Plum Dumplings, Or Knedle, Or Knödel - Do You Know This Dish?

Today I'm going to show you a dish that has been part of my life since I was a little kid. For us it has been a normal dish, nothing special. Our grandmothers have been making it, our mum as well and this has been going on for generations.

Over the years, with all the processed food, things have changed. Now you can buy it from the grocery store, frozen and have it ready in 20 minutes as the cooking time takes about 18 minutes, plus making the breadcrumbs ready takes 2 or 3 minutes. As life is a constant rush and I'm not any better than others, I've been choosing the shortcut and have been buying frozen ones.

Today I wanted to show you how it's done, but before I started my post, I thought let's check the history of these famous dumplings. I was amazed by what I found on Wikipedia.

Knedle (from German knödel, "dumpling"), is a dish of boiled potato-dough dumplings filled with plums or apricots, originating in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Popular in Central and Eastern European countries, the dish is eaten as dessert, a main dish, or side dish.
It is known as plum dumplings in English, and in other languages as: Austrian German: Zwetschkenknödel, German: Zwetschgenknödel, Hungarian: szilvásgombóc, Serbo-Croatian: Knedle od šljiva, Knedle or alternatively Gomboce in Vojvodina, Slovene: slivovi cmoki, Slovak: slivkové knedle, Czech: švestkové knedlíky, Polish: Knedle ze śliwkami, Romanian: Găluște/Gomboți cu prune.
The dough is made with mashed potatoes, eggs, and flour. The dough is flattened out and cut into squares. The plums (or apricots) are inserted inside the dumplings by hand. Some versions of the dish use noodles instead of potatoes. The preparation can include removing the stone and stuffing the fruit with sugar. The plums are then completely wrapped in dough and dropped in boiling water. When they start floating, they are taken out, sprinkled with sugar, and served. They can also be served with breadcrumbs fried in butter and dusted in powdered sugar. source

Unfortunately I was in a hurry and had no time to take a nice photo of the ingredients, but you know all of them listed below, there's no secret ingredient here :)

Ingredients:

• 1kg potatoes,
• all purpose flour as much as it's needed,
• 1 egg,
• 1 pinch salt,
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1kg plums,
• breadcrumbs,
• sugar,
• cinnamon.

The method is very simple. Once the potatoes are cold, pealed and mashed, add one egg, a pinch of salt and as much flour as it requires to get a soft dough.

Roll out the dough, to be 1cm thick, not more.

Depending how big the plums are, cut out squares to cover the plums.

Mine were big, so I made the square a bit bigger.

Make a mix with the sugar and cinnamon, fill the plums after the seeds are taken out (obviously).

Make a ball by close the dough around the plums.

Add a little oil to the boiling water and cook the dumplings for 30 minutes.

Brown the breadcrumbs in a pan and then roll the dumplings, to coat them with breadcrumbs.

Serve while still hot and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

I have to warn you, once you taste it, you can become addicted to it, that's how good it is 😀

Tips:
You can substitute plums with peaches, or add any kind of fruit, that is not soft. You can also use Nutella cream, as long as you close the dumplings well, to avoid leaking during cooking, or use chocolate.

Seeing in how many countries is this dish known, I would be tempted to tag a few Hivers, to ask them if they know this dish, but tagging people is not my style, unless the house is burning, so I'm just hoping they are going to comment and let me know.

Sooo, who's up to some dumpling tasting? Who's brave enough? 😀

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:

• Communities Explained - Newbie Guide
• Cross Posting And Reposting Explained, Using PeakD
• Hive Is Not For Me
• How To Pump Your Reputation Fast - Newbie Guide
• Tips And Tricks & Useful Hive Tools For Newbies
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