Potato dough is the base of many Hungarian dishes, among others, nudli, gombóc (dumpling) and derelye (flat dumpling) can be made from it. It’s much easier to make potato dough than you think. There is just a trick that has to be kept in mind: boiled potatoes have to be completely cool before kneading into a pliable dough with other ingredients.
Many people, for mysterious reasons, are afraid to make potate dough on their own, they rather buy it in the store, although it calls for only a few ingredients and there’s no difficulty in it. And if you keep the proportions, it’s hard to spoil it. Starchy potatoes are the most suitable for this purpose, they’re fluffy, making them great for boiling. Adding egg to the dough depends on you, egg makes the dough lighter, but eggless dough holds its shape better.
photo: zserbo.com
Ingredients:
For the dough:
- 500 g (~1 lb) potatoes
- 150 g (~1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 15 g (~1 tbsp) butter
- pinch of salt
For the filling:
- 200 g (~3/4 – 1 cup) plum jam
For the coating:
- 100 g (~3/4 cup) breadcrumbs
- 20 g (~1,5 tbsp) butter
Boil the potatoes with their skin on. Drain, peel and mash them finely, let it cool completely.
Add flour, egg, salt and butter to the potatoes and knead into a pliable dough.
Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle. Cut into 5×5 cm (2×2 inch) squares, spoon jam in the middle, pinch the four corners and form dumplings.
Carefully slide the dumplings into a large pot of boiling, lightly salted water, wait until they come to the surface and water boils again, and cook them for a further 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile toast the breadcrumbs in the butter until golden brown.
Take out the dumplings with a slotted spoon and coat them with breadcrumbs.
Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.
