June 30th
2007
When Johanna's theme for this month's "Waiter, there's something in my dumpling!" caught my attention, my thoughts immediately started revolving around possible recipes and believe it or not they all had to do with...? Dumplings. We Bavarians truly love our dumplings and the Bavarian kitchen has countless variations of what we call Knödel: made with potatoes, old breadrolls, prezels, liver, semolina, curd or yeast dough, just to name a few. So one would think that with the vast number of options, why wait?! Per Johanna's ground rules, they have to come with a filling and since most of my favorite savory dumplings don't have a filling and my number one filled sweet dumpling has already been featured on delicious:days I was a bit in trouble. Hmmm...
What lead me out of the dilemma was an idea sparked by an email, sent by a friend with whom we will spent our upcoming holidays with: Georg, who traded in his pans (not pants!) for a rudder, promised to cook us his famous strawberry dumplings. There you go! Since the strawberry season is in full bloom we already had them in every thinkable way, with panna cotta or on-top of a cake, but as a filling for dumplings? Warm?
They are actually quite easy to prepare - once I mastered the sticky dough that is - and the combination of strawberries and poppyseed is not only a visual hit, it's delish. Not exactly being a big friend of warm strawberries in general, the filling convinced everybody including myself. On the other hand, what makes or breaks this dish are really fragrant strawberries, it's worth the extra mile if you can't find them just around the corner. Thank you Johanna, for not only going for dumplings, but filled ones. In case the discussion whether or not dumplings are season-appropriate is still going on - these here definitely are!
In a big bowl cream together flour, salt, sugar, egg, butter, lemon zest and curd. (If you have the time to strain the curd, do so, the mixture will be a bit firmer and you can omit some of the flour.) The result will be a smooth and sticky dough, cover it and let rest for at least half an hour.
Meanwhile, carefully wash the strawberries, let them dry on a kitchen paper, remove the stems and cut them in equally sized halves or quarters.
Knead in some more flour (start with one or two tablespoons) until the dough doesn't stick to your fingers any more and you can work with it. Key is to add only as much flour as really necessary, to maintain a light and fluffy dumpling texture. Knead dough briefly, form a log and cut it in 10 to 12 equally sized slices. Slightly flour your hands and form little discs, then place two strawberry halves on top of each, drizzle with a little vanilla sugar and wrap it with the dough. Form a neat little dumpling and double check that the strawberries are completely covered by the dough, to guarantee that the fruit juice stays inside.
Bring the pot of water to a boil and carefully slip the dumplings into the water, stir once to make sure none got stuck to the bottom of the pot, then close the lid. Let the water simmer at low heat for 10 to 12 minutes until they are done, then remove with a skimmer.
Roll them in a bowl filled with squeezed/ground poppyseed until evenly covered, then arrange on a plate, dust with some confectioners' sugar and - if desired (Oliver thinks it's essential) - drizzle with a bit of hot butter and enjoy.
Strawberry dumplings with poppyseeds
Recipe source: adapted from "Das Kaffeehaus" by Rick Rodgers, p.188
Prep time: 1 hour, cooking: about 15min.
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Ingredients (yields about 10-12 dumplings):
125g all-purpose flour (type 405), plus additional for kneading
a pinch of salt
25g white sugar
1 large egg
25g butter
zest of 1 untreated lemon
250g curd (40%)
~12 mid-sized fresh strawberries
~3-4 tsp vanilla sugar for the filling
~100g freshly squeezed/ground poppyseeds
confectioners' sugar
serve drizzled with hot butter
these look delicious! i also made a curd dough, i never used to like it, but i think it's the best for those sweet dumplings. strawberry paired with poppyseeds - what a great combination! i must try this soon. I am so glad you're participating to help show the world that a) dumplings can be summery and b) there is enless variety in terms of fillings and toppings! thanks for your contribution to a great cause!
These look fabulous and I’m a huge fan of poppy seed. They remind me of a smaller version of Germknödel that my husband loves so much (he’s from Münster and introduced me to them on our last ski holiday). What a fun recipe- I’ll give it a try!
And since strawberries are in season, I'll find time to make some dumplings myself. And poppyseeds? Don't they make everything taste better?
Wonderful idea!
Those look delish!
Gorgeous pictures, as always!
I've never eaten dumplings, but your post makes me want to try experimenting with my own! Very appetizing and beautiful...
Hmm, Topfenködel, ich liebe sie. Allerdings bin ich noch nicht auf die Idee gekommen, die auch noch zu füllen. Danke für die Idee
Oh, I must try these. I still remember your post about your mouth-watering plum dumplings...
