Cinnamon Plum Dumplings with Butter Breadcrumbs

Delicious Cinnamon Plum Dumplings recipe in Butter Breadcrumbs Sauce is a simple, delicious, and beloved vegetarian dish from our childhood.

Remember back in the day, not so long ago, when I posted the recipe for the Apricot Dumplings? I did whine a little about there not being any plums and now – I finally got my share of the fruit!

Plum dumplings are a household favorite over here. They’re a typical dish in our country, and most everyone loves them, us included. 

The cinnamon with sweet juicy plums, the soft potato dough, cooked to perfection, all tossed in a brown butter toasted breadcrumbs and topped with a sprinkle of sugar… it’s simply divine!

And making them it’s simple and straightforward, though it does take some practice to know when the potato dough is ready, and how to roll the dumplings to get the perfect shape.

Ingredients

To make this recipe you will need:

• potatoes, starchy old potatoes work best but don’t try to use young potatoes, as they are too watery
• strong flour, we like to use a special type 400 flour, or strong flour in this recipe, as it works best when boiling in water
• salt
• eggs, the eggs will help make the dough softer and bind the dough together
• plums, or other fruit, like apricots, strawberries,…
• sugar
• cinnamon, this ingredient is quite essential in this recipe, as it adds more flavor to the dumpling feeling
• butter, you can substitute with vegan butter
• breadcrumbs

 

How to make these Cinnamon Plum Dumplings

Start by cooking the potatoes. We recommend cooking them whole with the skin on, so choose potatoes that are smaller in size. This way they will absorb less water when cooking, as we need a dry dough to work with. When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them, peel them and mash them. At this point, we recommend leaving the potatoes to cool down completely. You can also cool them unpeeled, and then peel and mash them.

Once the potatoes are cooled down, add flour, salt, and eggs. Knead together by hand into a smooth and compact dough, then divide it into 12 equal pieces.

Press each piece of dough out on a floured surface to about 0,5 cm thick, roughly in the shape of a circle, and place a plum (pit removed) in the center. In the hole, where the pit used to be, add 1/2  teaspoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Now the shaping – fold the dough over the fruit. Shape into dumplings and make sure to press the dough real well together.

Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough and plums. 

While you’re making your dumplings, bring a large pot of water to a boil (it may take a while, so do it as soon as you start working on your dough). When the water comes to a boil, season with salt, then reduce the heat to a simmer. 

At the same time, add butter to a pan, melt it and let cook on low to medium for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, until the butter browns. Then add breadcrumbs and gently fry them while stirring for a couple more minutes. 

When your dumplings are all ready, gently place them in the pot of simmering water. If your water stops simmering, bring the heat up again until simmering again. Gently stir the dumplings, so they don’t stick to the pot, and let them simmer for about 10 minutes. They will increase in size and float to the top of the pot, but don’t remove them as soon as they float to the top, as we want them cooked through.

Once the dumplings are cooked, gently remove them from the pot and immediately transfer them into the browned butter breadcrumbs. Roll them around gently so the breadcrumbs stick to the dumplings, then transfer them to a serving dish and dust with sugar.

Serving

Serve the plum dumplings hot with a sprinkle of sugar on top and a drizzle of more browned butter if needed.

Storage

These dumplings will not keep very well and are best served immediately. That said, you can absolutely store them in an air-tight container in the fridge, and just reheat them before serving, but the texture will not be quite the same.

This post and recipe were updated in 2021 with new photography and a more detailed recipe.

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