Help! Dumpling Disaster!

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Can I ask members a question relaying to this discussion that may be the key.

Do you expect your dumplings to be floating on the surface of the casserole or stew or to have sunk into it?

We expect ours to be floating on the surface.

Do if it is not the suet flour ratio, or the age of the suet, my only other guess would be the actual size and diameter of the dumplings. (We pinch ours in the middle to assist with it cooking through.)

May be this time around you simply made them slightly too big or small.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Yep, I'm sure they're different.

I have just had a quick Google for American dumplings and The Spruce Eats had this under tips. My emphasis.

Give the dumpling batter time to rest before dropping spoonfuls into the stew or soup. This will allow the baking powder time to activate and will result in a fluffier dumpling.

They also don't use any fat in their recipe, using what is essentially a bead recipe, flour, a raising agent and water

 

[DoughGirl]

I know what DoughGirl is getting at; it's the texture more than the way it looks. It's hard to show in a picture. The one on the left, while it doesn't look like raw dough, looks like a piece of supermarket bread - not good for a dumpling.

Yes!! That was exactly the issue! It's hard to explain, and I suppose the photo didn't do it justice - but that is the problem!

 

[TastyReuben]

There are various types of dumplings here, I think we talked about this before in another topic.

This is what I think of when someone tells me we're having chicken and dumplings:

Someone else here referred to those as slicks, but we never called them that.

 

[DoughGirl]

Can I ask members a question relaying to this discussion that may be the key.

Do you expect your dumplings to be floating on the surface of the casserole or stew or to have sunk into it?

We expect ours to be floating on the surface.

Do if it is not the suet flour ratio, or the age of the suet, my only other guess would be the actual size and diameter of the dumplings. (We pinch ours in the middle to assist with it cooking through.)

May be this time around you simply made them slightly too big or small.

Dumplings should always float on the surface of the soup

I use my late pra babcia's recipe (Flour, egg, butter, baking powder, salt, pepper, and dried basil)

And I always size them out with a teaspoon measuring spoon, just like she did

They aren't "fluffy" (if fluffy means to be spongy/airy have the texture of wet supermarket bread), but they are soft, light, kind of chewy, and a bit thicker. They aren't doughy (although, I can see how the picture made them appear that way), and they certainly aren't ever slimy.

The simple fact that I didn't deter from anything out of the usual when making them is why I'm dumbfounded that I somehow got half of the batch wrong

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Reading further, and digging further and ignoring filled dumplings in the sense of Dim Sum etc, it would appear that you are using a flour based recipe with no fat and a broth or water filling (this makes more sense if you read the article) but expecting the result of a solid (vegetable rather than flour based) dumpling.

The type of filling can be roughly broken down into:

• Soup dumplings, which contain broth that’s solid at room temperature and turns to liquid when steamed.
• Minced meat and/or vegetables.
• Sweet fillings, such as fruits, nuts, or sweetened cheese.
• No filling, such as solid dumplings like gnocchi or knödel.

Can you give your recipe (with quantities) please?
Right now my best guess is that you didn't have the lid on the pan for the entire time, looked/removed the lid at some point, or that the stock/casserole was simply not hot enough when the dumplings went into it.

Can you try again just cooking your dumpling dough in plain stock (out even just boiling water) and see what happens?

 

[DoughGirl]

Reading further, and digging further and ignoring filled dumplings in the sense of Dim Sum etc, it would appear that you are using a flour based recipe with no fat and a broth or water filling (this makes more sense if you read the article) but expecting the result of a solid (vegetable rather than flour based) dumpling.



Can you give your recipe (with quantities) please?
Right now my best guess is that you didn't have the lid on the pan for the entire time, looked/removed the lid at some point, or that the stock/casserole was simply not hot enough when the dumplings went into it.

Can you try again just cooking your dumpling dough in plain stock (out even just boiling water) and see what happens?

Pra babcia's soup dumplings-
2 cup flour
4 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 basil (dried/crushed)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp butter - melted

Combine and mix all dry ingredients first, then stir in wet ingredients. Let the dough rest while broth comes to a boil. Drop dumpling dough into soup in 1tsp sized lumps, cover, boil for 20mins.

I can try making them again later tonight

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I can try making them again later tonight

I think that's probably best.

I used to teach (advanced level/ police road traffic) driving and (bear with me please) I often had to explain things differently.

One of the comparisons I would make was that if your vehicle didn't start the first time you tried it, what did you think or do?
Now what happens if it doesn't start the second or third time?

If it failed to start first time, you think nothing more of it unless it happens regularly, but you're likely to do nothing about it if it always starts second time around. You'll also probably not think about it again unless it reoccurs.
Course of action? Ignore it and try again.

