Bread Dumplings (or “Semmelknödel”) are one of the most un-photogenic foods Ive posted so far. But they are delicious and a very popular side dish here in Austria. A variant, the spinach bread dumpling, is also considered a main dish when served with a gorgonzola sauce or browned butter and rasped hard cheese.
Ingredients
- 500g bread cubes
- 4 eggs
- 450ml milk
- salt & pepper & nutmeg to taste
- two hands full of chopped fresh parsley
- 20g butter
- 2 onions
- 1 garlic clove
- 2-4 tbsp flour
- (spinach, around 500g ?)
- some flour to roll the dumplings in
Toppings:
- browned butter
- grasped parmesan
Instructions
Mix the bread cubes, eggs and milk in a big bowl. Let this mix rest for at least 20 minutes so the bread can soak up the milk. In the meantime cut the onions and brown them in butter. Once golden brown remove it from the heat and let it cool down a bit. Chop the parsley and the garlic clove. Now mix everything together. If you do that bare handed, be careful to not burn yourself in case the onions are still hot! Let the mix rest for another 10 minutes. In case you are going for the spinach bread dumplings also add the spinach.
Form dumplings and roll them in flour. Cook them for about 15 minutes (depends a bit on the size of the dumplings).
Best served with browned butter and parmesan or a nice gorgonzola sauce.
Spinach Bread Dumplings
In case you are going for the spinach one you have to keep an eye on the hydration of the dumpling dough as spinach adds a lot of water to the mix. For these ones I used frozen spinach and I let it simmer for quite a bit after unfreezing to reduce its water content. I let it simmer until I noticed that the spinach started to stick to the bottom of the pot and the result was pretty much perfect. I actually have not measured the weight of the frozen spinach, but the end result was about 340g after simmering it down. As an easier alternative you can just add less milk to the dough in the first place.
