Christmas Dinner

Here’s how my homemade half-and-half dumplings turned out. They fell apart a bit, but they still tasted good. I didn’t have any cornstarch, so I used flour—probably not enough. Next time.

Mmm, delicious, Andrea! We had dumplings too, served with red cabbage and mushroom goulash. 

For Christmas, I had a pot roast, red cabbage, and Thuringian dumplings.

I always make dough dumplings.

Akela. What are Thuringian dumplings like? 

A Thuringian dumpling is actually a “raw” dumpling—it consists only of potatoes, water, and a little salt.
To make Thuringian dumplings, you need potatoes that can be divided into three parts, because one-third is sliced and boiled in salted water. The other two-thirds are grated and squeezed very dry. Let the water left over from squeezing the potatoes sit for a while, because that’s where the starch you’ll need settles. Once the potatoes are grated and squeezed, mix this grated mixture with the settled starch—after carefully pouring off the water from it. Next, whisk the potato slices and pour this *soup* over the dry mixture with the settled starch; this must be done quickly—it’s best to use a large wooden whisk. When the dough *comes together*—you’ll know this when the two potato mixtures have combined well and form a homogeneous mass—form dumplings from the mixture and add them ONLY to simmering water—do not boil! After about 20 minutes, you’ll have super-delicious dumplings that you can even feed to a 6-month-old baby with a little sauce; my oldest licked all her fingers clean after eating them as a baby. :-) These dumplings go well with any kind of roast.
Enjoy your meal!

Oh Aklea, I love these dumplings....around here, they’re practically a regional specialty—we had them for Christmas with goose and red cabbage :)

On the second day of Christmas, we had leftovers again.

Thank you, Akela, for this detailed explanation. Now I know what I did wrong: using that settled starch instead of pouring it off.
Learned something new. I’ll remember that next time.

Petra, how do you make dough dumplings? Sounds delicious, too.

You all had a super delicious Christmas meal. I like mushroom goulash, too—I’m getting hungry.

Akela, thanks for the detailed description. I’d never even heard of these dumplings before. My grandma (from Upper Franconia) always made potato dumplings, but by the time I was old enough to cook, she always bought the dumpling dough ready-made.

Your dumplings sound very labor-intensive to me, with lots of different steps, but they’re definitely super delicious. 

My dough dumplings are made with a slightly runnier spaetzle dough. I mix in a little baking powder, parsley, and dumpling bread. Then—in our family—we shape two large loaves and drop them into boiling water. The dumpling is then sliced, and we love it with goulash, roast meat, and, of course, roast goose at Christmas.