Growing up, we rarely had pasta or potatoes in our house. What we had instead is this, Knedlicky, or czech flour dumplings.
There are two ways to make these dumplings, one using yeast as a leavener, and one that uses baking soda and baking powder. The yeast can be tricky, so my mother always made this recipe.
These are very much like a boiled loaf of bread, they are moist and dense and spongy and have the ability to absorb a lot of sauce. I love them!
Leftover dumplings can be cubed, fried in butter and tossed with scrambled eggs and sauteed onions for a delicious Czech breakfast.
Czech Dumplings
Makes one large dumpling that serves 4
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Combine eggs and milk and mix well. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pout in liquid ingredients. With a sturdy wooden spoon, begin to mix flour into liquid ingredients a little at a time until a sticky dough is achieved. Continue to mix until dough pulls together and cleans the side of the bowl (at least 200 strokes). with moist hands shape dough into a log.
Place dough into a very large pot of vigourosluy boiling salted water. Log will sink at first and then bob to the surface (if after 10 minutes it has not risen to surface, dislodge it from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon). Boil for 30 minutes , flipping over once after 15 minutes. Remove dumpling from water and let sit 10 minutes to cool.
With a piece of thread or dental floss, run the thread under one end of the dumpling, thenpull thread together to slice dumpling into 1/2 inch slices.
I tried to make this but my dough was more like a thick batter and didn't come together no matter how long I mixed. I ended up adding heaps more flour until it came together enough to JUST shape into a blob that I dropped into the water. It will probably be awful! What did I do wrong?
ReplyDeleteI made the dumplings again with your suggestion to boil the dough in a tea towel and it turned out great - so fluffy and light. So glad you told me what to do because they are the best dumplings. I also fried the leftovers in butter with eggs and they were delicious. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteFantastic news! I am so glad they turned out well! Thanks for sharing! Mama Ozzy
DeleteI grew up eating these dumplings with beef stew and saturated. I would like to know if they can be made using a pressured cooker?
ReplyDeleteI have never tried making dumplings in a pressure cooker, so I don't really know how they would turn out, but my gut reaction is no. They cook pretty quickly in boiling water so I don't see the advantage using a pressure cooker would give.
DeleteIf by chance, the dough is too liquid go Czech and cube some white bread slightly stale is good and add it to the "batter." For me that is the real knedlicky -- a way ofmaking stale bread edible.. and delish.. with something like turkey not just pork and sauerkraut.
ReplyDelete