Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

• 6 tart apples
• 3 cloves
• very sweet hard sauce
• 1 sliver mace
• good short paste
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• small amount butter
• small amount lemon juice
• very rich hard sauce

Instructions

1. Pare and core half a dozen tart apples. Stick three cloves into each apple. Fill the core-spaces with very sweet hard sauce, then insert a sliver of mace into the sauce.
2. Set each prepared apple on a round of good short paste and work the paste up and around the apple, joining the edges neatly and tightly.
3. Arrange the dumplings close together in a pan just large enough to hold them. Melt half a cup of sugar in a cup of water with a little butter and lemon juice, then pour this syrup around the dumplings.
4. Cover the pan and cook quickly until the apples are done. Uncover, brown the paste, then take up the dumplings and serve piping hot with a very rich hard sauce.