June 30th
2009
Apricots and I have never seen eye to eye nor formed a tight and trusting bond. However more recently they have replaced the strawberries in my fruit baskets, which by itself isn’t such a big thing – both fruits are in season right now. What does make it special is that I’m one of those people who have serious issues with fruits that come with odd textures, especially fruits that may be mealy. Plums, pears and apricots are on top of my Eew-list and as soon as I stumble upon a seriously mealy sample, this entire species will be disregarded for a long time. In hindsight apricots have fooled me the most. Little suckers. First they finagle themselves into your shopping basket with a radiant and extremely appealing orange-red look, just to disappoint on a first bite: mealy, too sour, or what not.
A spontaneous trip to our friends Erika and Georg in Vienna helped to jump-start that broken trust and allowed me to reconnect with what the Austrians call Marille – we ate plenty of them wrapped in Palatschinken (stuffed pancakes), hidden in cakes or drank their juice. Maybe I should have considered alternative ways to prepare apricots sooner, rethink the way I use them in my kitchen?
I’m usually hesitant to process fresh seasonal fruits (simply love them sliced over yogurt or salads), with apricots it has become a must for me – in the land of baked or boiled apricots my aversion against its possibly mealy texture dissolves (pun intended) into thin air. Last week not only did I bake apricot crisps and cakes, we enjoyed a enormous bowl of apricot sorbet and over a dozen jars filled with apricot jam are waiting on a pantry shelf to sweeten colder times. My can’t-touch-it-favorite out of all of these?
Marillenknödel - delicious dumplings filled with apricots, rolled in butter-roasted breadcrumbs. Probably the best that could happen to this fruit, at any rate for a dumpling lover like me. Maybe forming these may be considered a bit tricky (the curd cheese/semolina dough is almost as sticky as this one and the fruits need to be covered tightly), but the results are well worth the fiddling and cursing – you’ll get more advanced with every fruit you wrap. Apricots aren’t your thing or out of season? Try cherries, plums, damson plums or even grapes, they all make a worthy substitute!
Strain the curd cheese in a fine mesh sieve, an hour is great, but 15 minutes are enough if you’re in a hurry though. Wash the lemon and rub dry, then zest it with a grater, you’ll need about 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Wash the apricots and pad them dry, then cut them open along their seams (only halfway!) and remove their pits. Fill with either one piece of cube sugar or half a teaspoon of brown sugar (e.g. Demerara).
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a generous pinch of salt and reduce the temperature until the water bubbles just very lightly.
In a big bowl cream together the strained curd cheese, butter, egg yolk, semolina, vanilla sugar, salt and lemon zest using a wooden spoon or similar. Lastly add the flour and mix in only long enough until you can form the dough into a thick log (if the dough is still very sticky, you may add more flour by the tablespoon, but then your dumplings will turn out firmer in the end).
Cut the log into into 6 equally sized slices. Slightly flour your hands and form little discs, then place a sugar filled apricot on top of each and wrap it tightly with the dough. Form a neat little dumpling (re-flour your hands as necessary) and double check that the apricots are completely covered by the dough.
Bring the pot of water to a boil and carefully slip the dumplings into the water, stir every now and then to make sure none got stuck to the bottom of the pot, then let them simmer at low heat for 12 to 14 minutes.
Meanwhile melt some butter in a pan over medium heat and roast the breadcrumbs (amounts to your liking, ratio about 1:1), add sugar if desired. Remove the dumplings with a skimmer, then roll them in the pan with the buttered breadcrumbs until evenly covered. Serve hot and finish with powdered or cinnamon sugar. An elegant and visually stunning alternative: Roll the hot dumplings in ground pistachios.
Curd cheese dumplings filled with apricots (Marillenknödel)
Recipe source: own creation
Prep time: ~30 minutes, cooking: 12-14 min.
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Ingredients (yields about 6 dumplings):
250g curd (20%)
1 tsp zest of an untreated lemon
6 small apricots
6 pieces of cube sugar (or 3 tsp of brown sugar)
25g soft butter
1 egg yolk (medium)
75g semolina
1-2 tbsp vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
50g all-purpose flour (type 405), plus additional for forming
breadcrumbs
butter
powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar
It's nice to see someone else voice their aversion to mealy fruits. I feel guilty passing up all the peaches that line the produce aisles these days, but just one bad one, and the same thing happens to my relationship with that fruit. It takes a turn for the worse. But this looks like a viable solution!
