Dear Sun Spots: I am looking for a copy Woolworth’s apple dumpling recipe from the 1950s. Any help would be appreciated. – No Name, No Town.

Answer: Unfortunately Sun Spots was unable to locate this recipe but perhaps there are readers out there who may recall this and may even have a receipe they are willing to share with you. In the meantime, you and your family might like to try the following located online at www.hungrybrowser.com:

Nita’s Easy Apple Dumplings with Vanilla Sauce on a bed of Cherries. Ingredients: 1 can 10 Butter me Not biscuits, separated; 5 winesap, Rome or Washington Red apples, cored and rinsed with cold water; 5 tablespoons butter, melted; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1½ teaspoon apple pie spice or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional; 1 12-ounce can Mountain Dew; 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 1 can cherries for pie.

Method: Spray a 9-by-13 dish or pan with butter spray or lightly grease it with butter. Prepare apples by coring and rinsing each apple with cold water. Dry off with paper towels. Prepare biscuits: Separate biscuit dough into 10 pieces. Flatten each piece of dough into a circle. Wrap one biscuit around each apple half. Join, pressing together to make a seam. Place seam side down in baking pan. Leave top of pastry open so you can access the apple core. Make Sauce: Combine and bring to boil the sugar, Mountain Dew and cinnamon. Add the extract. (Do not use imitation extract because the results will not be the same if you do). Pour half the sauce mixture over pies and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Add cherries: Pour the contents of the cherries in the dish, spreading it around the apples. Baste dumplings with remaining half of the sauce and continue baking until golden brown. To serve: Scoop cherries from dish and place some in the bottoms of five individual serving dishes. Lift apple dumpling and place on top of the cherries. Serve plain, or top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

And in keeping with the upcoming fall apple season hopefully you and yours will enjoy this Apple and Bramble cake with Bushmills Custard, by Margaret Johnson posted online at Irishabroad.com: Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) butter; 1 cup sugar; 4 eggs; 3 cups self-rising flour; 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and diced; ½ cup blackberries; 4 dessert apples, peeled, cored, and sliced; 3 tablespoons apricot jam, for glaze. Bushmills Custard: 1¼ cups milk, 1¼ cups cream, 4 egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup Bushmills whiskey. Directions: The oldest part of The Bushmills Inn was originally a coaching inn that could date back to as early as 1608. Located in the County Antrim town where the Old Bushmills Distillery was granted the world’s first license to distill whiskey, the town and inn are so closely associated with the classic malt that it’s no surprise it frequently turns up in recipes. This ultra-fruity cake that uses two apple varieties, brambles (blackberries), and an apricot jam glaze is delicious on its own, but the whiskey-flavored custard gives it a definite Northern Ireland flavor.

Method: Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line with waxed paper. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then sift in the flour. Stir in the diced apples and blackberries. Pour in the batter. Arrange the apple slices around the top of the batter. Bake until lightly browned, or a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pan. Loosen around the edges of the cake and turn over onto a serving plate. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the jam and brush over the top of the cake. Bring the milk and cream to a boil over medium heat, then turn off the heat. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Slowly pour in the milk/cream mixture, whisking continuously. Return to saucepan over low heat and cook until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Stir in the whiskey. To serve, slice the cake and spoon the custard over each slice. Makes 8 servings.

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