Caramel Dumplings Recipe
What are caramel dumplings?
Caramel Dumplings are sweet flour dumplings that are dropped into a caramel sauce and steam-cooked. These sweet and fluffy dumplings in hot caramel sauce are amazing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
It's a super easy and quick dessert that takes me back to my childhood. My Amish mom frequently made these easy caramel dumplings. And after they were cooked, she set the pan in our water cabinet (wasser shunk) to cool.
Ingredients
For Caramel Sauce:
- Butter adds richness, flavor, and a smooth texture.
- Brown Sugar provides sweetness and a depth of flavor, and it contributes to the caramel's rich color.
- Water helps dissolve the sugar and create the liquid base for the caramel sauce. It's essential for achieving the desired consistency.
- Salt balances the sweetness and enhances the flavors.
For the Dumplings:
- All-Purpose Flour forms the base of the dumpling dough.
- Sugar adds sweetness and helps tenderize the dough.
- Baking Powder acts as a leavening agent, helping the dumplings rise and become light and fluffy.
- Salt enhances the flavor of the dumplings.
- Milk adds moisture to the dough, creating a soft and tender texture. It also helps bind the ingredients together.
- Melted Butter contributes richness and flavor, helping to create a tender crumb.
- Vanilla Extract provides a hint of vanilla flavor, enhancing the taste.
- Chopped Apples (optional): If included, chopped apples add sweetness, texture, and a fruity flavor to the dumplings. They also complement the caramel sauce well, adding a delicious twist to the dessert.
How to Make Caramel Dumplings
This sweet dessert dumpling recipe is very easy to make.
Mix the simple dumpling batter. Then heat the caramel sauce in a large skillet (affiliate link). Drop the batter by tablespoons into the hot sauce, then cover tightly and simmer the dumplings for about 20 minutes.
Do not lift the lid until they are done cooking because it will affect the outcome of your dumplings, and they may end up soggy. So please resist the temptation to take a peak.
You could also bake these dumplings in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes instead of cooking them on the stovetop. But my mom always cooked her caramel dumplings on the stovetop, and so do I.
Dessert Dumplings
Thinking about these easy dessert dumplings, reminded me of how my mom always set the pan of caramel dumplings in our Wasser Shunk to cool a bit. We used to eat these dumplings partially chilled. And they are good to eat all by themselves (which is how we often ate them).
But honestly, my favorite way to eat them is while they are still hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The hot caramel syrup over ice cream, along with a sweet dumpling is quite delightful!
Here's a homemade vanilla ice cream recipe you might want to try as well.
Wasser Shunk (Water Cabinet)
I grew up on an Amish farm, and our farm sat at the foot of a mountain. So all of our water came from a spring off of the mountain.
We had a huge water trough in the barn, and the water ran through there almost twenty-four hours a day.
When my parents added a new kitchen to our house, my dad built a water trough into a large wall cabinet for my mom. We called it "da wasser shunk".
The trough was a couple of feet deep and we had several bricks stacked on top of each other to set pots/pans on to cool. With part of the pot submerged in the water, the food cooled very quickly.
There was a constant flow of water through there, so it was always cold. And my dad built shelves on the inside walls of the cabinet as well. So whenever we were cooking for company and needed more refrigerator space, we had somewhere to go with the overflow.
The wasser shunk is similar to spring houses that people used years ago to keep food cold. But we had the convenience of having it right in our kitchen.
If you try this Amish Recipe for Easy Caramel Dumplings, I'd love it if you left a comment and star rating below. Thank you!
📖 Recipe Card
Caramel Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
Caramel Sauce:
- 2 ½ Tbsp. butter
- 1 ½ c. brown sugar, loosely filled
- 1 ½ c. water
- ¼ tsp. salt
Dumplings:
- 1 ¼ c. all-purpose flour
- ⅓ c. sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ c. milk
- 2 Tbsp. melted butter
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
Caramel Sauce:
- In a large skillet, melt the butter. (Browning the butter is optional, it'll be good either way.)2 ½ Tbsp. butter
- Add the brown sugar, salt, and water. Whisk and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to simmer.1 ½ c. brown sugar, loosely filled, 1 ½ c. water, ¼ tsp. salt
Dumplings:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.1 ¼ c. all-purpose flour, ⅓ c. sugar, ½ tsp. salt, 2 tsp. baking powder
- Add the melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Stir to combine. And stir in chopped apples, if desired.½ c. milk, 2 Tbsp. melted butter, 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- Drop the dumpling mixture into the simmering caramel sauce by tablespoonfuls, leaving a small space between each dumpling.
- Cover tightly and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Set your timer and DO NOT lift the lid until it's been 20 minutes. (Lifting the lid will result in soggy dumplings.)
- Serve warm with ice cream.
Anna
Easy and delicious!
Lisa
I made this but altered it a bit. I put homemade apple pie filling on bottom of glass 9x13 inch pan, then topped with the dumpling mixture and baked covered at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Then I drizzled your caramel sauce on top. It was a hit! Everyone loved it!
Anna
that sounds yummy
Cathy
Tried this recipe last night for the first time. Made them before with all different recipes but this one has to be the best batter so far. Cake was so fluffy.
Anna
I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for leaving a comment.