berries

1 cup (198g) sugar

1 cup (227g) water

2 tablespoons (28g) lemon juice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Dough

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup (49g) sugar

2½ teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons (¾ stick, 84g) unsalted butter, cold

½ cup (113g) milk or cream

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (optional)

To make the filling: Put the fruit, sugar, water, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a large skillet for which you have a lid, or a large heatproof casserole dish. Set aside.

To make the dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Cut the butter into pats and work the butter into the flour, using a pastry blender, mixer, or your fingers (you can also use a food processor up to this point). When thoroughly combined, the mixture should resemble uneven, coarse crumbs; don’t keep working it until it’s perfectly homogeneous. The tender texture of the dumplings comes from pockets of cold fat in the dough, which in the cooking process don’t melt until after the dough is set, leaving butter-catching fissures in the finished dumpling.

Put the fruit over medium heat to start simmering while you mix the dough.

Measure the milk into a liquid measuring cup, add the egg and vanilla, if using, and whisk until smooth. Add this to the flour / fat mixture, and stir just until the dough is evenly mixed; it will be stiff. Drop the dough by tablespoons into the simmering fruit. Once all the dough is scooped out, put a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to low. Let the dumplings simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until cooked all the way through. Remove from the heat immediately and spoon into bowls to serve warm. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar, or serve with a scoop of ice cream if you prefer.

Nutrition information per serving: 3 dumplings, with fruit, 225g

Apple Dumpling Slices

About 16 slices

This dish hovers somewhere between a dumpling, a sticky bun, a pie, and a cobbler; in our opinion, it combines the best aspects of each. Sweet, soft, and buttery, it’s true comfort food. If you have some on hand, we love using boiled cider here; if you’d like to, then decrease the sugar and water to 1½ cups each, prepare the sugar syrup, then add ½ cup boiled cider.

10 tablespoons (1¼ sticks, 140g) unsalted butter, cold

2 cups (448g) water

2 cups (392g) sugar

2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (12g) baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup (74g) milk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups (224g to 252g) peeled, diced apple

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Melt 4 tablespoons (56g) of the butter in a 9^{̋ x}13^″ baking dish; glass or ceramic is preferable. Set the dish aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the water and sugar until the sugar melts. Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt with the remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a medium bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with the tips of your fingers, a pastry blender, or two knives until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the milk and mix until the dough just comes together and leaves the sides of the bowl. Chill the dough while preparing the apples.

Apple dumpling slices look very wet before baking; the dough will expand to fill the spaces between them as they bake.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently, until it’s somewhat cohesive. Roll it gently into a 10^{̋ x}15^″ rectangle. Mix together the cinnamon and apples and spread them over the dough. Carefully roll the dough into a log, sticky-bun style, pinching the edges together to seal. It may tear, but don’t worry; mend it as best you can. (It’s actually better if it comes apart a bit as it bakes.)

With a bench knife or serrated knife, cut the log into 16 slices, starting in the middle and moving out toward the ends. Arrange the slices over the butter in the baking dish as artfully as possible. The slices may want to fall apart, but again, not to worry. The finished product will look fine.

Pour the sugar syrup over the apple dumpling slices and place this quite-liquid conglomeration in the oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. When you take the baking dish out of the oven, the biscuits will be lightly browned on top of a still-very-liquid syrup. The whole thing can surge from one end to the other very easily if you’re not extremely careful as you’re moving it.

Let the slices cool a bit, then serve them with syrup poured over the top. We found that by leaving this uncovered at room temperature overnight (we managed to have some left over!), the texture of the biscuits remained crisp and it was just as good the next day.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 piece, 106g

Basic Savory Dumplings

10 to 12 dumplings

Dumplings are a wonderful addition to any simmering soup or stew; not only do they add substance in the form of delicious, tender hunks of bread, but some of their starch leaches out into the soup as they cook, thickening it nicely. Here, we detail the method for making the dumpling itself—the rest is up to you. Use these to top any soup or stew as it cooks. Depending on how your soup or stew is seasoned, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or chives, black pepper, or a pinch of thyme can make a flavorful addition to your dumpling dough.

1 cup (120g) unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon salt

1½ teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons (28g) butter, cold

½ cup (113g) milk

Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture is the texture of coarse sand. Add the milk all at once, stirring quickly and as little as possible, just until everything is moistened. Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls into a simmering soup or stew. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes more, or until the dumplings are cooked through.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 large dumpling, 36g

Herbed Italian Dumplings

12 dumplings

These savory dumplings, redolent of Parmesan, are a wonderful addition to any broth-based soup. They are also an excellent use for that last bit of a loaf or baguette that needs to be used up before going stale, as they rely on bread crumbs for body.

