GOOD COOKIN' 2
Posted by mountaintopquilting on Friday, March 5th, 2010
As I was thinking about which recipe to share this week I realized, we are a "no-dessert" house. Oh my goodness, we do desserts when we eat out but it is a rare occassion for me to fix a dessert dish. Desserts need to be gluten free so I don't worry about contaminating Mike and, let's face, if I don't eat another dessert for the rest of my lifetime, my waistline with thank me. So how would I ever have a perfect dessert recipe to share with all of you?
I decided to reach back into my childhood memories for a favorite. It falls more into the Comfort Food than Decadent Dessert category with it's simplicity and ease of preparation. I was surprised to learn that a slump dessert hails from Colonial times. I really had an idea that maybe we had just made up the name "slump" when we were kids. We did that with different recipes (like a family favorite called "Goop")
So the burning questions is ... What’s a slump? Slump is like a cobbler but it is made on the stovetop like dumplings rather than being baked in an oven which makes the preparation really easy. It makes a great summertime dessert because you don’t have to heat up your kitchen. You can make them on the grill or even out camping. Don't limit yourself to apples. Slumps can be made with just about any fruit combination you can think of ... what ever you would use in a pie or cobbler would work in a slump ... peaches, peaches and raspberries, black berries. Even use all of the three popular berries - blacks, blues, and raspberries.
And now for the recipe: (from my Moms recipe file)
6 apples peeled, cored, & sliced
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp each ... cinnamon, nutmeg, & cloves
2 C sifted flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c milk
Place apples in large sauce pan; Add sugar and spices; Stir and cover with water and bring to a boil - then reduce heat. Cover and cook until apples are tender but not mushy. You dont want applesauce.
While the apples are cooking make the dumpling mixture ... Sift flour once, Measure,
into a small bowl. Add baking powder and salt and sift into a mixing bowl. Add milk and stir until all flour is dampened. Drop dumplings from spoon onto the simmering apple stew. Cover tightly and cook gently without removing the lid. 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
After all of that, do you want even better news? If you're like me (let's hope not) and going into finishing your 3rd month with NO kitchen HERE is a recipe for apple slump prepared in a crock pot, my favorite and currently, my ONLY method of food preparation besides the electric skillet and the microwave. Soon, I will have a real kitchen and there will be much celebration!
