Garlic dumplings

While flicking through Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf for a loaf recipe, I came across this recipe for garlic dumplings. Bolognese was on the menu that night and these seemed like a perfect accompaniment.

The dumplings start with a pretty basic bread dough; flour, salt, water and yeast. And the flavour simply comes from a garlic clove that’s been beaten to a pulp, which is roughly incorporated into the dough. With this one, the only real difference from a normal bread dough was the cooking process. Once the dough had risen and been shaped, it got plopped on top of the Bolognese that had been bubbling away in the oven. I wasn’t very organised with how I put them in the casserole dish, which I regretted later. The theory was that they’d take 5 minute to cook. Mine were just done after about 30 minutes; the ones closer to the edge of the dish were cooked much faster but the ones nestled in the middle stayed doughy for ages. The lessons on patience that I’ve got from my baking were again tested... and my mum and brother were pretty patient in waiting for their dinner too.

When we finally cracked into them, the dumplings were light and fluffy inside, great for mopping up the Bolognese. A simple recipe but a fitting replacement in this case for spaghetti.

Simplified recipe

Ingredients

150g strong white bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

100g water at 20°C

¾ teaspoon fresh yeast

1 clove garlic, crushed into a paste

Method

1.       In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour and the salt

2.       In another bowl, crumble the yeast into the water

3.       Add the water to the flour and bring the mix together into a “soft, sticky dough”, and then smear the garlic on top of the dough and work it in roughly, then cover the dough and rest for 10 minutes

4.       Lightly oil your worktop and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough for about 10 seconds (or something like 15 kneading motions). Clean and oil your mixing bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover and rest for 10 minutes

5.       Knead the dough again for about 10 seconds, shape into a ball and put back in the bowl. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size

6.       Turn the dough out and divide into 12 relatively even pieces (you don’t have to be exact but they’ll cook more evening if they’re fairly even)

7.       Form each piece into a tight ball, place on a greased tray and cover

8.       To cook your dumplings, either steam them or place them on top of a casserole or braise. The recipe book says they take 5 minutes, but mine took 30 minutes

References

The Handmade Loaf, Dan Lepard, Mitchell Beazley, 2004