I woke up ridiculously early yesterday morning and decided to spend some time creating a potato dumpling recipe. I had the plump, starchy dumplings in Munich and vowed to make them here.
My first attempt was highly successful. They were appropriately doughy and fluffy. I used self-rising flour, egg, and grated, raw red potatoes.
The were delightful. But, I forgot one element. In Munich, the mold the dumplings around a cube of dark rye bread. The next batch will have the rye center. Or not.
Potato dumplings -- base recipe
Yield: eight tennis-ball-sized dumplings.
2 cups potatoes (see below)
1/2 cup AP flour (plus flour to roll the molded dumplings in)
3/4 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt (the above ingredients constitute self-rising flour)
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
Optional: 8-10 half-inch cubes of dark rye or dark wheat bread
Blend flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Beat egg and water in a large bowl. Add potatoes mix with a spatula. Add flour slowly until a sticky dough forms.
Using a large soup spoon, scoop out batter, form around the cube of bread (using floured hands) or form in a ball, and roll in flour. Set aside on a clean cutting board.
If you chose to leave the bread out, do it. The bread bulks up the dumpling but doesn't necessarily make it taste better.
I used the potato water to poach the finished dumplings. I don't think it made a big difference but you do want to have enough salted water boiling to cover the dumplings by the time they are all formed.
Regarding potatoes. For the first batch, I shredded, rinsed in hot water and squeezed dry (in a tea towel) two cups of red potatoes. For more information on this potato prep method, look at my blog post, Hash Brown Potatoes. The process of shredding, rinsing and drying the potatoes is detailed there.
For the second batch, I boiled and riced two cups of Idaho's finest baking potatoes (tap the measuring cup on the counter to pack the riced potatoes), following the same procedure as with raw, shredded potatoes.
Raw potato dumplings poached for 20 minutes, cooked potato dumplings were ready in 10 minutes.
Because I'm a masochist and know that at least one person is counting on a good recipe for potato dumplings, I made a third batch with thin skinned white potatoes.
BLECH! The white pots tasted raw even after poaching for 30 minutes.
Conclusions: I like the flavor of the grated raw red pots, but they looked a little shaggy. The riced, cooked potato dumpling looked more like what I ate in Germany. They were lovely and delicious.
I'd easily cook these dumplings in chicken soup for chicken and dumplings or for any meal that required fat, starchy dumplings.
Enjoy!
