Sweet Dumpling is a small winter squash. It stores well and is easy to cook. I’m baking several tonight. There’s no need to peel these squash. They’re small and ribbed. You’ll waste more time than it’s worth. After cooking, the flesh will scoop out easily. I cut the top off below the lowest point of the stem and scoop out the seeds. I use a solid ice cream scoop to clean out squash and pumpkins.
Add a half inch of water in the bottom of the baking dish and cover. The odd squash is a Zeppelin Delicata, Steve’s favorite winter squash. It’s the last one. I didn’t grow nearly enough. The pan goes into the oven (with chicken breasts tonight) at 350* for 4o minutes. You can add a little brown sugar, butter or maple syrup to each squash if you’d like. I’ll add butter (Houlton Dairy) to mine after it’s cooked.
You can bake all winter squash this way. Poke the squash with a knife to judge when it’s done. If the knife passes into the flesh easily it’s done. If you want to cook a larger squash such as Butternut you can peel and steam or just steam until done. Winter squash can be boiled but it’s easy to over cook, it becomes too wet quickly and it destroys a lot of nutrition.
Those look like goofy apples. They sound delicious! We need to expand our winter squash repertoire, so I am making note of this one. Thanks!
I’m with Steve on the Delicata ! It’s our favorite and our family likes it when I cut it into chunks, toss it with just a little olive oil, then grate some fresh nutmeg and roast it on a cookie sheet-hot 425*oven for about 30 minutes. It gets almost caramelized on one side.
As an aside, I am about to go out to our local organic foodstand in Ma. and see if they want to sign up for next summer’s delicata crop- they have previously said they will buy almost all that we grow, but it’s not worth the drive to Ma. to do it and I hate leaving Maine unless I have to.
Bill
Bill,
Rather than heading to MA (Massachusetts for those who think MA is Maine) you could talk with chefs and buying club managers. It might save you a trip.
I had a volunteer vine come up in my garden this spring. I thought at first it was a pumpkin but it turned out to be Sweet Dumpling. Super easy to grow but it does travel. Mine mingled in between the tomatoes and the cukes but I kept it close to the ground so that it wouldn’t shade the other veggies. On the one volunteer vine I got 23 squashes.
[...] local farmers’ market and, cut up, at the supermarket — I generally save my space for Sweet Dumpling and [...]
I just bought a Sweet Dumpling Squash for the first time. I’m glad I found your site to know how to cook it.