Home › Yeast or Suffolk Dumplings › Yeast or Suffolk Dumplings
Yeast or Suffolk Dumplings
961. Make a very light dough with yeast, as for bread, but with milk instead of water, and add salt. Let it rise an hour before the fire. Twenty minutes before they are to be served, have ready a large stewpan of boiling water, make the dough into balls the size of a middling apple, throw them in, and boil twenty minutes. To ascertain when they are done enough, stick a clean fork into one, and if it comes out clear, it is done. Before serving, tear them apart on the top with two forks, for they become heavy by their own steam. Serve with meat, or sugar and butter, or salt.
A plain yeast-dough dumpling boiled in water rather than steamed or baked. The original assumes you already know bread dough by feel, so the quantities are left to you.
- Working quantitiesA useful scale is 1 lb (450 g) plain or strong white flour, 1 tsp salt, and about 300 ml warm milk, which makes six to eight dumplings. Keep the dough soft and slack, closer to a batter-bread dough than a firm loaf dough.
- Yeast strengthThe original assumes brewer's or barm yeast, which was slower and less reliable than modern dried yeast. Use about 1 tsp instant dried yeast per pound of flour and watch the dough rather than the clock, as an hour in a warm room may take it past its best.
- "Rise before the fire"This means a warm, draught-free spot. Modern kitchens are usually cooler than a Victorian hearthside, so allow the dough to double rather than timing it strictly.
- Size of a middling appleAround 2 to 2.5 inches across, or roughly 75-140 g of dough per ball. Much larger than that and twenty minutes may not cook the centre.
- The boilUse a wide pan with plenty of water at a steady rolling boil, and do not crowd it. The dumplings swell considerably and will stick together or sink and scorch if the pan is packed.
- Handle them at onceTearing them open with two forks as they leave the water is the hinge of the recipe: the original warns they "become heavy by their own steam". Cutting them with a knife is traditionally said to compress the interior.
- The fork testA fork withdrawn clean means the crumb is set; any sticky dough clinging to the tines means another two or three minutes. Slitting one open to check is the surer method if you are cooking these for the first time.
- ServingTraditionally sent to table with a meat gravy, or dressed as a sweet with sugar and butter. Six to eight dumplings will serve four alongside a joint or stew.
Suffolk dumplings are an East Anglian household staple, known regionally as "swimmers" or "floaters" from the way a properly light one rides on the boiling water. The unenriched kind, made with flour and water and no yeast at all, is traditionally said to have been served before the meat course with gravy, so that the family arrived at an expensive joint already half fed; the yeast-raised version here, made with milk, is the better-off relative of that practice.