Germknödel ( in

Austrian German Austrian German (), Austrian Standard German (ASG), Standard Austrian German (), Austrian High German (), or simply just Austrian (), is the variety of Standard German written and spoken in Austria and South Tyrol. It has the highest prestige ( ...

) is a fluffy yeast dough

dumpling Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

(

knödel Knödel (; and ) or Klöße (; : ''Kloß'') are Boiling, boiled dumplings commonly found in Central European cuisine, Central European and East European cuisine. Countries in which their variant of is popular include Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, ...

), filled with spiced plum jam and served with melted butter and a mix of

poppy seed Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the poppy plant (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries, ...

s and sugar on top. It is occasionally, even though less traditional, served with vanilla cream sauce instead. It is a culinary specialty of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. The dish is served both as a

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream, and possibly a beverage, such as dessert wine or liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, ...

and as a

main course A main course is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. It usually follows the entrée () course. Usage In the United States and Canada (except Quebec), the main course is traditionally called an "entrée". En ...

. ''Germknödel'' is usually a spherical or bun-shaped dessert. The dessert's main ingredient is a

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

dough Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes ...

enriched with

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and fat, usually

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...

. The dumpling is filled with

Powidl Powidl (also porvidl, powidła, povidla, or powidel) is a plum butter, a type of fruit spread prepared from the prune plum, that is popular in Central Europe. Unlike jam or marmalade, and unlike the German language, German ''Pflaumenmus'' (plum ...

, a sweet

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are ...

jam flavoured with cloves and cinnamon. The dumpling is steamed and served while hot with melted butter or

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

sauce, and topped with crushed poppy seeds and sugar. Differences between Austrian ( being the exclusively Austrian word for yeast) and the very similar German and Alsatian dish, Dampfnudel, are that Dampfnudeln are the unfilled variant and can in some regions also be

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...

or boiled in salt water and served with savoury side dishes, whereas Bavarian Dampfnudeln and Austrian Germknödel are steamed (and in the end of the cooking process, as the milk has evaporated, become lightly fried) in a small amount of a mixture of milk and butter and always served as a sweet meal. Steamed sweet dumplings () are also a typical food in Slovakia and Czechia, usually filled with plum marmalade and often served during winter by ski resort restaurants.

References

* Erhard Spacek, ''Neue böhmische Küche: ...und Weine aus Böhmen und Mähren''. 2005.

External links

Traditional Austrian Germknödel with Powidl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Germknodel Austrian desserts Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Jewish desserts Jewish baked goods Sweet breads Yeast breads Poppy seeds Dumplings Plum dishes Steamed foods Stuffed desserts Foods with jam

See also

References

External links