Czech Fruit Dumplings (Ovocné Knedliky)

Ummm, is that melted butter floating around in some sort of dumplingy-creamy-fruity concoction?

Why, yes. Yes it is. 

It looks like we've just taken things to the limit.

I can’t keep this recipe to myself. The Czech Republic can’t keep it to itself. Nope, Chowgypsy’s not gonna let it happen.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do much of a dumpling photo shoot because when you're competeing against 11 other
people for one of these babies, there is no time for photography.

Markéta Jeffi Štreitová, a fellow volunteer at our third Wwoofing farm, introduced me to this amazing recipe one night when we had a surprise appearance of fresh French strawberries. 

She threw it together like it was nothing, and from the looks of things, it just might be as easy as she made it seem. 

If I were to make an adjustment, I would add a little cinnamon to the dough, because why wouldn't I add cinnamon to the dough? (P.S. I am so obsessed with cinnamon I buy it in bulk. It saves plastic, too!

Also, a prediction: you will soon (within the time it takes you to read 256 more words) want to know more about Czech cooking, The Czechoslovak Cookbookis the way to go.  

Czech Fruit Dumplings (or Ovocné Knedliky)

Ingredients

Dumplings

·      8 oz cottage/cream-ricotta cheese, mascarpone, or fresh chevre (we used chevre because there is little more than chevre at this farm)

·      2 cups flour

·      1 egg

·      Strawberries (get fruity—experiment. This recipe, for example, uses plums)

Sauce (this is optional, just throw on melted butter and sugar if you like)

·   4 oz cream cheese, mascarpone, or fresh chevre

·   About ½ c milk, or whatever ends up being enough for your desired consistency

·   Sugar to taste

·   2-4 tbsp melted butter (brown it if you want to feel ready to die)

Directions

Dumplings:Combine first three ingredients until dough is formed. Roll out dough on floured surface, about 1/4-inch-thick (err on the thinner side so that the dough doesn't overpower the fruit). Wrap a layer of dough around a whole strawberry, then roll into a ball. This site has a nice picture tutorial of this step.

Bring lightly salted water to simmering boil, then throw in the dumplings. They're ready when they float to the surface of the water after about 8-10 minutes

Sauce: Melt all ingredients together, adding however much milk you’d like to have a creamier or less-creamy gravy. Throw in a tablespoon or two of butter if you feel like getting crazy.

Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on those babies, garnish with some fresh fruit, and serve with the gravy on the side for people to spoon in as they please.

Chowtime.

If you want more beautiful Czech recipes, The Czechoslovak Cookbook, is from 1965 and helloooo, it's LEGIT!

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