Germknoedel is a very well known austrian sweet dish that is served on basically every ski hut. If you have a steamer making them yourself is actually less work than you would expect.

Ingredients

Dumplings

• 530g wheat flour
• 200g milk
• 100g butter
• 30g fresh yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1tbsp (ca. 12g) vanilla sugar
• 40g sugar
• lemon peel of 1/4 lemon
• 5g salt
• ca. 130g apricot jam

Instructions

Dampferl

We start by creating a “Dampferl”, which will allow the yeast to fully activate. Mix roughly 30g flour and 40g warm milk (both do count to the total amount of used ingredients listed above) the vanilla sugar and the fresh yeast together. Let the Dampferl rest for about 20-30 minutes in a warm place. Note that this dough will rise by quite a lot, it usually grows at least three times in size. So choose a big enough vessel!

Dough

For the main dough, melt the butter and then knead all ingredients and the Dampferl together until you get a smooth dough. Form a ball, place it in a bowl and cover it with a wet kitchen towel. Let it rest for 30-60 minutes in a warm place. The dough should grow to twice it size.

Note: you can also split the dough at this stage, form dumplings and let it rest in pre shaped (but unfilled) dumpling form.

Forming

In case you let the dough rise in bulk, clap on it a few times with your hand. It will shrink in size. Split the dough into 6 to 10 pieces (depending on how big your dumplings should be) and form nice dumplings.

With the pretty side facing down, press the dumplings flat and add roughly a tablespoon of jam in the middle (in case you go for 8 dumplings you might want to reduce the amount a bit). Fold the out sides up, close the dough and gently form nice dumplings again. Ensure that the dumpling is fully closed and place it with the pretty side upwards on the table.

With both hands going up and down in opposite directions, turn the dumpling. This will close the dough perfectly

Let the formed dumplings rest on a lightly floured surface, covered with a wet kitchen towel, for about 30 minutes. This time with the pretty side facing upwards.

Fully preheat your steamer (or other equipment that you want to steam the dumplings). Let the dumplings steam for about 12-17 minutes.

Vanilla Sauce

I usually buy vanilla powder pudding but use 50% more milk and 30% less sugar than on the pudding recipe. In addition you can add a bit of good rum.

To serve, cover the Germknoedel in vanilla sauce and top it of with a mix of grounded poppy seeds and powdered sugar (5 tbsp poppy seeds, 1 tbsp sugar).

Tips

• You can cook the dumplings in water, though the experience is way inferior as the dough will not rise that much and the skin will be a soaked mess. Rather than boiling them in water, place the dumplings in a buttered baking form and bake them. You will basically end up with Buchteln and a much better meal than soaked Germknoedel.
• If you have formed too much dumplings you can let some of them rest at a cold place over night and steam them the next day. Just ensure that they are covered so the skin does not dry out.

Next Time

Potentially one could reduce the flour a bit (15g less). This will result in a harder to form dough, but should give an even fluffier end result.