Apples and plums… …two autumn favorites

BREAD AND APPLE CASSEROLE
Duonos ir obuolių apkepas

2 cups black bread crumbs
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup sugar
6 medium apples
2 Tbsps. butter or oil
Milk
Cinnamon
Moisten bread crumbs with cranberry juice or milk. Peel apples and grate coarsely. Mix apples with sugar and cinnamon. Grease casserole dish, put in bread and apple mixture in layers. Garnish top with apple slices. Bake in preheated low oven about ½ hour. Serve warm or cold. Serve with sweetened milk (to 2 cups of fresh milk add 1-2 table- spoons sugar and a very thin rind of lemon. Let stand about 1 hour and strain). Note: Black bread is sold at many stores that sell ethnic foods.

SQUARE WITH APPLES
Plokštainis su obuoliais

4 cups flour
1 cup milk
½ oz. dry yeast
½ cup sugar
2 oz. butter
2 eggs
½ lemon (peel)
2 lbs. apples
½ cup sugar
½ cup dried currants
Mix half of the flour with warm milk and add yeast mixed with a little of the sugar. Beat well, sprinkle one cup of flour over the top and put in a warm place to rise. Then beat again, add remaining flour, eggs, butter, sugar, salt and knead well until the dough does not stick to the hands. Then let stand to rise again. Roll out dough to a thickness of a small finger, spread in a prepared baking sheet or a torte pan, and let stand to rise again. Peel the apples, core and cut into sections. Put apple pieces in even rows on the dough, sprinkle with dried currants and sugar, decorate top of cake with strips of the same dough. Brush dough trips with beaten egg before baking. Bake about 35 minutes.
Note:
Instead of apples, various berries or rhubarb may be used for the cake. Dried cranberries can be used instead of currants.

PLUM DUMPLINGS
Slyvų virtiniai

1 lb. fresh prune plums
3 cups flour
Pinch of salt
½ packet dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
¾ cup warm milk, divided
1 egg
Sugar for sprinkling over cooked dumplings
8 Tbsps. melted butter
½ cup sour cream (optional)
½ cup farmers cheese (optional)
Wash and dry the plums, cut them in half and remove the pits. Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and put in the yeast and the sugar. Mix together the yeast, sugar and a little of the flour. Slowly add ½ cup of the milk which has been warmed on the stove. Put a warm, damp cloth over the bowl and leave for about 20 minutes or until the yeast mixture has risen a little. Add the remaining ¼ cup of milk into the yeast mixture and begin to stir in the remaining flour. Break the egg into the flour and keep mixing it until you have a thick paste. Turn the dough out onto a floured board or table. Knead it very quickly and lightly just enough to have it form a ball. Then, using a rolling pin, roll out quite thin (about 1 / 8 of an inch). Cut the dough into squares with 2-inch sides. Put half a plum in each square, wrap the dough around the plum, and seal the edges by pinching the sides together. Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil. Put about a dozen of the dumplings into the boiling water at a time. Once the dumplings have risen to the surface of the water, boil them for another 5 minutes. Put a sieve next to the pot and transfer the cooked dump- lings into it, piercing each of them with a fork to release steam. Serve with sugar, melted butter, farmers cheese, or sour cream.

PLUM CAKE
Slyvų pyragas
Pastry
½ cup butter or margarine
2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. grated lemon peel
¼ tsp. grated mace
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsps. cold water
Topping
2 lbs. purple or red plums, halved and pitted (about 5 cups)
¾ cup sugar
2 Tbsps. flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ cup slivered almonds
To prepare pastry, cut butter or margarine into flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, grated lemon peel and mace until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix together egg and water and stir into flour mixture. Gather pastry into a ball. Knead just until smooth, 6 or six times. Press evenly on bottom and side of ungreased round 9 x 12-inch layer pan. Heat oven to 375 ° . To prepare topping, place plum halves, cut sides down, and overlap slight- ly in pastry-lined pan. Mix together sugar, flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over plums. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake until pastry is golden brown and plums are bubbly, about 35 to 45 minutes.