Cookbook:Austrian Apricot Dumplings (Marillenknödel)

| Austrian Cuisine

Marillenknödel are a typical Austrian dish, consisting of sweet apricot-filled dumplings. They represent social, cultural, historical and geographical aspects of Austria. The term Marillenknödel is linguistically interesting as the term Marille is only used in Austria, while all other German-speaking countries use the term Aprikose instead.

History
In the imperial era, Bohemia was part of Austria. Since it was a poor country, many of its inhabitants went to Vienna to find work. Bohemian food was very much appreciated, so women easily found employment as cooks. Sweet dishes such as guglhupf, germknödel, topfenstrudel, powidltascherln, and marillenknödel were specialties. Although originally food of the poor, Bohemian dishes very soon became an indispensable part of the Austrian cuisine.

One delightful event in Austria is the Marillenkirtag in Spitz, which offers all kinds of apricot products, from Mariandl Marillenschnaps to Marillenmarmelade. Its undisputed highlight is a Marillenknödelautomat, a small wooden hut where Marillenknödel are sold. The customer buys a chip, which when thrown into a slot opens a drawer containing a wonderful Marillenknödel.

Ingredients

 * 1 cup curd cheese (quark/topfen/farmer cheese)
 * 1 standard egg
 * 3–4 tablespoons semolina flour
 * Salt
 * at least 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
 * 10 small apricots
 * 10 cubes of sugar
 * 5 tablespoons butter (or more if needed)
 * 2 cups bread crumbs
 * 5 tablespoons of sugar
 * Ground cinnamon
 * Powdered sugar

Procedure

 * 1) Mix the curd with the egg in a wide bowl. Add the semolina and a pinch of salt.
 * 2) Wait for about 20 minutes to allow the semolina to soak. Then, mix in as much flour as is necessary to make a smooth dough. In order to form fine dumplings later on, it is very important that the dough is not sticky. Again, wait for about 10 minutes.
 * 3) In the meantime, cut the apricots into two halves. Remove the pits and replace them with a sugar cube. Then, put the halves of the apricots together again.
 * 4) Pour water and some salt into a big pot, and bring it to a boil.
 * 5) Form the dumplings: divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, and mould them into flat, round disks. Flouring your hands will prevent the dough from sticking onto them. Wrap each apricot with one disk of dough, then roll the dumpling between your hands. Make sure that there are no holes in the dough and that the dough sticks to the apricots. Try to form evenly round dumplings. Don’t worry if this does not work out perfectly the first time you prepare dumplings. The breadcrumbs and the sugar, which the dumplings will be covered with later on, will conceal any irregularities.
 * 6) Carefully put the dumplings into the boiling water. The water usually ceases to boil for a short while after the dumplings have been placed into the pot. Wait until it boils again, and then reduce heat. Let the dumplings boil slowly until they start rising to the surface of the water. Now cover the pot and wait for about another 4 minutes. The dumplings will gain size during this period.
 * 7) In the meantime, heat the butter in a pan and add bread crumbs along with sugar and a bit of cinnamon. Fry the breadcrumbs until they turn light brown.
 * 8) Drain the dumplings, then roll them in the toasted bread crumbs until they are covered all over.
 * 9) Serve the Marillenknödel together with the remaining bread crumbs, and coat them with much powdered sugar.