1 Pie dough (double batch)
1/4 c Cheddar cheese-grated
12 Apples; medium- peeled &
-cored
1/2 c Mincemeat
1/4 c Rum
Butter
3/4 c Sugar
1/4 c Sugar; Brown
1/4 c Cream
Lemon rind; 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 400F. Make enough pie enough to roll into 12 6″x6″ squares
(about a double batch.) Sprinkle each square with 1 tsp grated cheddar.
Peel and core apples and place one on each square. Fill the centre of each
apple with 2 tsp (or 1 heaping tsp) of mincemeat, 1 tsp of rum, a dot of
butter and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Bring diagonally opposite corners of dough
over the apple to form ears at the top. Cover the ‘ears’ with aluminum
foil. Mix the brown sugar, cream and grated lemon rind. Brush the
dumplings with this mixture and bake 35 to 45 minutes in 400F oven. Remove
foil, brush ears with cream mixture and return to oven till ‘ears’ are
brown. Serve warm to plain cream or sweetened cream, flavoured with rum.

Note from Anne MacLellan: Mme Benoit does not give total amounts for
cheese, sugar, mincemeat and rum. I used Meal Master’s conversion to
decimal and back to calculate the total amounts.

To quote Mme. Benoit,”In Quebec these were baked in deep brown
earthenware pudding dishes and served on a hot wooden board or tray
surrounded by autumn leaves or boughs cut from the Christmas tree. It was
a traditional in our family to serve these dumplings after we had finished
decorating the Christmas tree.”