One of my absolute favorite comfort food meals of all time is my mother’s recipe for Schweinabraten mit Klosse (Braised Pork Roast with Potato Dumplings and Gravy) with a side of buttered corn. It’s a Bavarian style pork roast that’s slowly braised on the stove top until tender and falling off the bone, served with these delectably, sticky-gooey German style potato dumplings in the rich gravy that the roast simmered away in. My mother made this meal often when I was growing up. The whole house smelled so good as dinner cooked on the stove; it’s making my mouth water just thinking about it. These potato dumplings are a traditional side dish that you find all across Germany and accompany many hearty German main dishes. They are often served as a side with another traditional German favorite; Beef Rouladen.
These dumplings are rather sticky and gooey but their texture is the perfect contrast to a hearty, tender slow cooked meat such as a pork roast or beef rolls. They are absolutely delicious when topped with a savory gravy.
A couple things to note about this recipe. First you will need to find potato starch. This is not an ingredient that most home cooks may have in their pantry. I thought it might be hard to find it but it was readily available in the bulk food bin section of my local supermarket. If all else fails order it from Amazon.
Do not substitute potato flour for the potato starch in this recipe, the dumplings will turn out too heavy and dense.
You will also need one special tool to make these dumplings, a potato ricer. Some have small holes just in the bottom, others have holes on the bottom and on the sides. This is one I inherited from my folks. It’s a heavy duty one and makes quick work of smashing the potatoes and eliminating all the lumps. The key to really tasty, gooey, sticky dumplings is no potato lumps. A potato ricer ensures you have no lumps or bumps in your dumplings.
If you don’t have a potato ricer, place the cooked and cooled potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer and break them up with the paddle attachment until smooth. If you use a hand held potato masher make sure you mash them really well to get rid of all the lumps.
These dumplings are not hard to make, they just take time to make and require a little preplanning. I’ll walk you through the process step-by-step so you can see how easy they are to make.
A day in advance:
Scrub the potatoes and add enough water in a large pot to cover them by at least an inch of water. Add salt to the water.
Cover and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until fork tender, about 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes).
Drain and allow potatoes to come to room temperature. Once cooled, transfer them to the refrigerator, and refrigerate them overnight.
GOOD TO KNOW: Studies show there are health benefits to eating starches such as rice and potatoes that have been cooked and refrigerated. Refrigerating cooked starches like rice or potatoes increases their “resistant starch” content, which means the body can’t digest them as easily, leading to potential health benefits like better blood sugar control, improved gut health, and a feeling of fullness due to the fiber-like effect of resistant starch; essentially making them a more “nutritious” option compared to freshly cooked starches.
Easy peasy so far, right?
The next day:
About an hour and a half before you plan to sit down to eat, add flour, potato starch, salt, and freshly grated nutmeg in a large bowl.
Stir the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Peel the cooked and refrigerated potatoes and cut them in half. Press them through a potato ricer into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture.
Add the 2 beaten eggs to the bowl.
Gently mix all the ingredients together until combined and you have a lumpy, bumpy looking dough like this.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for one hour.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Divide the dough into 10-12 equal portions.
Dust your hands with potato starch and form the dough into round dumplings, they should be just a little smaller than the size of a tennis ball.
Use a gentle touch to form the dough into balls. Dust your hands with potato starch before making each dumpling. Place each formed dumpling on a large plate as you form the remaining dough into balls. Try to make them all about the same size so they all finish cooking through in the same amount of time.
OPTIONAL FILLING: Form the dough around 3 toasted croutons shaping the dumpling into a round ball around the croutons.
After all the dumplings are made, gently drop them into the pot of boiling water (don’t crowd too many into the pot). They will expand a little as they cook so give them a little room in the pot to move around as they cook.
Allow the water to come back to a boil and cook the dumplings uncovered until they rise to the top, about 5-8 minutes..
Partially cover the pot with a lid and continue to cook dumplings for an additional 7-10 minutes.
Remove dumplings from the pot with a slotted spoon onto a large plate or platter.
TIP: If cooking dumplings in batches, keep the cooked dumplings warm on a large platter in a 200℉ oven until all the dumplings have been boiled.
Serve hot with gravy.
OMG these are sooooo stinking good! They are just like the one’s my mother always made. She made everything from scratch except for these dumplings. She always made them using a mix and I did the same for years. But I’ve had trouble finding the mix at the market lately and the dumpling mixes available on Amazon are ridiculously expensive! When a box of the dumpling mix costs more than the entire pork roast it’s time to rethink using a mix and figure out how to make them yourself. Making them from scratch is actually quite easy if you have the time to do it, they’re extremely economical to make, and because you made them yourself, you know exactly what’s in them! No chemical preservatives or additives you don’t want to feed your family. It’s a delicious, traditional German side dish you can feel good about serving your family.
German Potato Dumplings
Equipment
- Potato ricer
Ingredients
- 2 lbs russet potatoes, washed and scrubbed clean
- 1 tsp salt, for the water
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ cup potato starch, plus more for shaping the dumplings
- 1 tsp salt, for the dumplings
- 1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 36 toasted croutons, optional
Instructions
A day in advance:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and the potatoes.
- Cover and cook potatoes until fork tender, about 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes).
- Drain and allow potatoes to come to room temperature.
- Once cooled, transfer them to the refrigerator, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day:
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, potato starch, freshly grated nutmeg, salt. Set aside.
- Peel potatoes and cut them in half. Press them through a potato ricer into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture.
- Add the beaten eggs to the bowl.
- Gently mix all the ingredients together.
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for one hour.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Divide dough into 12 equal portions.
- Dust your hands with some potato starch before rolling each dumpling to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Form the dough into round dumplings, they should be just a little smaller than the size of a tennis ball.
- Use a gentle touch to form the dough into balls. Place each dumpling on a large plate as you form the remaining dough into balls.
- OPTIONAL FILLING: Form dough around 3 toasted croutons shaping the dumpling into a ball around the croutons.
- After all the dumplings are made, gently drop them into a large pot of boiling water (don't crowd too many into the pot).
- Bring water back to a boil and cook dumplings uncovered until they rise to the top, about 5-8 minutes.
- Partially over the pot with a lid and boil dumplings for an additional 7-10 minutes.
- Remove dumplings from the pot and transfer them to a large plate or platter with a slotted spoon.
- Serve hot.
Notes
Did You Make This
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