Home › The Principles of Cookery › German Dumplings, or Dampfnudeln
German Dumplings, or Dampfnudeln
Mix two table-spoonfuls of fresh yeast, or one ounce of German yeast, with a cupful of lukewarm milk. Add one table-spoonful of sifted sugar, two eggs, well beaten, and a quarter of a pound of butter, melted, but not oiled. When these ingredients are well mixed, add one pound of flour, and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and light, and drops from the spoon. Cover the bowl which contains it with a cloth, and put it in a warm place for half an hour or more, to rise. Turn it out on a well-floured pastry-board, divide it into small balls about the size of an egg, and let them rise a few minutes longer. Butter the bottom of a shallow tin rather thickly. Strew a little powdered sugar over it, and put in milk an inch deep. Let this boil. Place the dumplings in the pan as gently as possible, or roll them in off an egg-slicer, and leave a little distance between each. Put on the cover, place the pan in the oven, and bake until the milk is boiled away, and the dumplings have acquired a nice brown crust. Put them on a hot dish, and send stewed fruit, sweet sauce, or custard to table with them. Time, three-quarters of an hour for the dumplings to brown; or a quarter of an hour for them to rise, and ten minutes to bake. Probable cost, 10d. for this quantity. Sufficient for twelve dumplings.
A yeast-raised sweet dough cooked by the Dampfnudel method: the dumplings sit in buttered, sugared milk in a covered pan, steaming from below until the liquid goes and the sugar-butter base fries them to a brown crust. Everything depends on that sequence.
- The hinge: do not lift the lidThe dumplings must steam in the trapped vapour until the milk has almost gone, then and only then begin to brown in the butter and sugar left behind. Opening the pan early lets the steam out and gives pale, dense dumplings with no crust.
- German yeast"German yeast" is fresh compressed baker's yeast; one ounce is about 28 g. Substitute roughly 1/4 to 1/3 oz (about 2 1/4 to 3 tsp) active dry or instant yeast. The two tablespoons of "fresh yeast" probably refers to older barm or brewer's yeast, wetter and less predictable, and is not a useful measure now.
- Weights and vesselsOne pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups; a quarter-pound of butter is one stick. A cupful of milk here is roughly 8 fl oz. "Shallow tin" means a lidded metal pan two to three inches deep, or a heavy skillet with a tight lid — cast iron works well because the base browning is the point.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Around 350-375F is a reasonable modern equivalent: hot enough to keep the milk simmering and finish the crust, not so hot that the sugar in the pan base burns before the milk evaporates.
- Melted but not oiledButter that has "oiled" has separated and gone greasy from overheating. Melt it gently and let it cool to barely warm before it meets the eggs and yeast, or the heat will check the rise.
- The egg-slicerThis most likely means an egg slice -- a slotted lifter or fish slice -- rather than the wire gadget for slicing hard-boiled eggs. Roll each ball off it into the boiling milk so the risen dough is not deflated by handling.
- Contradictory timingsThe recipe gives three-quarters of an hour to brown, then offers a quarter hour to rise and ten minutes to bake. The longer figure matches the method; 35-45 minutes covered, then a few minutes uncovered if the crust needs help, is the realistic range.
- Yield and servingSufficient for twelve dumplings. Send stewed fruit, sweet sauce, or custard to table with them, as the original directs.
Dampfnudel means simply "steam noodle", and the dish belongs to the Bavarian, Swabian and Palatinate kitchen, where it is eaten both sweet with vanilla sauce or fruit and savoury with soup or potato broth. The technique -- a yeast dough cooked in a covered pan over a shallow layer of liquid so that it steams above and crusts below -- is traditionally a stove-top one, and the oven direction here looks like a Victorian English convenience. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery collected continental dishes of this kind, and the specification of "German yeast" is itself a period marker: compressed fresh yeast was largely imported from the Continent and named for its origin, distinguished in these books from the brewer's barm that English bakers had long used.