Plum Dumplings (Szilvás gombóc)

This is a traditional Hungarian dessert/second course. The potato dough is very similar to Italian gnocchi, but with sweet plums and cinnamon sugar inside. The dumplings are usually served with „Nudli” (small rolls made from the rest of the dough) The classic way to make this dish is with fried breadcrumbs, but if you want to be adventurous you can coat it with ground poppy seeds mixed with sugar. Believe me, it's delicious both ways.

Ingredients (for 6 – makes about 20 dumplings):
600 grams (1,3 lbs) potatoes, cooked with skin on then peeled
250 grams (0,55 lbs) flour
1 tbsp (rendered) lard
a pinch of salt
10 plums (need less if you get large plums)
50 grams (1,8 oz) brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp farina
3 tbsp butter
150 grams (0,3 lbs) breadcrumbs
for the poppy seeds coating:
4-5 tbsp melted butter
ground poppy seeds mixed with sugar
Icing sugar for serving

1. Mash the cooked and peeled potatoes with a potato ricer or masher. Spread it out (for faster cooling) and let it cool completely.
2. Meanwhile, pit the plums then cut them in half or quarter if they are large.
3. Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and add the farina (it'll absorb the plum juice while the dumplings are cooking)
4. Add a pinch of salt into the cooled mashed potato, add the lard and about 200 grams from the flour. (maybe need more later – it depends on how floury the potatoes are)
5. Knead with your hands until it starts to form a soft dough. Add the rest of the flour if the dough is too soft and stick to your hands. (but don't add too much! The dumplings will be heavy and chewy!)
6. Flour your pastry board and the dough too. Roll it out into a (preferably) rectangular shape, about 50 mm (...”) thick. Flour your rolling pin and the dough when needed.
7. Cut it into 80x80 mm (3x3”) squares and place a piece of plum on each. Sprinkle each plums with 1 tsp of sugar mixture.
8. To form the dumplings, fold the corners on each other then pinch and push it together well. Don't leave any holes there! Roll between your hands to get a ball-shape.
9. Do it one by one with the rest of the squares.
10. From the rest of the dough (cut from the edges) we can make “Nudli” (small rolls). Roll the dough with your hands to form a rope-shape until it's about 10 mm (0,4”) in diameter.
11. Cut it into 30 mm (1,2”) pieces.
12. Boil a large pot of water with some salt and gently place the dumplings into it. (don't put too many into the pot, do it in batches instead)
13. Gently move the dumplings to prevent them sticking to the bottom of the pot. When the dumplings come up to the surface, cook them 5-6 minutes more.
14. Remove them with a slotted spoon (drain out the water well!), and place them into the fried breadcrumbs. Cover the dumplings with breadcrumbs by shaking the pot and gently turning them with a wooden spoon.
15. Cook the rest of the dumplings and the “Nudli” and also cover them with breadcrumbs
16. OR: dip the cooked dumplings into some melted butter and cover them with the ground poppy seed mixed with sugar.
17. Sprinkle lots of icing sugar over it and ENJOY!

/The music is based on a Hungarian folk song, played and made by my husband, MrStick© 2016 - (all rights reserved)/

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