Recipe - Fruchtknoedel (Fruit Dumplings)

6 tablespoon Butter
1 pn Salt
Zest of One half lemon, grated
1 Whole egg
1 Egg yolk
3 cup Farmer cheese
3 tablespoon Sour cream
1 tablespoon Powdered sugar
1 One half cup Cake flour
12 Plums (OR 12 apricots, OR 18
large strawberries)
24 Cubes sugar (optional)
For plum dumplings:
3 tablespoon Finely ground poppy seeds
(you can use mortar and
pestle)
1 tablespoon Powdered sugar
For apricot dumplings:
3 tablespoon Farmer cheese
1 tablespoon Powdered sugar
For Strawberry dumplings:
5 tablespoon Toasted plain bread crumbs
1 tablespoon Powdered sugar

1. In a bowl, combine the butter, salt, and lemon zest. Whip until fluffy.
Add the whole egg, and egg yolk, and continue to beat to blend. Beat in the
farmer cheese, sour cream, and powdered sugar. Add the flour slowly and
beat until smooth. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes at room
temperature.

2. Cut the plums or apricots in half and remove the pits, if necessary. If
the fruit isn't sweet, place 1 cube of sugar in the hollow of each half.

3. On a marble pastry board, roll out dough One half inch thick. Using a pastry
wheel, cut the dough into a grid of 5inch squares. If you're using
strawberries, make 18 (3inch) squares.

4. Place a piece of fruit, cut side down, on each circle of dough and pull
the pastry up around the fruit. Seal by pinching the pastry together.

The dumplings can be prepared up to 3 hours ahead to this point.
Refrigerate until ready to boil.

5. Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil. Add 8 dumplings and simmer
until they rise to the top, approximately 15 minutes. Remove with a slotted
spoon. Keep warm on a covered plate. Repeat with the remaining dumplings.

6. To serve: Plum dumplings: Sprinkle with poppy seeds and powdered sugar

Apricot dumplings: Sprinkle with farmer cheese, pressed through a sieve,
and the powdered sugar

Strawberry dumplings: Roll in the toasted plain bread crumbs and sprinkle
with the powdered sugar.

((Note: My mother used to make these with whole pitted apricots and whole
pitted plums, always with a sugar cube in the center, and always rolling
the finished product in the toasted bread crumbs, and the sprinkling the
dumplings with sugar. Karin))

From: VIENNESE CUISINE THE NEW APPROACH by Peter Grunauer and Andreas
Kisler, ISBN 038527999X. Doubleday, New York. 1987 Posted by: Karin
Brewer, Cooking Echo, 7/92

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini