I simply love dumplings in all their variety, sweet or savory, cooked or fried, with crumbs or with sauce - there is so much you can do with dumplings, it will never get boring. Especially Austria is known for its dumplings, made out of curd, potatoes or old white bread - simply use whatever you have on hand.
The great thing about dumplings is that you can fill them as well with everything your heart desires. If its cheese, vegetables, meat or fruits, berries, jam or chocolate. Have a look which fruits and vegetables are in season and you will get the best and most tasty flavour results.
This time I opted for praline-filling - my favourite! Don't be surprised - the mixture will be enough for around 20-25 small dumplings. You don't have to cook all at a time, after forming the dumplings you can freeze them as well and cook the sweet dumplings whenever you want. But trust me - they are so addictive, you will love to eat them all at one go!
For 20-25 small dumplings you will need:
For the dumpling mass:
250g curd, quark or Topfen if you are in Austria
70g unsalted butter
70g bread crumbs
70g plain flour
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract/ 20g vanilla sugar
250-300g praline/nougat mass - if you cannot find it, small chocolates such as truffles, Kinder Chocolate bonbons
For the butter crumbs:
4-5 tbsp butter
8-10 tbsp bread crumbs
2-3 tbsp icing sugar
cinnamon powder
First prepare the dumpling mass by melting the butter. Let it cool down and mix the butter together with the quark, vanilla extract and the egg in a large bowl. Then add the bread crumbs, flour and salt and combine everything, best mixing it by hand. When everything is well mixed, cover the dumpling dough and place it for 45 minutes in the fridge to rest. In the meantime you can prepare the filling by forming small balls out of the praline mass so you have enough for 20-25 dumplings. After resting, take the dough out of the bowl on a surface covered with baking paper and form it into a shape of a log, then take a knife and cut off 1cm thick disks of the dough, so you get 20-25 pieces, depending on its log size. Take a disk, flatten it in your hand, place the praline mass ball in the middle and then close all the dough ends over it, so everything is well covered and roll it in between your hands, so you have an even dumpling shape. Repeat with all the other dough disks.(Here you can freeze some of the dumplings if you don't want to cook all of them in one go.)
In a big saucepan bring water with a little salt to a boil, then turn it down so it is only slightly simmering. Now you can put the dumplings into the water and boil on low-medium heat for 10-13 minutes or until the dumplings are swimming on the surface.
In the meantime prepare the butter crumbs by melting the butter. Once melted, add the bread crumbs, icing sugar and cinnamon powder and let everything nicely turn golden brown - be careful to not burn the crumbs. When the dumplings are finished with their cooking, take them out of the water and place them into the pan with the crumbs, so they are fully covered with them. Now serve and eat the dumplings as long as they are still warm - ENJOY!