# Smoked Apple Dumplings, with Candied Pecans and Bourbon Caramel Sauce, lots of pics and recipes



## petehalsted

We were invited for diner with some friends last night. She always makes a fantastic traditional Cuba dish for our get togethers. This year it was her Seafood Paella.  I of course want to hold up my end by bringing something form the smoker. But the Paella presented a real challenge, don't only is her Paella UNBELIEVABLE good, it is also a very heavy single course meal, so that pretty much eliminated any sides. I briefly played with the idea of brings some Pork Belly Burnt Ends as an appetizer, but rightly decided that would have been to heavy. So I set out to come up with an over the top desert from the smoker that could hold its own with the Paella.

I finally settled on Smoked Apple Dumplings, with the primary inspiration coming from an old post by Cowgirl. But as I said it had to be over the top, so I also made some Smoked Candied Pecan and a Bourbon Caramel Sauce, and we assembled the whole thing with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

On to the recipes and the pics.

Done in my MES 30 @275 with AMNPS with Apple Pellets.

Smoked Candied Pecans
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1 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Salt
1 Egg White
1 TBS Water
1 pound Pecan halves

1. Mix sugar,cinnamon, salt together in bowl
2. Whisk egg white and water together in separate bowl until frothy
3. Toss pecans in the egg white mixture
4. Toss the pecan mixture with the egg white mixture, until pecans are evenly coated
5. Spread pecans on Q-MATZ
6. Smoke @275 until done, about 1 hour

Notes: Original oven recipe was for 250, I did 275 because I was doing Apple dumplings at the same time. They tasted a touch of smoke, I really didn't. But what I think it does is they are not as sweet as traditional Candied Pecan, I think the smoke offsets the sweetness some. I will say this I have definitely messed up, my wife already wants to know when I am making her another batch, I may never get to smoke meat again, LOL!! 

Also the Q-MATZ made this so easy, I spread them out on the Q-MATZ after tossing with the sugar, and then just slid them into the smoker, when they came out I set them on my (not on) grill to cool, and then just rolled the mats a bit to get them to release from the Q-MATZ.

Bourbon Caramel Sauce
========================
2 cups sugar 
1/2 cup water 
1 tablespoon light corn syrup 
1 cup heavy cream 
1/2 cup bourbon

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar, water and corn syrup to a boil over high heat. 
2. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, washing down the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush. 
3. Continue cooking, without stirring, until an amber caramel forms, about 6 minutes. 
4. Remove from the heat and carefully stir in the cream. 
5. Let cool for 1 minute, then stir in the bourbon. 
6. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. 
7. Let the caramel sauce cool slightly and serve warm or at room temperature

Notes: I am not sure where I liberated this recipe from, but it turns any dessert into an Adult dessert! I could pour this on a cow pattie and you would ask for seconds! It's super sweetness combined with the heavy bourbon undertone, paired perfectly with a not overly sweet smoked apple dumpling.

Smoked Apple Dumplings
==============================
4 Granny  Smith Apples
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 stick butter softened
4 pie crust
1 egg
1 TBS water

1. Mix Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, and nutmeg together
2. Beat egg and water together for form egg wash
3. Peel and core Apples
4. Slice Horizontally into 4 slices (think layered cake)
5. Roll out Pie Crust
6. Spread about a tsp of the sugar mixture in the center of the crust.
7. Add the bottom slice of the apple
8. Top with about a tsp of the sugar mixture
9. Add the next slide of the apple, and repeat 8 & 9 until apple is reassembled.
10. Push about 2 TBS of the soften butter into the hold of the apple
11. Sprinkle one last tsp of the sugar mixture on top for good measure.
12. Fold crust up and around apple
13. Brush with Egg Wash 
14. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture over the dumplings.
15. Smoke @275 until done, about 1 hour. 

