Hungarian plum dumplings (Szilvásgombóc)
They can be eaten as dessert, a meatless main dish or side dish. A family favourit and children’s delight. Potato dumplings stuffed with plum, cinnamon, sugar and rolled in breadcrumbs.
Ingredients
- 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of potatoes, peeled, boiled, mashed
- 200 grams (7 ounces, 1 1/3 cup) of all purpose flour
- 150 grams (5,3 ounces) of breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 15 grams (1 tablespoon, 1/2 ounce) of butter
- 1 egg
- Salt
- 50 g (1/2 cup) of powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 15-17 small damson plum, stoned – if making it from a larger fruit can use a half for each dumpling
Takes
Serves 15-17 dumplings
Instructions
- Peel, cube and boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Mash the potatoes while still warm, mash really well with no chunks left. Add the butter and let it cool completely.
- Meanwhile, toast the bread crumbs in about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over low heat, stirring constantly, until crunchy and golden brown. Put aside.
- Mix the potato mass with one egg, a pinch of salt, the flour and knead the dough until smooth. The dough should be light and pliable, it might be a bit sticky but do not add more flour, otherwise you dumplings will be stone-hard.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
- Sprinkle the work surface with flour before placing the ball of dough on top. Be sure to sprinkle the dough on top as well as coat the rolling pin. I sprinkle a lot of flour on the surface, it prevents the rolled dough sticking to it. Roll it out the until it’s 0,5-1 cm thick (approx. 1/3 inch). Cut the rolled dough into 8 cm squares (approx. 3,2 inches). Place a half plum on each square and sprinkle 1 coffee spoon of cinnamon sugar in the middle of the plums. Place the other half of the plums on the candied plums. Fold and knead the dough around plums to make them into dumplings.
- Add the dumplings to the boiling water in batches – not to over-crowd them – and gently simmer until they float on the top.
- Remove the dumplings from the water using a slotted spoon, drain and lightly roll them in breadcrumbs browned in oil.
- Sprinkle with sugary ground cinnamon.</
- Enjoy!
My family makes these all the time but we don’t use cinnamon and sugar. We use cottage cheese and sugar! LOVE them!
Amazing! I am very excited to give it a try..My mom makes it from her heart, without recipes comes from her best experiences.. I am regretting now, I have to learn from others LOL…Hey can’t wait to try with Cinnamon and sugar and than maybe 6pcs with cottage cheese and sugar .
Thanks Chef & Dish!
My Opa made them without cinnamon and served them with a plum sauce
What is the best potato to use for this recipe?
Hello Frank,
The best potato to use is the yellow skin potato, we call it Ella in Hungary.
Agnes
oh dear me, it stuck like hell. I mixed it while the potatoes were still warm, is that what I did wrong? I had to add more flour, otherwise it stuck. Not just a bit, but I could not work with it. So mine turned out hard. I think I will try other recipes.
Hello,
Yes, you have it cool completely otherwise the dumplings will be hard.
“Mash the potatoes while still warm, mash really well with no chunks left. Add the butter and let it cool completely.”
Agnes
I make plum dumplings a lot in the fall. I always rice the potatoes so my dough is smooth. I also skip the rolling out of the dough, just make a ball, flatten it and place the plum in the center. Also I leave the pit in (keeps the dumpling from falling apart while boiling and rolling in breadcrumb mix) and serve with sour cream and extra cinnamon sugar if you like