Cherry dumplings is an easy-to-cook dish that is going to make your day. It can be a dessert, an appetizer, a snack, a side dish or a main dish. It depends on how you serve it.
You will need:
Sheeted dough, no yeast of course. Prep it yourself or use a frozen ready-to-use one.
If you want to make your own dough, pick a good quality flour. Pizza flour will do.
There are a few common dumpling dough recipes: egg dough no no-egg dough.
Egg dough:
Mix 2 cups of flour with ¼ tablespoon of salt and ¼ tablespoon of baking powder. Separately mix 2 egg yolks with ½ tablespoon of sugar. Then mix the yolks into a cup of kefir or liquid yogurt. You can replace kefir (liquid yogurt) with a mix ½ cup of regular yogurt or sour cream and ½ cup of water. Pour the yolks-yogurt mixture into the flour mix. Mix well, add some flour or water to reach a regular dough consistency. Knead it for at least 10 minutes. You can add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to prevent the dough from sticking. Let it sit for about 20 minutes.
No-egg dough:
Same as above just without the eggs 🙂
Also you will need:
- Cherries. One regular size dumpling will fit maximum two large cherries. You can use sour cherries (a traditional recipe) or sweet cherries
- Semolina
- Sugar
Roll the dough with a roller on a flat solid surface (a pastry board). Aim to roll the dough thin that it is almost breaking.
Sprinkle the surface with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Using a medium-sized cup, cut out round-shaped sheets (a Starbucks venti-size cup works the best).
Remove the pits from cherries and sprinkle them with small amount of semolina. Semolina will prevent cherry juice from leaking out.
Put 1.5-2 cherries in the middle of the each small round sheet. Fold the sides over and pinch them together. Make sure it is sealed well.
Dumplings can be cooked 2 ways: by steaming in a steam basket or boiling on medium heat in a slightly salted water. They can also be deep fried, by the way.
Cooking time is 7-10 minutes. Once ready, sprinkle the dumplings with some sugar to prevent them sticking to each other.
Dumplings can be served with spiced cheese, sour cream and seasoned with black pepper. Read in the next article about other dumpling fillings that you might like:
Enjoy!