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (33g) grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup (84g) soft bread crumbs

3 tablespoons (42g) butter, melted

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. With lightly greased hands, shape the mixture into 1^″ balls (or use a teaspoon cookie scoop for this step). Drop about 10 dumplings at a time into a simmering broth-based soup and cook them for about 8 minutes. Remove from the broth and keep them warm while cooking the rest. Place the dumplings in soup bowls and ladle the soup over them. Serve with additional grated Parmesan, if desired.

Nutrition information per serving: 2 dumplings, 24g

Potato Puff Dumplings

48 dumplings

A close cousin to cream puffs (baked, they’re a cross between cream puffs and biscuits), these taste like a soft potato biscuit when added to soup. Or, as we think of them, a buttery cloud of potato! If you want something really extraordinary, toss them into the deep fryer to make wonderful, golden, potato fritter-like creations.

5 tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter

½ cup (113g) milk

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (120g) unbleached all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

1 cup (140g) mashed potato, lightly packed (2 to 3 medium potatoes, cooked and riced)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or chives

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the milk and add the salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, add the flour all at once, and stir until it forms a ball. Remove the pan from the heat and beat to remove some of the steam. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the mashed potato and parsley or chives.

Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls into boiling salted water or soup, about 15 at a time. Boil them for 5 to 6 minutes, then remove from the broth and keep them warm in the oven while cooking the remaining dumplings. Or drop them by the teaspoonful into hot, deep fat. Cook until golden brown (3 to 4 minutes), and place on a rack to drain. Finally, you may drop by the tablespoonful onto baking sheets and bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they’re a light golden brown. Each method of cooking makes a very different product—soft white boiled dumplings, crunchy fritters, or golden puffs.

Nutrition information per serving: 2 boiled or baked puffs, 52g

Clafouti

And now, to conclude this chapter of baked goods with absolutely wonderful names, we come to clafouti, a traditional French dessert. To make it, you first place fresh fruit in a shallow layer in a wide pan (often a large pie pan or cake pan). An eggy, sweetened batter (like a cross between cake batter and pancake batter) is poured over the fruit, where it sinks to the bottom of the pan, then the entire thing is baked until the crust has risen over the fruit and begins to brown. The texture is all at once cake-like and custardy.

The best-known clafouti is made with dark sweet cherries. Peaches, apples, pears, and plums also make good clafouti. More delicate berries, such as raspberries, aren’t good clafouti candidates, as they’ll turn to mush before the clafouti finishes baking, but blueberries or strawberries are good options.

Cherry Clafouti

One 10^″ round clafouti

This relatively quick and simple summer dessert is our favorite version of France’s best-known clafouti. It’s the sort of recipe that works equally well as a fancy dinner party finale or an easy go-to weeknight dessert.

¾ cup (90g) unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (130g) sugar

3 large eggs

1¼ cups (284g) milk

1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

3 cups (about 2 pounds, 480g) pitted sweet cherries

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Thoroughly grease a 10^″ round pan or ovenproof skillet.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar. In a smaller bowl or large measuring cup, beat the eggs until foamy. Beat in the milk and vanilla. Gradually whisk the egg mixture into the flour and sugar, stirring to smooth out any lumps.

Place the fruit in the prepared dish and pour the batter over it. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. A cake tester inserted in the center should come out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note: For a more custard-like clafouti, bake in a 9^″ pan at 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 slice, 133g

Peach or Apricot Clafouti

8 slices

Clafouti recipes would traditionally call for cherries or plums from the Limousin region of France, but we decided to give peaches a go and were very happy with the results. The peaches fan nicely in the bottom of the pan, and the brown sugar gives a slightly taffy-like crust to the dish as it bakes.

3 cups (504g) sliced peaches or quartered fresh apricots (510g)

1/3 cup (70g) brown sugar, packed

¾ cup (90g) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup (66g) granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1¼ cups (284g) milk

¾ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Thoroughly grease a 10^″ round pan or ovenproof skillet. Arrange the peach slices or apricot quarters on the bottom of the pan and sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. In a separate smaller bowl or large mixing cup, combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly combined, then gradually whisk into the flour mixture, smoothing out the lumps. Pour the batter over the fruit in the prepared baking pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition information per serving: 1 slice, 148g