Plum Dumplings

Sometimes you feel like having food from your childhood. This is one of those meals that I don't make too often but when I am feeling a little nostalgic, these really hit the spot.

This summer, one of my neighbours kindly let us pick as many plums as we wanted from their tree. These are Italian prune plums or "zwetschgen" The tree had so many plums that several branches were breaking because of the weight. It was an unbelievable sight. We picked a lot, ate a lot, made jam, ate some more, made some cakes and froze a whole bunch. That's what I used for these little guys.

This basket is only a small portion of what we picked:

Pretty Plums

Considering the winter we have had this year, that picture is making me nostalgic for summer!

Here's what they look like 5 months later after being pitted and frozen in plastic bags:

This recipe is adapted from a cookbook I have called: Cooking in Colour. I doubled the recipe and replaced the cottage cheese with a combination of cream cheese and ricotta. 

Mix the cream cheese and butter with a mixer until smooth.

 

 

Add eggs, flour, pinch of salt. Knead for a bit until you get a dough like the one above. Cover and refrigerate your dough for 1/2 hour.

 

Roll out your dough and cut into about 24 pieces. Each piece is about 10 cm by 10 cm. Put a plum in the centre and a teaspoon of sugar.
Place about 8 or so dumplings in simmering water and wait for the dumplings to rise to the surface. Give them about 5 more minutes after that.

Place them in a warm casserole dish with some butter.

Serve with cinnamon sugar and sweet toasted breadcrumbs.

Did I mention we ate these for dinner?! Okay we had soup first, and then plum dumplings. Our version of vegetarian.

 Plum Dumplings

100 grams butter

450 grams mixture of cream cheese and ricotta or strained cottage cheese

4 eggs

300 grams flour

pinch of salt

22-24 plums (fresh or thawed)

22-24 sugar cubes or teaspoons of sugar

Sweet breadcrumb topping

175 grams butter

2 tbsp sugar

8 tbsp breadcrumbs

1 tsp cinnamon

Icing sugar for decoration

• Beat butter and cheese until smooth, beat in eggs, add flour and salt and knead to form a ball.
• Chill dough for 30 min
• Roll out dough on a floured counter or board
• Cut into 10 cm squares
• Place thawed plums in centre of square withe sugar and fold over sides, pinching where dough meets.
• Drop dumplings into simmering water 
• Cook until dumplings rise to surface and 5 minutes more

Melt butter in a frying pan, add breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Toast until golden brown.

You can use this mixture to sprinkle over your warm dumplings.

If you don't feel like putting the plum in the middle, make a plum compote and cook the dumplings separate. You won't have to roll out the dough. Cooking time might be slightly longer.