Knedliky Czech Bread Dumplings

As promised here is the recipe for the knedliky , Czech bread dumplings, to go with the goulash from the previous post.( I apologize for taking so long to post this, as you know the last 2 months of the year are always chaotic and unfortunately I haven’t spent as much time on Spicie Foodie as I would have liked. ) Knedliky, are served with many Czech dishes , of course goulash, and well pretty much any dish that has a sauce to it. There are also several varieties of knedliky , the most common in my experience have been these bread ones, potato knedliky, and a round variety made with spices and herbs (similar to an Austrian dumpling). There are also round dumplings that are stuffed with smoked pork (really good) and served with sauce and cabbage. The other rounds ones are the fruit filled ones, also delicious, the one’s stuffed with blueberries are my favorites. But before I get ahead of my self with all these dumplings/knedliky , I’m going to give you the basic standard recipe for these bread dumplings. ( The others will have to wait and added to the list of recipes to share with you :) ) .

Your ingredients: 400 grams of coarse flour ( 3 cups) , 15 grams of yeast (.6 ounce),150 ml Milk ( 1/2 cup + ), 1 egg yolk, salt, 2 withe bread rolls slightly stale, flour for rolling. Utensils needed– large bowl, kitchen towel, cutting board, large pot, thick string, tongs ( not thongs, yes I often misspell tongs with thongs, these sexy little underwear wouldn’t really help you here. ) .

1. Dice the stale bread rolls into small pieces, set aside. Heat the milk to just warm to the touch,(do not over heat it or you’ll kill the yeast). Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the salt and combine well. Next make a well in the center of the flour and crumble the yeast into the flour,add about half the milk. Let it rise and wait for the yeast to “melt” into the milk, this should take about 8 minutes. The yeast will begin to foam and if it does not the yeast is dead so you need to start all over with fresh yeast. Then add the egg yolk and a little bit more of the milk, start working it into the flour. Continue adding the milk until the mixture starts to form a dough,and all the milk is used. Start working the diced bread into the mixture until it has been well incorporated into the dough. If it is too dry add a few more drops of milk until it sticks together.
2. Dust a cutting board or counter with some flour and and knead the dough for about 8 minutes and form either 1 large cylinder shaped roll or cut it in half and make 2 cylinder rolls. Once you have the shape cover and let them rise, for about 40 minutes. (*Tip* Some people like to cut the dough, shape it and put inside coffee mugs and left to rise. This is so the shape is better kept and then the dumplings are steamed instead of boiled.*)

3. Prepare a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. If the dumplings have lost a bit of their shape reshape them with your hands. Place your dumplings in the boiling water and let boil for about 25 minutes. Remove from the boiling water and place on a cutting board. Using a string start to slice the dumplings. The string is easier than using a knife because it will be very difficult and it will stick to the knife. A good slice size is about 1-1.5 centimeters.

That’s all quite easy isn’t it? Just add 3-4 knedliky(dumplings) to the plate of goulash and you are ready to dig in! If you have left overs just store them in a plastic container in the refrigerator. To reheat the dumplings the best method is to steam them for 7 minutes.

Oh an by the way even though I knew how to make knedliky from scratch this was my first time actually doing it myself. I usually buy the ready made ones from any of the local shops. It was easy and I would definitely try it again ( well unless I was feeling lazy or didn’t have the time to wait:) ).