Black Raspberry Dumplings

There is a particular kind of October light that I associate with my own childhood, and it visited the kitchen this week and I let it stay. The week was a fall week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

Brandon golfed Saturday morning, attended his executive secretary meeting Sunday morning, and did the dishes Wednesday night, which is the rhythm of our life now. We have been married a long time. The arithmetic of it is the arithmetic of my whole life. There were years we missed each other in the same room, and there are years we find each other in the silences, and this is one of the latter, and I am old enough now to know that the latter is the achievement and the former was the cost.

The recipe of the week was baked ziti, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. Sunday prep is twenty-eight bags. I time myself. The accountant never leaves. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan, 20, is in the Philippines on his mission. He sends emails on Mondays. I read them on Mondays. The day is now structured around his email. Olivia is 18, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason, 15, is in Brazil on his mission. His weekly emails are short and full of jokes. He does not write much about the work. He writes about the food. Lily is 14, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 11, the comedian, the performer — the kid who does an impression of my disappointed face in front of company, and gets away with it. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

I will close the laptop in a moment. I will go to bed. I will get up tomorrow. The freezer will be there. The photograph will be there. The work will be there. So will I.

The baked ziti went into the freezer bags like it always does, but it was the end of the afternoon — the part after the bags are labeled and stacked and Brandon has washed the cutting board — when I wanted something that had no system attached to it. Black raspberry dumplings are that recipe for me: warm, a little impractical, entirely worth it. October light and a quiet kitchen and something bubbling in the oven feels like the right punctuation for a Sunday that asked a lot and gave back more.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 cups fresh or frozen black raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Make the berry base. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the black raspberries, 1/2 cup of the sugar, water, and lemon juice. Stir gently and bring to a low simmer. Cook for 5–7 minutes until the berries soften and release their juices. Pour into a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Preheat the oven. Set the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Mix the dumpling dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the cold butter using a pastry cutter or two forks until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk and vanilla just until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. Do not overmix.
Drop dumplings over berries. Spoon the dough in rounded tablespoons over the hot raspberry mixture in the baking dish, spacing them slightly apart. The dumplings will spread as they bake.
Bake until golden. Bake uncovered for 25–30 minutes, until the dumplings are puffed and golden on top and the raspberry filling is bubbling around the edges. A toothpick inserted into a dumpling should come out clean.
Rest and serve. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon into bowls and top with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Black Raspberry Dumplings — Something Warm for an October Sunday