If it fails to start second or third time, you'll probably think about getting it to the garage very soon... and you'll start to worry about is reliability. But you'll also keep trying.
Course of action? Worry and call breakdown out especially if it makes that clicking noise modern vehicles now make for a flat battery.

My husband has been volunteered to make these with our evening meal. I'll have to modify the recipe slightly because I have a potentially fatal allergy to dairy proteins in the form of anaphylactic shock, so I'll sub the butter for oil and the milk for either soya milk or almond milk depending on what is to hand.

I'll let you know what happens.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Pra babcia's soup dumplings-
2 cup flour
4 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 basil (dried/crushed)
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp butter - melted

Combine and mix all dry ingredients first, then stir in wet ingredients. Let the dough rest while broth comes to a boil. Drop dumpling dough into soup in 1tsp sized lumps, cover, boil for 20mins.

I can try making them again later tonight

We made these tonight added into our soup.

They were exceptionally fluffy. They were overcooked despite hubby ignoring or not reading the size and making then desertspoon size (so 3 times your instructions).

You can see the right hand one in the top photo is falling apart, a sign of overcooking.
You can also see how fluffy and risen it is.

My husband felt that they were a very liquid dough, close to a very thick batter and he noticed that there was a lot of air in the batter after it had rested. He queried the liquid quantities and also thought that the 4 tablespoons (UK not Australian, here it is 20g not 15g) of baking powder was considerably too much. 4 teaspoons would have been a better quantity. They did taste good though.


My thoughts is that somehow that recipe is wrong. Have you cut the salt back? That would cause overrising like this. Could it actually be 4tsp not 4tbsp of baking powder? Even 4tsp is a lot for 2 cups (roughly 250g) of plain flour (you didn't specify which do I played it safe with plain not self raising/all purpose).

We'll try again tomorrow night with much less baking powder and less liquid.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

O.k. we've tried it again, reducing the 4tbsp to 2tbsp of baking powder and this was the result.
(We also had to go over to plain flour not self raising because we've run out)

We also dropped the cooking time to 15 minutes and as you can see, it's still a light, fluffy dumpling. My husband reports that the batter is airated prior to going in to cook.

We'll try again tomorrow with 2tsp of baking powder to 2 cups of plain flour which, from experience, we both think is a better ratio and see what we get. After that we're at a loss.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Incidentally, these are 2 egg dumpling recipe links that are similar to your recipe.
The first is the closest (though calls them light and fluffy) and only uses 1tbsp baking powder to the same volume of flour
Light and Fluffy Dumplings

The second says they are denser than most others but that's how their family likes them.
It is just flour, eggs and a little milk.
Egg Dumplings

 

[DoughGirl]

It is supposed to be 4 tsp of t baking powder, I'm sorry that is totally a typo on my part that I didn't notice due to the fact that I was responding on my phone during lunch break.

I did try making them again in just plain broth over the weekend, and they came out perfectly that time. I'm assuming that what went wrong last week was that I either left them on the stove too long (or at too high of a boil), or maybe my nephew (who I was watching that night) removed the lid and lied to me when I asked him about it.

 

[flyinglentris]

Can I ask members a question relaying to this discussion that may be the key.

Do you expect your dumplings to be floating on the surface of the casserole or stew or to have sunk into it?

We expect ours to be floating on the surface.

Do if it is not the suet flour ratio, or the age of the suet, my only other guess would be the actual size and diameter of the dumplings. (We pinch ours in the middle to assist with it cooking through.)

May be this time around you simply made them slightly too big or small.

It depends. Some dumplings should sink into the soup or stew. But it may be desirable to top off a stew or soup with a cap of dumplings that connect to each other and seal over the top.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It depends. Some dumplings should sink into the soup or stew. But it may be desirable to top off a stew or soup with a cap of dumplings that connect to each other and seal over the top.

The ones that top off a stew or casserole, joining together are known but both husband (and hence his family) and myself (and associated families) as cobbler, not dumplings.

 

[mjd]

Now I am confused... are dumplings supposed to be spongey/airy/porous and taste/feel like soggy bread when eaten? Again, I'm a big dumpling soup fan and have never eaten a dumpling like that before? I always thought soup dumplings were supposed to more like a giant gnocchi in texture? Like a little thicker, kind of chewy (but definitely not doughy)?

It depends on who you ask. I have had both but prefer the light, airy kind (your photo on the left) but I know the other ones are quite popular. We have a restaurant here called "Cracker Barrel" and they sell the latter. I think it comes down to what you prefer. There is no "right" or "wrong" answer. Your palate decides!

P.S. I feel for you with your stove. I have an electric stove in my apartment and it's been a chore adjusting from using a gas range.