Before telling you more about the recipe I will post let me thank Sandra for the opportunity of being this month’s guest at her wonderful blog! I felt so honoured and so excited when Sandra contacted me and asked if I would like to be her next guest. Of course I would!!! I am a reading Sandra’s blog for a while now, and her recipes and amazing photos trully inspire me every day! And so I started thinking what recipe I could post, it should be something I have not posted yet and as I like to make the absolute most of delicious seasonal fruit and vegetables at their very best, I have chosen to cook or bake something with apricots. When I decided what the basic ingredient should be, it came into my mind to make Dumplings filled with Apricots. These Dumplings are called Marillenknödel in Austria, where I live. It is a typical Austrian dish. As to the cultural background of the Marillenknödel, I must briefly refer to Austrian history: In the imperial era Bohemia, which today belongs to the Czech Republic, was part of Austria. Since it was a poor country, many of its inhabitants went to Vienna to find work. Bohemian food was very much appreciated so that women easily found employment as cooks. Sweet dishes such as Guglhupf, Germknödel, Topfenstrudel, Powidltascherln and, of course, Marillenknödel belonged to their most famous specialities. Although originally food of the poor, Bohemian dishes very soon became an indispensable part of the Austrian cuisine and even Kings are said to have loved them 🙂 Für Rezept in Deutsch bitte scrollen:
And now back to the recipe: Adapted from: Delicious Days Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking: 12-15 minutes Ingredients (for 6 dumplings): 250 g curd (20 %) 6 small apricots 4 tsp of brown sugar 1 tsp zest of (untreated) lemon 25 g soft butter 1 egg yolk 75 g semolina a pinch of salt 50 g all- purpose flour (type 405) + additional flour (for forming) 125 g butter 125 g breadcrumbs powder sugar cinnamon Directions:
- Strain
the curd cheese in a fine mesh sieve, for about 15-20 minutes.
Wash the lemon, rub dry, then zest it with a grater. You will need
about 1 teaspoon lemon zest. - Wash the apricots and pad them dry, then cut them open (only halfway!) along their seems. Remove their pits. Fill them with ½ teaspoon brown sugar.
- Bring
a large pot of water to a boil, add a (generous) pinch of salt,
then reduce the temperature until the water bubbles very lightly. - In
a big bowl cream together the strained curd cheese, semolina, egg
yolk, butter (25 g), vanilla sugar, salt and lemon zest using a
wooden spoon. Lastly add the flour and mix in only long enough
until you can form the dough into a thick log (if the dough is
still sticky add some additional flower). - Cut the log into 6 equally sized slices. Slightly
flour your hands and form little discs, then place a sugar filled
apricot on top of each and wrap it tightly with the dough.Form
a dumpling (re-flour your hands if necessary) and check carefully
that the apricots are completely covered by the dough. - Bring
the pot of water to a boil and carefully slip the dumplings into
the water, stir occasionally to make sure that the dumplings do not
stuck to the bottom of the pot. Let them simmer at low heat for 12 to 15 minutes. - Meanwhile
melt some butter in a pan over medium heat and roast the
breadcrumbs (about 125g butter, and 125g breadcrumbs; ratio 1:1).
Remove the dumplings with a skimmer, then roll them in the pan with
the buttered breadcrumbs until evenly covered. Serve hot and
finish with cinnamon sugar (just mix cinnamon and powder sugar). Enjoy!