Best,
Casey
I have a friend with similar textural issues about food, but I don't mind it.
I have a friend with similar textural issues about food, but I don't mind it. I love stone fruits in all forms and these look wonderful.
This takes me back - my first time in Europe I stayed with a family in Austria and I still remember when her mom made us dumplings filled with apricots! Yum...
Love the dumplings rolled in ground pistachios - great idea! Did you know that you needn't cut the apricots open? Just push a wooden spoon into the apricot and the pit almost shoots out.
We had those on a trip to Austria three years ago and they were so good! I have to try the recipe as soon as I can find good apricots. Thank you for bringing back memories.
Mir geht es bei Marillen wie dir: nur die wenigsten finde ich roh ansprechend (auch ich verabscheue mehliges Obst). In gekochter oder gebackener Form dagegen mag ich sie unheimlich gerne. Dein Marillenknödelrezept ähnelt meinem, die mit den gemahlenen Pistazien sind allerdings ein Highlight :-)
I love the colour contrast on the pistachio version! Apricots are a favourite of mine, so I'm very jealous that it's summer for you.
Mmmmmmmm, Topfenknödel! Heiß geliebt, aber noch nie selbst gekocht, alles mit Teig geht in meiner Küche meistens schief. Wie wärs mit UPS? ;)))
These look great! I can almost imagine biting into the soft fruit in the center. I'd love to try these with grapes- little bites you could just pop into your mouth!
Mmmmm.... I love these dumplings, I've been eating them all my life. In my family, we usually eat them as a main course, but with one difference - we roast the breadcrumbs and sugar in butter and then add some water from cooking the dumplings - in order to obtain a sort of soup-y consistency, in which we then roll the dumplings. And so they are eaten with a spoon. :)
I adore apricots. That mealiness come from beung stored or shipped in refrigeration before they are perfectly ripe. Get your self a tree and you will see a huge difference. GREG
Oh you made my day, you know that?
I love Marillenknödeln, and ages ago had a recipe that was pretty much the same like yours, gleaned from one of my father's bavarian colleagues, but I lost it during a move.
I'm so happy right now, and will be searching the shops for decent apricots right tomorrow. Thanks so much!
Hallo Nicki,
Die Idee mit den Pistazien ist wirklich sehr schön! DIe Marillenknödelzeit in Wien ist meine Lieblingszeit im Sommer.
Danke für das Posting!
Carolina
Ich liebe Marillenknödel, aber die Idee mit den Pistazien ist mir neu, muss alsbald ausprobiert werden.
So nice, very very tasty, hmm :)
I love the pistachio covering - I will definitely try this. I made these for the first time two weeks ago (I live in Austria). In my recipe (from a friend), I put a marzipan-wrapped almond in the centre - it's good!
Hallo Nicki, bin noch nicht lange auf dem blog, aber dein Buch ist super. Ich bin nur etwas erstaunt, denn ich wollte die Matcha-Kekse nachmachen, aber Matcha-Tee ist bei uns sehr schwer zu bekommen, trotz dass ich in der Stadt wohne. Hast du einen Tipp parat bzw. kann ich auch einen anderen Tee nehmen?
Hallo Ingrid, für dieses Rezept würde ich wirklich nur Matcha-Pulver verwenden. Gute Teeläden sollten den mittlerweile eigentlich im Sortiment haben, man kann ihn aber auch problemlos online bestellen, zum Beispiel hier (mein Lieblingsshop in München) oder hier. Leider ist dieser Tee aber nicht ganz billig und hat einen ziemlich eigenen Geschmack, weshalb ich erst nur eine kleine Menge kaufen würde um zu sehen, ob er Dir überhaupt zusagt.
hahaha we always have these 'fights' about originality with our neighbours, and sweet dumplings seems to be no exception - as they are claimed to be Hungarian :)
we make the dough however with smashed potatoes, let the filling be apricots or plums alike. my guess would be that the dough is somewhat easier to work with, in this case.
