Austrian Potatoe Dumplings
Potato dumplings are served plain, without filling, to accompany sauced dishes, roast pork, and traditionally with roast goose. But one of Austria's food specialties is to fill the dumpling with bacon, crackling (Grammeln) or with minced smoked meat.
This is what I am cooking today, potato dumpling stuffed with minced smoked meat (Wurstknoedel). As another option you can make a dessert dumpling filled with a plum (Zwetschgenknoedel). Also an apricot is very often used to stuff a potato dumpling (Marillenknoedel).
Recipe for Potato Dumplings
Serves 3-4
For the dough
1 lb potatoes: mealy, high starch (e.g., Russets, Yukon Gold)
2 whole eggs
10 oz all-purpose flour
salt, flour to work with
For Wurstknoedel (savory)
6 oz smoked meat
3 oz celery root
3 oz leeks
salt, pepper, parsley, oil and flour to work with
For Zwetschgenknoedel (sweet)
8 plums (or 4 bigger ones)
2 oz butter (unsalted)
4 oz breadcrumbs
cinnamon, sugar, powdered sugar
How to cook Potato Dumplings
1. The dough
Boil the potatoes until done. Peel and mash them while they are still hot. Then let them cool. You can also peel them before cooking.
When cooled, add eggs, a little salt and the flour, and mix quickly. Do not overmix. Ingredients should be well combined with as little kneading as possible.
When mixed coat with a little flour and let rest for 20 minutes. Please read the potato dough recipe if you are unsure.
2. Preparing the fillings
Finely chop or mince celery, leeks and meat. Fry ingredients lightly in a pan. Season with salt, pepper, a little garlic and fresh parsley. Cover mix and put in the fridge. After 30 minutes, begin to form the filling into little balls. When finished put these little balls in the freezer; this will make it easier to coat them with dough later.
Wash plums, open them and discard the stone. Try your plums; if they are sour, place a lump of sugar in the center where the stone was. If you only have big plums, halve them and use only one half plum per dumpling, as I did when cooking this recipe.
3. Stuffing them
Take a closer look at the photo of the dough in the bowl. It looks unmixed; it is crumbly and you might think that it is not yet ready to proceed. STOP!!! Do not knead or stir the dough to the consistency of what you would consider a finished dough. You would activate the starch in the potato, and you only want this to happen when shaping the dumpling. That is the time when the dough will look and feel like dough. Now take a handful of the crumbly potato dough. Squeeze and press and start to flatten it.
4. Breadcrumbs for sweet, gravy for savory dumplings
In Austria Wurstknoedel and all stuffed savory potato dumplings are served with gravy, usually accompanied by Sauerkraut or green salads.
The sweet ones, stuffed with fruit, are usually rolled in sweet breadcrumbs. For this, melt butter in a pan, add breadcrumbs, sugar and ground cinnamon. Fry lightly and stir well until crumbs are hot, not browned. Do not scorch.
5. Cooking them
When water reaches a rolling boil, add dumplings and cover the pot so that it boils again as soon as possible. The dumplings will probably want to stick a little to the bottom of your pot before the water boils strongly again; prevent that, but don’t damage the dumpling! Boil for 3-4 minutes, remove from heat and leave dumplings in water for a further 15 minutes. Now they should be cooked.
6. Finishing
Serve savory dumplings on gravy and with Sauerkraut or a green salad.
Roll fruit dumplings in the prepared hot sweetened breadcrumbs, put one or two spoonful of crumbs on top of the dumpling and dust with powdered sugar. Eat, enjoy!
This is what I am cooking today, potato dumpling stuffed with minced smoked meat (Wurstknoedel). As another option you can make a dessert dumpling filled with a plum (Zwetschgenknoedel). Also an apricot is very often used to stuff a potato dumpling (Marillenknoedel).
Recipe for Potato Dumplings
Serves 3-4
For the dough
1 lb potatoes: mealy, high starch (e.g., Russets, Yukon Gold)
2 whole eggs
10 oz all-purpose flour
salt, flour to work with
For Wurstknoedel (savory)
6 oz smoked meat
3 oz celery root
3 oz leeks
salt, pepper, parsley, oil and flour to work with
For Zwetschgenknoedel (sweet)
8 plums (or 4 bigger ones)
2 oz butter (unsalted)
4 oz breadcrumbs
cinnamon, sugar, powdered sugar
How to cook Potato Dumplings
1. The dough
Boil the potatoes until done. Peel and mash them while they are still hot. Then let them cool. You can also peel them before cooking.
When cooled, add eggs, a little salt and the flour, and mix quickly. Do not overmix. Ingredients should be well combined with as little kneading as possible.
When mixed coat with a little flour and let rest for 20 minutes. Please read the potato dough recipe if you are unsure.
2. Preparing the fillings
Finely chop or mince celery, leeks and meat. Fry ingredients lightly in a pan. Season with salt, pepper, a little garlic and fresh parsley. Cover mix and put in the fridge. After 30 minutes, begin to form the filling into little balls. When finished put these little balls in the freezer; this will make it easier to coat them with dough later.
Wash plums, open them and discard the stone. Try your plums; if they are sour, place a lump of sugar in the center where the stone was. If you only have big plums, halve them and use only one half plum per dumpling, as I did when cooking this recipe.
3. Stuffing them
Take a closer look at the photo of the dough in the bowl. It looks unmixed; it is crumbly and you might think that it is not yet ready to proceed. STOP!!! Do not knead or stir the dough to the consistency of what you would consider a finished dough. You would activate the starch in the potato, and you only want this to happen when shaping the dumpling. That is the time when the dough will look and feel like dough. Now take a handful of the crumbly potato dough. Squeeze and press and start to flatten it.
4. Breadcrumbs for sweet, gravy for savory dumplings
In Austria Wurstknoedel and all stuffed savory potato dumplings are served with gravy, usually accompanied by Sauerkraut or green salads.
The sweet ones, stuffed with fruit, are usually rolled in sweet breadcrumbs. For this, melt butter in a pan, add breadcrumbs, sugar and ground cinnamon. Fry lightly and stir well until crumbs are hot, not browned. Do not scorch.
5. Cooking them
When water reaches a rolling boil, add dumplings and cover the pot so that it boils again as soon as possible. The dumplings will probably want to stick a little to the bottom of your pot before the water boils strongly again; prevent that, but don’t damage the dumpling! Boil for 3-4 minutes, remove from heat and leave dumplings in water for a further 15 minutes. Now they should be cooked.
6. Finishing
Serve savory dumplings on gravy and with Sauerkraut or a green salad.
Roll fruit dumplings in the prepared hot sweetened breadcrumbs, put one or two spoonful of crumbs on top of the dumpling and dust with powdered sugar. Eat, enjoy!
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