Sweets/Treats Sweetmeat Dumplings

sweetmeat dumplings
(from The Lady's Receipt-book: A Useful Companion for Large Or Small Families, by Eliza Leslie, 1847)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. fresh butter or finely minced suet​

1 lb. flour​

preserved peaches, or quinces, or large preserved plums​

​

serve with sugar only, or with sweetened cream​

Instructions:

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Make a paste of half a pound of fresh butter, or finely minced suet, and a pound of flour, moistened with a very little cold water. Beat the lump of paste on all sides with a rolling-pin. Then roll it out into a sheet, and divide it into equal portions. Lay on the middle of each two halves (laid on each other) of preserved peaches, or quinces, or large preserved plums. Then close the paste round the sweetmeat, so as to form a dumpling. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Throw the dumplings into it, tied up in little cloths, and let them boil twenty-five minutes or half an hour. Try one first, to see if they are done. When quite done, take them up, dip them in cold water, turn them out of the cloths, and send the dumplings to table immediately. Eat them with sugar only, or with sweetened cream. These dumplings may be made with jam or marmalade, formed into a heap or lump, and laid in the center of each piece of paste.​