Dumplins - Best German Bread Dumpling Recipe

Dumplins – Best German Bread Dumpling Recipe

By chefkeem on May 11, 2010

Dumplins is my affectionate nick name for what I consider one of the best dumpling recipes for German bread dumplings – perfectly fluffy for sopping up a delicious sauce. It’s a fairly easy dumpling recipe, once you’ve made it a couple of times and get a feeling for the consistency of the mix.

Dumplins are called Semmel Knoedel in Germany. “Semmel” stands for (dinner) roll, and “Knoedel” is the German word for dumpling.

Knoedel With Sauce

To make dumplings, you may use any stale white bread such as leftover dinner rolls. French bread and hard rolls are best. Packaged, sliced sandwich bread is not suitable for this type of bread dumpling.

How To Make Dumplins

Cut stale hard rolls into 1/4-inch slices to fill up 4 to 5 quarts
Pour 4 cups of lukewarm milk over the bread, mix thoroughly and let sit for 30 minutes
Cook 2 cups of chopped onion in 1/2 stick of butter until translucent and lightly brown
Finely chop 1 bunch of parsley (leaves only) and cook for another minute with the onions
Add the parsley/onion mix to the soaked bread, together with 4 eggs and 3 cups of cracker meal
Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients well and then shape yer dumplins with wet hands (dip in cold water in between)
Boil the dumplins over medium high heat – the water should be ‘rolling’ but not going crazy, ok? – for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size

Dumplin Mix

The Secret Tip To Keep Bread Dumplings From Falling Apart!

You might have wondered about this already – I’m using cracker meal as a binder for my dumplin batter. Up until a few months ago, this “secret” ingredient was not part of my usual dumpling recipe. I stumbled upon this idea when I found myself in sort of an emergency situation.

I needed to make bread dumplings for the dinner prep at Ilsa’s Kitchen, a new German restaurant I helped open in Spicewood, Texas. The only stale bread I had available were challah rolls and packaged white toast. No way these unstructured breads would hold up in boiling water. The raw batter was already crumbling in my fingers! That’s when I had the idea to use cracker meal – lots of it in this case – to help with holding it all together. It worked and I thought, how much will this work even better with the correct bread base.

Please consider my recipe quantities as guidelines for your own cooking experiment. Some factors can influence the consistency of the dumpling mix – mainly the dryness and type of the bread – it is hard to give exact measures. But don’t despair – it is still a very easy recipe to make.

The batter should be very sticky and mess up your dry hands. That’s why you dip your hands in cold water during the dumplin shaping process.
If squeezed together firmly, the dumpling should feel tight and heavy like a baseball.
For the first couple of times, throw a test dumpling into some boiling water. If after 10 minutes it still holds together, you’re fine. After that you should get a good feel for the consistency and be able to proceed without test runs.

German Bread Dumpling

German bread dumplings are wonderful with beef and pork roasts, creamy chicken dishes, wild mushrooms in cream sauce, and many more saucy preparations.

Cooked Dumpling

Leftover dumplins are marvelous for breakfast or a light lunch. Slice ‘em and brown ‘em in butter and serve ‘em with fried eggs, scallions, chopped ham, and whatever you like. Good stuff!