When I first saw the recipe for berries and dumplings, I thought of a type of dessert you might get at an Asian restaurant. Boy was I wrong! This is a delicious and easy springtime dessert. It’s light, fruity, not to sweet and just delightful with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You could probably use any mixture of frozen fruit to create the fruit and dumpling dessert you desire. Even though I’m partial to berries ( my favorite type of fruit), I’d love to experiment with peaches and mangos.

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart: Everyday Food
1 lb. frozen mixed berries
1 T. fresh lemon juice
6 T. plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 T. unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
3 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 tsp all spice

Directions
1. In a medium skillet, cook berries, lemon juice, 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 cup water over medium until slightly thickened, 11 to 13 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and all spice and 2 tablespoons sugar; add melted butter and buttermilk, and stir until a moist dough forms. Dividing evenly, spoon 6 dollops of dough over fruit. Combine remaining teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sugar, and sprinkle over dough.

3. Cover pan tightly with foil, and cook over medium-low until dumplings are set and tops are dry to the touch, about 15 minutes.

Voila! Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream

**
Post-baking thoughts: I used two 10 oz. bags of frozen mixed berries, as the recipe called for. However, next time I’d add another 1/2 bag at least to get more berries to even the proportions of dumplings to berries.