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Dumplings (Tablespoons oil cup boiling)
2 1/2 tablespoons oil 1/2 cup boiling water 1/2 cup sifted pastry flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs Put oil, water, and salt into a saucepan. When boiling, throw in the dry flour all at once, and stir till a smooth paste is formed. Cool this mixture, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Drop teaspoons of this paste into the boiling soup and cook ten minutes or longer.
This is choux paste — the same cooked flour-and-egg batter used for cream puffs — poached in soup instead of baked. It puffs as it cooks and comes out light and slightly hollow.
- The hinge: dry out the pasteAfter the flour goes in, keep stirring over the heat for a minute or two until the paste pulls away from the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom. Skipping this leaves too much water in the dough and the dumplings collapse or dissolve in the soup.
- Cool before the eggsLet the paste drop to warm, around 140F, before beating in the first egg. Added to hot paste the eggs can scramble and the dough will not emulsify smoothly.
- Pastry flourPastry flour is a soft low-protein flour, roughly 8-9 percent. All-purpose works but gives a slightly chewier dumpling; a mix of nine parts all-purpose to one part cornstarch approximates it.
- Oil rather than butterClassic choux uses butter. Oil keeps the dumplings dairy-free so they can go into a meat broth. Use a neutral oil, not olive.
- Simmer, do not boil hardDespite the wording, drop the spoonfuls into soup at a bare simmer. A rolling boil can batter the soft paste apart before it sets. Ten minutes suits teaspoon-sized pieces; larger ones need longer, as the recipe's 'or longer' allows.
- Cook a test dumplingPoach one first. If it disintegrates the paste is too wet — return the batch to low heat briefly, or beat in a spoonful more flour.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly 24 to 30 teaspoon-sized dumplings, enough to garnish six to eight bowls. They are best cooked in the soup just before serving; they turn soggy if held.