here is the ratio: 4 parts of cooked n smashed potatoes, 1 part of pastry flour, a spoonful of butter or fat, pinch of salt, 1 egg.
pistachio however would be groundbreaking here, I'm surely introducing it around!! thx
love, tm
oh my apologies, just discovered the rainbow of different doughs and looks like that the potato-based one is even boring :D
Wow, they look so wonderful, so delicious, so great! My grandma made Marillenknödel as well and I loved them. My Mum always made Zwetschgenknödel (plum dumplings) when I was a child. They were so fantastic. So Marillen- and Zwetschgenknödel remind me of my childhood...
Volltreffer! So ein leckeres und - vor allem - schnelles Rezept! Gerne wieder.. ^^
Als ich meiner Oma davon erzählte, gab sie mir ein Rezept für Apfelknödel - hier werden Äpfel ganz fein geschnitten unter den Teig gehoben und die Knödel genauso gekocht wie die hier. Das gibt's dann als Überbrückung bis zu den Zwetschgenknödeln.. *g*
Wow, the green ones look really gorgeous and tasty! Thanks for the idea
I, too, have a bag of apricots awaiting an inspired recipe. Guess I know what I'll be doing with those. . . . Thanks!
Wie Du schreibst: Aprikosen sind doch erstaunlich: Roh oft mehlig, aber verarbeitet einfach toll, insbeosondere als Marillenknödel sind wirklich lecker! Aber meine jüngste Entdeckung solltest Du auch mal probileren: Aprikosen-Quiche! Aprikosen, Stangen Lauch (Volumen ca. 1:1, eher mehr Aprikosen), Gorgonzola, Eier, Creme fraiche, geröstete Pinienkerne! Wirklich eine gute Sommer-Entdeckung mit Aprikosen.
btw, you can get curd cheese as "quark" in most big supermarkets here in the uk. As a German expat I was over the moon when I discovered it.
nice.these look wonderful.
Nicky - I'm making these with a friend tomorrow night and so excited to try your recipe! Will keep you posted on how it turns out for us. Lecker, freu mich schon sehr!
Being somewhat of an Austrian, I was raised by grandma's Marillenknödel.
(I believe there is some sort of "Battle" as to who makes the best - Germans or Austrians)
Anyhow, the pictures are amazing and make my mouth water. But the crust does not look so good. Try using less butter and more breadcrumbs and sugar. Heat it real slow, so the sugar can turn brown. Once it starts, take it off the oven and stir like crazy to get it all nice and brown. It'll be a lot dryer than on your photos.
Then roll the dumplings in it. Use a lot of breadcrumbs to get ideal coverage. The rest can then be served with the dumplings - kids love this stuff. I know I did, and actually still do :)
Wow, these look fantastic. Perfect timing as we buying the last-of-the-season apricots here in Northern California. Thanks for the delicious inspiration.
So lovely. I've never tasted these and now I'm obsessed...
Sounds like the perfect thing to cook to kick start the weekend. Thanks so much for putting up a recipe I was wondering for some time how to do Marillenknödel - I'm from Norddeutschland :-). I'll definitely do them today. It's going to restore my peace of mind to cook something after having builders in the house all day (pulling up floorboards, replacing pipes to fit in a new heating system).
I was very excited when I saw these, this post took me back to a great holiday in Austria. I made them last night and they were lovely. Would you mind if I posted this on my blog, giving credit to you of course and linking to your post?
Dear Rebecca, Glad you liked them :) Looking forward to your Marillenknödel post!
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Fantastic! This recipe worked great and my family loved them! I've hade these some years ago in Austria and was dreaming about them ever since. Thumbs up and thanks for publishing this recipe!!!!!!
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Hi Nicky! I just wanted to tell you that I made the recipe right away with a few girls with bavarian origin. They said that the dumplings were as good as the ones there granny made them in there childhood. I wanted to share that incredible compliment with you.
Hi Carla, Thanks for passing on such a lovely compliment - glad you all enjoyed them as much as I do :)
Wow, I haven't had these in a few years, the pictures look great! I will be giving these a try when the local fruit is in harvest here!