Bavarian Dampfnudel - Bavarian Sweet Dumpling

This month onwards, I am a part of the International Food Challenge, which is a brain child of Shobana and Sara. I have been watching my other blogger friends participate in their challenges over the last couple of months, and I was particularly enticed by the Iranian challenge that was done by them for March. That was what forced me to take up the challenges, so that I could learn different cuisines and try it out. The challenge for the month of April was German Bavarian Cuisine which is hosted by Sara. Bavaria is part of South Germany and the cuisine is basically rural, with more emphasis on meat and prominent use of flour. To know more about their cuisine, you can refer here.

Off the recipes Sara suggested, I decided to try the Bavarian Dampfnudel, which is a steamed yeasted sweet dumpling. It is a steam fried dumpling in some milk and butter (sweet) or water and oil with some seasoning (savory), then after the dumpling is set, the moisture is gone leaving the butter. It is then left for some more time on heat to get a crisp crust at the bottom. As usual, I went for the sweet version. This was baked in the oven and then cooked on stove top for the bottom crust. I did not bake them to make them crusty, instead left some of the milk-butter mixture to get a very soft and wet base, that tasted really awesome with the bread. Off to how it was made...



Ingredients:

For the dough:
500 gm all purpose flour
40 gm sugar
6 gm salt
1 packet dry yeast (11 gm)
100 gm butter
300 ml milk

For milk mixture:
300 ml milk
50 gm butter
2 tbsp sugar
A pinch of salt

Method:

Melt the butter in the milk in microwave or on a hot bath. Allow to cool to warm temperature.

In a bowl, add the flour, yeast, sugar and salt and mix well. Add the cooled milk-butter mixture and knead for 8-10 minutes to make a soft and non-sticky dough. Cover and allow to double in size, for around 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the milk mixture and allow to the butter to melt on a hot bath or in the microwave. Allow to cool completely.

Once the dough is doubled, punch down the air. Divide into 8 equal portion. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Pour half the cooled milk mixture into the baking pan. Arrange the balls in it and pour the remaining milk over it. Leave it covered for 20 minutes to raise. During this time, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and rest the dumplings for 20 minutes. Take cake not to open the oven during this resting time, or else the dumplings would shrink. Heat a chapathi tawa till hot and keep the flame on simmer. Carefully transfer the pan onto the tawa and keep for around 20 minutes to get a cooked and crispy bottom.

Serve with some jam or nutella!!!


Notes:

1. I ran out of all-purpose flour while making this. So my mixture was 400 gm all-purpose flour and 100 gm wholewheat flour.
2. While kneading, I added around 3 tbsp of wholewheat flour to avoid the stickiness of the dough.
3.. I kept my pan only for 15 minutes on the tawa to get a wet base. I must say that the sweet thickened mix at the bottom lends a very sweet flavor to the buns.
4. If keeping it for the next day, microwave for around 30 minutes before having it - it tastes best when warm.