Nothing tastes better than homemade food straight from Grandmother’s kitchen. It gets even more amazing when your Granny happens to be the best cook in entire Germany. With this recipe we would like to celebrate the memory of our Oma Wendelgard who fed us till we couldn’t move with her incredible meals and cakes. She infected everyone around her with good humour and positive energy and gave out smiles even more generously than food.

The last time we’ve met her, she revealed one of her most precious secrets- the Dampfnudel recipe. Now, this made us and Opa Helmut extremely happy! Fluffy salty dumplings bathed in vanilla custard, can it get any better?

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 teaspoons of active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon butter
• 2 and a half cup all purpose flour

PREPARATION:

• Dissolve the yeast and a tablespoon of sugar in the water and leave in a warm place to grow for 15 minutes.
• Dissolve 2 tablespoons of butter in milk and leave to cool a bit. Mix it in a bowl with one tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
• Add the yeast to the mixture in the bowl.
• Add the flour and beat until a smooth dough forms. Knead for about 5 minutes. If necessary add more flour until a soft not sticky bowl can be formed.
• Put the dough into a greased bowl and leave to grow in a warm place until it is doubled. (About one hour).
• Divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape little balls.
• Place the balls 3 cm apart on a greased baking sheet and cover with a clean tower. Leave to rise for another 45 minutes.
• Dissolve a spoon of butter on the saucepan and place few dumplings inside. Pour over them half a glass of salty water and cover with a lid.
• Simmer for about 20 minutes  (or until all the water boils out) WITHOUT PEEKING
• Serve warm, bottom side up (should be brown and crunchy) with vanilla sauce or traditional white wine sauce.

VANILLA SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 yolks
• 2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• vanilla stick

PREPARATION:

• Beat the yolks with sugar for about 5 minutes.
• Boil the milk in a saucepan.
• When the milk cools down a bit, slowly add the yolks while stirring.
• Add vanilla.
• Steer until the sauce thickens.

WHITE WINE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 litre your favourite sweet or dry white wine
• 1/4 litre of water
• 75g sugar
• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 tablespoon starch

PREPARATION:

• Heat up the wine, water and sugar in a small pot.
• Mix in the starch remembering to add first a bit of the liquid to the powder and only then stir it in the pot.
• Bring it to boil and keep stirring using a whisk.
• Take it off the fire and add in two yolks.
• Beat the whites and gently stir them into the mixture.

Serve together warm and delicious!