I simply love it!
I can see this tweaked to make a really interesting strawberry shortcake - if the dumplings were baked instead of boiled, with a big bowl of whipped cream and a drizzle of strawberry sauce. What a surprising twist that would make!
Ooh, I wonder how these compare to Japanese strawberry mochi dumplings (called ichigo daifuku). I imagine they'd be fairly similar, though, of course, mochi is made with rice flour, not regular flour.
certainly looks yummy :)
That's a very good idea. I will try it.
Could you tell me where to buy your squeezed poppyseeds in Munich (I am not for a very long time in town:)
I am absolutely giving these a try for my family's 4th of July party! One question: do you mind if I put this recipe on our site? I think our readers would love to try it out!
[...] strawberry dumplings with poppyseed {made seasonal with strawberries, i wonder if i could make them with apples. via delicious days} [...]
Looks very yummy! My son would love this. He probably wants me to use chocolate instead of poppyseeds. What do you think?
The combination of strawberry and poppyseed looks so pretty, I'm sure it must taste heavenly, too. Do you think I could use other fruits, too?
wow what a great idea! love th use of ground poppyseeds. would it be possible to fry the dumpling?
these look amazing. a perfect addition to my next party, the theme of which will be "come have a ball with deb." everything served will be round ... spinach balls, cheese balls, truffles, strawberry dumplings... you get the picture. thanks for a great addition to the menu.
Those are adorable! Perfectly done.
These look so beautiful with the pretty contrast of colours. I love the idea of rolling them in poppyseeds, too, and I've never had strawberry dumplings before, so I'm especially curious now :)
These strawberry dumplings look delightful...so pretty! I just happened upon your blog, and I'm so glad I did...I can't wait to read the archived posts as time permits. Its always fun to find an enticing new blog to become enthralled with. :-)
Hello nicky,
I like to ask what is curd? i searched but lots of different curd i come up with.. and doese dumplings look very delicious..
Mmmmm miam miam. I remember my Austrian grandma making zwetschen knoedel when I was little. These look just as delicious.
Erin, I had no clue that there was a Japanese version of strawberry dumplings - will look out for more details about mochi dumplings (cute name!)...
Florence, You can buy freshly squeezed poppyseeds for example at Viktualienmarkt, the Gewürzwerk stall (which specializes in spices etc.) sells it and some others do, too.
Khun Ying, Hmmm, I'm not quite sure, if chocolate would work as good - at least not if you want to roll the cooked dumplings in grated chocolate, which would melt immediately. Personally, I would not opt for chocolate for another reason, because - in my opinion - the slight tanginess of the curd dough might get overpowered by it. But if your son likes it, go for it ;)
Elisabeth, Absolutely, positively, yes, you can! The standard filling in Bavaria and Austria are apricots (or "Marillen") or Damson plums, the only limit is your imagination.
Hi Susan, Good question! I haven't fried dumplings based on curd dough and I don't recall tasting any at a restaurant... looks like you got yourself a project - let me know how they turned out!
bitegeist, Sounds like a fun party! I've heard about color or taste themes, but dedicating a party to a shape is new to me :)
Hale, Here you can find more info about curd (cheese) or quark (how we call it here in Germany).
I just made the plum dumplings from your previous post (except I used apricots) and they are fantastic! Now I may just have to try these strawberry ones as well.
[...] Nicky at Delicious Days has made beautiful strawberry dumplings. [...]
I made these last Sunday minus the poppyseed and my family liked them very much. I rolled them in ground almonds because I didn't have grund poppyseed , very good! My son Eric ate three of them and he is a very picky eater.
[...] and on a completely unrelated note, here’s a recipe for anyone who plans on picking up some strawberries this weekend. [...]
[...] It’s true. The Passionate Cook made dumplings a theme last month, and Delicious Days rose to the challenge with some amazing strawberry dumplings with poppyseeds. [...]
It really does look good but is it an absolute must to use or have curd in there?
Fia, Since these are curd dumplings I'd say yes, it's a must. Unless you're up for a challenge and want to prove that it's possible without curd ;)
But you can always try these instead...
[...] bookmarked them a while back because Delicious Days made them look so. very. pretty. and. yummy. A little further research indicated that they were a [...]
[...] the roulade, I made some lemony raspberry-filled, roasted almond covered dumplings (Knödel). The recipe for the dough I got from here, but the rest was my own [...]
I just got a big punnet of British Strawberries - The sweetest I've had in a long time.
These look absolutely divine. Great colour contrast too between the strawberries and the poppyseeds.