STRAWBERRY DUMPLINGS WITH COTTAGE CHEESE

Sweet strawberry dumplings are one of my favourite childhood food fulfilled with beautiful summer memories, spent at my grandmothers in Slovakia. When someone asks you, what is the meal, that brings you back to your childhood, then this is it. It is also one of the Czech classics.

For me it was these delicious, fluffy sweet dumplings. Filled with fresh strawberries and often topped with cottage cheese, confectioner sugar and melted butter. Oh, what a delight!

I can still smell this fresh scent of strawberries. My grandmother used to cook close to 80 dumplings. Me and my other 11 cousins, used to spend summer holidays at my grandma’s estate in West of Slovakia. I called it back then the grandiose estate. Because at that time, I was just a kid and everything looked to me so big:)

We used to spend hours in her huge garden, not only picking up fresh strawberries or any other fresh fruits, but also to remove weeds. These were our morning tasks, along with washing dishes or making beds.

Afternoons, we used to spend at the sandy lakes with our friends, surrounded by pine groves, we had nearby the village. Oh yeah, these were a great times!

My grandmother, at that time, grow all the  main vegetables and fruits in her garden. We used to have cherry, apples, pears and plum trees. Bushes of red, white & black currant. In autumn, we picked many sorts of vine grapes.

The feeling of independence having all you need in your garden, was amazing! When in the morning we decided having vegetable soup, we simply went to the garden and pick whatever fresh vegetable was growing there. Such as carrots, celery, parsnip, potatoes or green peas.  This was my summer time childhood 🙂

Yeast

Well enough of good old times, now I have to explain you, how to make these delightful, fluffy sweet strawberry dumplings. First, I will talk about yeast. Yeast is used in baking as a leavening agent, where it converts the food fermentable sugars present in dough into the gas carbon dioxide. This causes the dough to expand or rise as gas forms pockets or bubbles. This is science:)

what kind of yeast to use

There are 3 types of yeast commonly available

• Fresh yeast which comes in solid square form
• Active dry yeast is in dry form of granules
• Fast-acting or instant yeast very fine granules or pellets

Fresh yeast will only last a couple of days in the refrigerator, but can be frozen for up to 3 months. Active dry and instant yeast can be stored in a cool dry (refrigerator once opened) place until the ‘best before’ date on the packaging.

Fresh yeast and active dry yeast granules need to be dissolved in warm liquid along with a little sugar  to get them working and should be left to stand for 5 to 10 minutes, until bubbles start to form on the surface of the yeast mixture, before adding it the other main ingredients. Instant yeast comes in the form of very fine granules or pellets, so can just be added directly to the flour and mixed in along with the other ingredients. But in my long baking experience, I always dissolve even Instant yeast and make a yeast started before adding it to the other ingredients. Except when making bread.

You might also like these recipes

• Dutch oven homemade bread
• Homemade rye bread
• Strawberry cream cheese mousse
• cheesecake little bites with strawberries
• Strawberry jam puff pastry hearts

I usually use active or instant yeast, because it’s easier to store it and it doesn’t have a strong smell. On the other hand, I find, that fresh yeast reacts much faster and makes the dough rise much quicker and dumplings are much fluffier.

Substitute one yeast for another

For dry active yeast  use half the quantity of fresh yeast, instant yeast you need to use 1/4 of the quantity of fresh yeast.

Example

30g (1 ounce) of fresh yeast = 15g (1/2 ounce) active dry yeast= 7g (1/4) instant yeast

Pressed dry cottage cheese

Cottage cheese comes into three varieties of North America (as far as I know), based on the amount of milk fat in it: regular cottage cheese, low fat cottage cheese and nonfat dry curd cottage cheese. In this recipe for strawberry dumplings, I am using dry curd cottage cheese (or dry pressed cottage cheese) and that, as a topping on the dumplings. But you can add a bit of cottage cheese also in the filling, if you wish.

By adding desired amount of sugar or sweetener in cottage cheese, you will create tasty topping or filling for these strawberry dumplings. I love dry pressed cottage cheese, because you can sprinkle it like a sugar on the top of the dumplings.

Fresh or frozen strawberries

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Oh, sweet delight of summery fruits, like strawberries. Fresh strawberries are best. At these times, we get strawberries all year long, but they don’t taste the same. When local strawberry farm next to my house open in late June with offer “pick up your own strawberries” We always run, with my kids to pick up some fresh strawberries.

We bring many baskets back home and first thing, what I do, are these strawberry dumplings. I make as well jam from strawberries or smoothies. Another great way to preserve the strawberries, is to freeze them for later use. Or make these delicious STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE MOUSSE.

In this recipe for strawberry dumplings, you can use also frozen strawberries. Don’t forget to thaw them and strain excessive liquid, before using them. Otherwise, your dough wouldn’t be too saggy. By adding few spoons of sugar to the filling, will make your dumpling even more delicious.

Clean and cut you strawberries in quarters, its is easier to handle the strawberries, while shaping the dumpling. If your strawberries are huge, which some of them can be really giant, cut them in even smaller pieces than quarters.

How to steam czech dumpligs

• Bamboo steamer
• Stainless steel steamer basket
• Double boiler pot
• Cheesecloth

Without any special equipment, you can steam your strawberry dumplings. I have named 4 main tools for steaming, and I am sure one of those must be in the forgotten corner of your kitchen. By surprise, I actually have all 4 of these. But I find, that cheesecloth method is my so far favourite. And the reason is, because it can carry 10 dumplings at a time.