Dabbling With Dumplings

My guess is that there are many different ways to make dumplings as there are food bloggers. And that's a lot. Is any one particular way the "right way" to make dumplings? No, of course not silly. It's whatever suits YOU!

This happens to be the way I like them. I like them soft, fluffy and simple. And they should pick up the flavour of the soup nicely.

The very first time I wrote this recipe down would be... oh, right about NOW! It's one of those ones that is so simple you really don't need exact measurements and the ingredients are pretty easy to remember. And this is one of the few times I use self-raising flour.

Dave's Dumplings

What you need:
A big pot of soup you've made that the dumplings will go into
1 to 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2 to 4 tbsp butter
dash of salt
1 or 2 tbsp sugar
some water

See? Isn't that an easy list? You'll find you can vary the amounts easily, very forgiving it is.

What you do:
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Then add the butter and work the butter in using your fingers. Add water a few tablespoons at a time whilst mixing the dough --I use a wooden spoon for the mixing part. You want to end up with an almost sticky dough. Hopefully it'll look something like this:





Now you want to tear off small pieces of the dough and quickly roll them into small balls. How small? Smaller than a ping pong ball. About the size of those small, bouncy, superballs you had when you were a kid.

Your plate should end up looking like this:

I put a 1/2 cup measuring cup so you can see the size of the dumplings.

The last step is to put them in your lightly boiling soup. Don't crowd them as they'll more than double in size. Let them cook, covered for 20 to 25 minutes. Your soup pot should now look like this:




That cast iron dutch oven holds a lot of soup, more than enough for 2 days worth in fact. The plate you saw in the second picture fits inside it with room to spare. That should give you an idea at how large the dumplings get!

Dish it up, eat, and enjoy!