eating with the fullest pleasure: A Dutch/Canadian and a German-American attempt Apfel Dumplings

I mentioned earlier the politics, esthetics, and ethics of food. But to speak of the pleasure of eating is to go beyond those categories. Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance — is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend. ~Wendell Berry

Thursday, March 22, 2012

A Dutch/Canadian and a German-American attempt Apfel Dumplings

After our last class today, I wandered home with one of my friends for supper. With the prospect of a free evening, she suggested we bake something, so I proceeded to page through one of her French cookbooks. After passing a number of good looking recipes (but ones that would require a trip to the store), she said, "You know, I haven't made an American dessert in a really long time." I remembered that I had a number of apples at home, and asked if she'd want to try apple dumplings.

"Dumplings? Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

Bake them we did, using this recipe for the pie crust and this for the dumplings.

And thus a (legitimately) Dutch citizen was able to make and enjoy a popular Pennsylvania Dutch* dessert. All credit goes to her for the artistically decorated crusts inspired by the fine pommiers** currently in bloom.

*the Pennsylvania Dutch actually being German (a corruption of "Deutsch")
**"Canadian for apple tree," she says. A little bird tells me that it's French...