Notes: I used a tooth pick to test the apples when I took them out they were the toothpick would slide into the apple but the apple was still firm, definitely not pie filling soft. I was worried they would be too firm, but I was out of time, and when we ate them we all agreed they were perfect and didn't need to be softer. 

We put them in foil pan and covered with foil and into our small cooler for the 45 minute drive. They were still very warm when we got there and may have "cooked" a bit more while in the cooler but I don't think so, when we got there we took them out of the cooler, and when we finally recovered from the Paella, we put them in the toaster over to warm and toast them a touch

As mentioned the original inspiration came from a post from Cowgirl, but it was a bit light on details, so this above recipe is my combination of a few recipes I found on line.

You can believe I made crust from scratch and got them that perfect, or you can believe they were store bought, your choice, all I am saying is I am a smoker not a baker.

Unlike the Pecans, these took a lot of smoke, which makes sense as the dough is a smoke sponge. That combined with the Granny Smiths keeps this from being a crazy sweet dessert, so it paired perfectly with the crazy sweet bourbon sauce. I might only run smoke for the first 30 minutes next time.

I did these directly on the grates, and two of them didn't fair well when I tried to remove them. Someone please tell me why I only bought 2 Q-MATZ? Next time I will either do them on the Q-MATZ or I am thinking of leaving them in the foil pan, which would likely develop some caramel sauce of its own with any escaping butter and the left overs from the sprinkled sugar.


And if you have somehow managed to stick with me this long, I will reward you with some pics!







A pic of the Paella so you can see what I was up against! I would give my right arm to learn how to cook rice as perfect and flavorful as the rice in this dish!






Pecans out of the smoker, and cooling on the QMATZ setting on my cool grill.






That perfect "homemade" pie crush I was telling you about <G>, with the first layer of sugar.





First Apple layer added and topped with sugar.





Apple fully reassembled, stuff with butter and topped with more sugar.





My very ugly attempt at folding the crust into a neat dumpling. At least no one will think they are store bought!





After the egg wash and sprinkled with the remaining sugar. I probably should have just put them in the smoke while still in the foil pan.





We were pushed for time, and I didn't get a pick right out of the smoker, this is after the 45 minute ride, covered and in the cooler. As you can see the front 2 didn't come out of the smoke as pretty as the back two. Again either cooking in the pan or on QMATZ would solve that.

And finally if you managed to make it to here. THE MONEY SHOT! We all agreed that there was no way we could eat a whole dumpling, so we split them in half, added a scoop of Blue Bell, drizzled with Bourbon Caramel Sauce, and topped with Smoked Candied Pecans.


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## HalfSmoked

Awesome about all I can say.

Warren


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## yankee2bbq

Wow...yeap....awesome!


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## SmokinAl

Man those look absolutely delicious!
Very nicely done!
Congrats on making the carousel!
Al


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## indaswamp

Y.U.M.!!!! Another one added to the list to try. Thanks for posting the recipe!


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## hardcookin

Looks great!! I have smoked a lot of homemade apple pies,but never tried apple dumplings.
Point Worthy, thanks for sharing.


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## petehalsted

Wow another ride on the Carousel, and I just quit being dizzy (or is that big headed) from my ride LOL.

Thanks for all the comments. One last note to share with everyone. I put the pecans from one of the QMATZ in a tupperware to take with us that night, and left the remainder with them. The other I had put in a tupperware and left at the house. We munched on them a bit yesterday, but last night when I pulled a few out, the smoke flavor was much better. 

So I would say that if you are wanting to make candied nuts, you might want to make them a day ahead of time and let them settle afterwards to get a nice mellow smoke undertone, before last night I couldn't detect much smoke at all on them. 

The challenge will be where to put them so they can last a day or so before being eaten!


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## motocrash

Bravo to her Paella & Ole to your answer Sir!


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## GaryHibbert

Wow!!!   This sounds REALLY GOOD.  I'll be making some of these for sure.
POINT
And thanks for the recipes.
Gary


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