Fleischkrapfen are a filled variant of ‘Blattlkrapfn’. I’m trying to recreate ones from a mountain hut where we went to go sledging as a kid. This is my first try, and it does taste good, but there will be more versions to come until I’m fully satisfied.

Ingredients

Dough

• 450g fine wheat flour
• 50g full grain rye flour
• 250g milk
• 80g butter
• 8g salt

Filling

• 500g meat*
• 150g cut onions
• 200g cooked and mashed potatoes
• 10g salt (only if meat is not yet salted!)
• some fresh cut parsley
• some marjoram
• 20g butter
• pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt the butter in the milk and mix all dough ingredients together. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. Note that this step will make the dough way easier to roll out, so don’t skip it.

Cut the meat very fine (you can blend it, just ensure you still have some texture left), cook and mash the potatoes and cut the onions. Fry the onions in the butter until golden brown, then mix all ingredients together. Let the filling fully cool down before starting the filling process.

Roll the dough out pretty thinly (ca 1-2 millimeter thick). There are a few ways to form those. You could cut out round dough parts and fill them like Kärnter Kasnudeln, or you can cut out squares which will take less time overall.

I used my pasta maker to roll out the dough flat (on a scale from 1-8 I used 6 (pretty thin)).

Note that it is more important that the dough does not rip during frying than being super thin!

Afterward I cut it in squares, added some filling (don’t add too much!) and folded the dough over. Using a fork to close the dough worked very well. Ensure that you do not rip the dough open when doing so or you will end up with a mess in your oil afterward.

For baking heat oil in a pan. For this recipe you really need to deep fry, so at least 5 cm deep oil is a must. Bring the heat resistance oil of your choice (I’m using rapeseed oil) to 180-200 degrees and fry the Fleischkrapfen on each side for 40-60 seconds, or until golden brown.

Place the Fleischkrapfen with the flat sight upwards in the oil first.

Once in the hot oiled the dough does expand drastically. I found that with the flat site upwards it never started to rip open, while with the flat side downwards first it came close to do so twice.

In regards to temperature this is a tricky game. The best result you will get at 200 degrees. If the temperature is too low the crust will not form properly. If you go too hot the dough will burn fast and the whole oil will have a bad taste. So the saver bet is to start with 180 degrees and slowly go upwards once you got adjusted with the process.

Also try to keep a quick interval when frying. The longer the pan is on heat without dumplings inside the hotter the oil becomes very fast.

Once baked let them drip of excess oil on paper towels before serving them with Sauerkraut

Previous Versions

Dough V2

• 450g fine wheat flour
• 50g full grain rye flour
• 250g milk
• 80g butter
• 8g salt

Note: the dough was way better than the first try. Maybe using normal rye flour (instead of full grain) would work better, though the taste with this mix was awesome.

Dough V1

• 300g fine wheat flour
• 200g full grain rye flour
• 250g milk
• 80g butter
• 8g salt

Notes:

• the taste of the dough was good, but the consistency was not
• I let the dough rest over night and it ended up to bee too hard. It did not roll out easily, it ripped and was a pain to handle. It held its form perfectly, though I could not go thinner than 4 (on the pasta maker). Though this was too thick, 6 would be fine I think.
• Next time only use 50g full grain rye flour and let it rest only for one hour in the fridge
• I’m not sure if using an egg is a good idea as this dough did hold up way better. The dough may not rip open in the oil, so better save than sorry.

Filling V1

• 500g meat*
• 150g cut onions
• 400g cooked and mashed potatoes
• 10g salt (only if meat is not yet salted!)
• some fresh cut parsley
• some marjoram
• 20g butter
• pepper to taste

Notes:

• Meat: There is no real translation for the meat I used. In austria it is called ‘Selchroller’ or ‘Teilsames’ It is already cooked meat and has a bit of a smoky flavor. But in the end you can use whatever meat you have left.
• I planned to use 200g potatoes, but I salted the filling too much so I added more potatoes. It was ok, but I think 200g would be the better choice.