OUR TOWN COOKS!

It was a sad day for Greentown Elementary teachers when the last of Tracy Coblentz's sons graduated from fifth grade this spring. Sure, they'll miss the boys - Zach 11, Joel 12, and DJ 14 – but it's Tracy's apple dumplings they're mourning. “It's become the big joke at Greentown,” Tracy said. “All these years I'd take about 50 of them up there for the teachers with ice cream and milk and they loved them. They're wondering, now that I'm done with Greentown, whether they'll ever see the dumplings again.” She said rumors have made their way south, and now middle school teachers are asking when they'll be getting their dumplings.
Though Tracy loves to bake for family and friends, with a part time job, her sons' activities and a very busy home life, she doesn't bake as much as she'd like anymore. Her husband Dave lists his occupation as farmer, raising beef cattle and farming 700-plus acres on Coblentz Road. “We're one of the few, if not the last farmers in North Canton School District,” she said, adding she and her sons often pitch in to help out on the farm.
Tracy honed her culinary skills when she married her husband who was raised on Amish cooking. Friend Carla Miller gave Tracy the dough recipe and she created the rest. “People think the apple dumplings are hard to make, but really, they're so easy,” she said. Tracy buys three or four bushels of apples each fall and makes about 100 apple dumplings to freeze. It's become a tradition for friends to visit the Coblentz house for an afternoon of dumpling making.

Apple Dumplings

from
Tracy Coblentz

8 cups self rising flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups Crisco
2 eggs
milk
10 large baking apples, such as Jonathan or Cortland
sugar
brown sugar
cinnamon
water

Beat the eggs in a measuring cup then add enough milk to equal two cups.

Cut flour and sugar into Crisco. Slowly add the milk and egg mixture. Do no overwork the dough or it will become hard.

Peel the apples. Cut apples in half and core them. You should have a total of 20 apple halves.

On a floured surface, divide dough into five equal portions. Roll each dough portion into approximately 8 x 8 square, ¼ inch thick. Cut the square into fourths.

Put an apple half into the middle of each small square of dough. In the well of the apple (created by coring) place a pat of butter, a teaspoon sugar and a teaspoon brown sugar. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Wrap the dough around each apple. Using your hands, seal the dough so it resembles a snowball.

*At this point, dumplings may be frozen in gallon size Ziplock bags and stored in the freezer.

Place six dumplings in a baking dish so they are touching, but not smashed together. Pour sauce (recipe follows) over dumplings and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Sauce
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar

Place ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.