This recipe was commissioned by Dairy Australia for their Australian Dairy Discovery cookbook.
Made in Australia – Inspired by Austria
Growing up in Germany, my mum sometimes treated us to a traditional Austrian dish called Marillenknödel. It’s a dumpling made with quark (a type of cream cheese), filled with fresh apricots. Sometimes she used plums instead, which was equally delicious.
Now, quark is hard to find in Australia, so I thought why not try it with a thick Greek yoghurt? The flavour is similar, and so is the consistency, surely it would work. And it did!
Choose the thickest Greek yoghurt you can find. It should almost be like cream cheese. If yours is too liquid, I recommend draining out some of the liquid before proceeding with this recipe.
Shaping the dumplings
Shaping these little balls of goodness can be a sticky affair. Don’t be tempted to add more flour or semolina than the recipe asks for, as that would make for some very chewy dumplings.
There are a few tricks that will make it a breeze:
- Let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better. It needs to be cold when you handle it.
- Have a bowl with ice cold water handy to wet your hands before shaping each dumpling.
- Work quickly to prevent your warm hands from melting the butter in the dough.
When you are shaping the dumplings, cup your hand, press enough dough into a disk in your cupped hand, place a strawberry on top and then fully enclose it with the dough, shaping a tight ball.
Crunch and sauce? Yes please!
While the dumplings alone are lovely, tell me one thing that doesn’t improve with a bit of crunch, and with a sauce?! If you prefer to buy custard, no one is going to judge.
If you’ve made custard from scratch before, try my version with yoghurt and poppy seeds. The yoghurt add that extra bit of tanginess to it, and the poppy seeds add flavour and texture.
And the crunch is a simple fried breadcrumb, coconut and sugar mix. I like to roll my boiled dumplings in the crumb mixture, others like to just sprinkle the mixture over the top. Choose your style.
Yoghurt and strawberry dumplings with poppy seed custard
Ingredients
Dumplings:
- 60 g unsalted butter softened
- 20 g castor sugar
- 1 egg
- 250 g Greek yoghurt full fat
- 90 g plain flour
- 120 g semolina
- 12 small strawberries
Custard:
- 170 ml full cream milk
- ½ vanilla bean
- 2 egg yolks
- 30 g castor sugar
- 10 g poppy seeds
- 30 g Greek yoghurt full fat
Crumbs:
- 10 g unsalted butter
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 40 g bread crumbs
- 20 g brown sugar
Instructions
Dough:
- In a large bowl, cream 60g butter and sugar, then incorporate egg and yoghurt.
- Add flour and semolina to form a pliable dough. The dough should still be very wet.
- Rest in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
Custard:
- For the custard, bring milk and the scraped vanilla bean to the boil.
- In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mix while whisking continuously.
- Pour back into the pan, add the poppy seeds, and gently cook until the custard thickens.
- Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
- Once cooled, stir in the yoghurt.
Crumble:
- To make the crumbs, toast coconut on low heat until fragrant. Remove from the pan.
- Fry breadcrumbs in 10g butter until golden. Let cool for 5 minutes, then mix with brown sugar and toasted coconut.
Assembly:
- Bring a large pot with salted water to the boil.
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces, then fully enclose each strawberry with a piece of dough, shaping round dumplings.
- Carefully drop them into the hot water and gently simmer for 10 minutes until they float to the surface.
- Remove with a slotted spoon, then roll in the prepared crumb mixture.
- Serve with poppy seed custard.
