Strawberry Dumplings
Serves 4 Time 30 minutes Ingredients 9 Steps 17
Strawberry dumplings (erdbeerknödel) are a typically Austrian dish usually served as a main course, rather than as a dessert. This recipe is a tasteful, quick, and easy dish for, say, an evening with in-laws. Cooking strawberry dumplings is relatively easy, but of course it can only be perfected by practice. If you have grown tired of strawberry dumplings, just vary the filling and use other fruits of your choice.
Ingredients
- 1/5 cup (50 g) butter
- 4/5 cups (200 g) breadcrumbs
- 1/5 cup (50 g) white granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 cups (500 g) curd cheese (e.g. quark, pot cheese, or farmer cheese)
- 1 pinch of salt
- ½ cup (125 g) flour
- 12 ripe, medium-sized strawberries, rinsed and trimmed
- Icing sugar
Steps
Breadcrumbs
- Melt butter in frying pan.
- Add breadcrumbs and sugar. Toast until brown, stirring well; sugar makes crumbs burn faster.
Dough
- Put egg and curd cheese in large bowl.
- Add pinch of salt.
- Stir until smooth, egg and cheese well blended.
- Slowly add flour, stirring until dough sticks to one side of bowl.
- Rest about 5 minutes. If dough is too moist, add more flour.
- Flour hands to prevent sticking.
- Put large tablespoon of dough on palm.
- Add some flour. Roll slightly between hands into small ball.
- Press ball flat. Put strawberry in middle. Cover with dough. Pinch to seal.
- Sprinkle dumpling and hands with more flour. Roll carefully into smooth, round ball.
- Put dumplings on floured plate, spaced apart so they do not stick.
- Bring about 3 liters water to boil in large pot.
- Put dumplings in boiling water. Boil uncovered about 10 minutes, until they float as if they "danced".
- Remove dumplings. Roll in breadcrumbs until evenly covered while surface is still moist.
- Serve with a little roasted crumbs. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Notes from the original
- Always use fresh, ripe strawberries, as they taste much sweeter than the ones you can buy in the supermarket. Also consider picking strawberries yourself; this way you can choose the ripe and fresh ones and get the size you need for the dumplings. Moreover, you can try a few while picking. Use the spare strawberries for making jam.
- The breadcrumbs can be toasted without sugar, but in this case you will miss on the caramel flavor. You can also roast the breadcrumbs without butter.
- This recipe also works well with other fillings like apricots, plums, or chocolate. In Austria the dumplings are also filled with "Mozartkugeln", which are little balls of chocolate, nougat, and almond paste. If you use apricots or plums as a filling, you can add a pinch of cinnamon to the sugar before mixing it with the breadcrumbs. If you serve dumplings with a chocolate filling, garnish them with chocolate sauce and ground walnuts.
- It is a good idea to serve the dumplings with ice cream (preferably vanilla flavor), garnished with fresh berries and a mint leaf.
- Enjoying a glass of cold milk together with the dumplings is especially refreshing in the summer months. In Austria it is also common to serve sweet dishes with a cup of coffee.
- Curd cheese dough only tastes well with sweet fillings. For savory dumplings, which are very popular in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, use potato dough and no breadcrumbs.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Strawberry Dumplings” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-26, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.