German bread dumplings are a typical garnish to a nice German pot roast. Imagine bread dumplings soaking up the juicy sauces of that yummy roast to then travel on a fork alongside red cabbage to your mouth. Sounds like heaven, right?
Today’s variety will be served with heaps of creamy mushrooms, adapted from a German cookbook my grandma gave me several years ago after I moved to the US; I was struggling to find a good recipe for Baumkuchen – a traditional German layer cake, not the kind you’re thinking of. The book my grandma sent me as a result had a nice recipe for Baumkuchen, as well as the orginal recipe for the dumplings I prepared in this blog post.
I ended up altering the recipe a bit by adding a touch of garlic and a shot of brandy to the mushrooms – divine!
I hope these homemade bread dumplings find their way to your heart as well. And if you love German food, please SUBSCRIBE at the bottom of this post! ????❤️❤️
Ingredients for 4 servings
For the dumplings:
- 7 oz dried white bread (I used ¾ of a rustic Farm to Market Bread Co. baguette, sliced it up and dried it out for a few minutes under the broiler)
- 7 oz of lukewarm milk
- freshly ground black pepper
- freshly grated nutmeg (oh so worth it!)
- 1 yellow onion
- ¼ bunch of fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 eggs
- some all-purpose flour
For the mushrooms:
- 22 oz fresh mushrooms (I used white button and baby portabella, but any of your choice are great)
- 3 tablespoon of lemon juice
- 1 yellow onion
- ¼ bunch of fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoon butter
- Salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 7 oz heavy whipping cream
- 1 shot of brandy
- 1 clove garlic
- For the bread dumplings: cut the dried out bread into small cubes or thin slices, pour over the lukewarm milk. Add to taste salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let soak for 20 minutes.
- Brush off the mushrooms if needed, give a quick rinse and dry. Cut into thin slices and sprinkle with 2 tablespoon of lemon juice.
- Peel both onions, then wash and shake dry half a bunch of parsley. Finely dice onions and chop up the parsley.
- For the bread dumplings: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat, add half of the diced onions until they become clear. Add half of the chopped parsley and let wilt. Add the egg and the cooked onion-parsley mixture to the bread and knead together, adding salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.
- Heat a large pot of salted water. Shape a small test dumpling (as shown in picture; what would a German dumpling recipe be without a test dumpling?), add to barely boiling water, reduce to medium heat and let steep a couple of minutes. If the dumpling falls apart, add more flour to the soft dumpling mixture. Using wet hands, shape 8 dumplings and add to the boiling water, reduce heat to medium and let steep for about 20 minutes.
- For the mushrooms: Use same skillet as for the onions and parsley. Add 2 tablespoon of butter. Add the remaining diced onions and cook until clear. Add some of the mushrooms to cover the pan and cook until browned, clear the middle of the pan, add more mushrooms, repeat until all are browned. Add one clove of minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds longer or until it becomes aromatic. Add salt and pepper, cream and brandy. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Add the remaining parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
- Guten Appetit!
