Dumplings stuffed with plums, or as it is called locally, knedle s sljivama, is a Croatian delicacy that I very much adore. It’s one of those recipes that remind me of my baka (or grandmother). She would make it often in the colder months and until today it’s something I enjoy preparing in the winter when plums are at their ripest and sweetest.
Like Polish or Hungarian dumplings, the dough is made with freshly mashed potatoes that have been cooled. I would not recommend using leftover mashed potatoes for this recipe as you will typically have included things like salt, butter, or cream. You want the mashed potatoes to be just potatoes without any additions. You can mash them or use a ricer. The dough is rolled with a pin rather than formed into dumplings by hand and finished with a buttered breadcrumb coating and a dusting of cinnamon sugar.
croatian-styled dumplings stuffed with plums
ingredients
- eighty grams of butter
- two whole eggs
- a pinch of salt
- five hundred grams of potatoes, peeled
- two hundred and fifty grams of flour
- one hundred and twenty five grams of bread crumbs
- one to one and a half kilograms of fresh plums
- granulated sugar, to garnish
- ground cinnamon, to garnish
instructions
In a large cooking pot, boil about a liter of water with a pinch of salt. When the water has begun to boil add the peeled potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, roughly fifteen minutes.
Drain the potatoes and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon and a half of butter, the eggs, and flour to the mixing bowl and combine until a dough texture is reached.
Knead the dough gently, adding more flour if needed. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough about one centimeter thick and cut into squares.
On each square fold in the plums and form round dumplings. Ensure the dumplings are firmly closed to avoid water seeping into the dumpling.
Once again, in a large cooking pot, boil circa a liter of water with a pinch of salt. Add the dumplings into the boiled water and when the dumplings rise to the surface of the water, about ten minutes, remove and drain.
In the meantime, heat a frying pan on medium heat and melt a table spoon of butter. Add the bread crumbs and lightly toast until golden or completely covered in butter.
Add the dumplings into the pan and evenly cover the dumplings with the crisped bread crumbs. Remove the dumpling from the pan and repeat until all of the dumplings are coated.
Serve sprinkled with granulated sugar and cinnamon.
