One of the most famous Hungarian sweets is the cottage cheese dumpling. It can be eaten hot, cold, with sweet sour cream, butter, toasted crumbs, jam and bacon, with or without raisins. Its speciality is that even if it is not perfect, it is still good. We eat it in many forms, because it was made by our grandmothers, served in the canteen and an essential part of Sunday lunches. You may find it as a sophisticated gourmet dish in restaurants, but it's a sure bet that if you make it, you'll spend a lot of time making it.
Cottage cheese always
It's the kind of sweet you can't get tired of, and luckily it has nothing to do with seasonality or the holidays. We make it in summer because it's a deliciously refreshing sweet when chilled, and in winter because it reminds us of snow-capped mountains. In spring because it looks good, and in autumn because we love it. Fortunately, there is no need to find a reason or an event to eat and make cottage cheese dumplings. Always, in all circumstances can be a simple but delicious addition to your meals. You can make it soft, creamy or harder, dunking, frothy and crunchy, the essence will not change. We're talking about a food that is everywhere and in all circumstances stands its ground.
Where does it come from?
The predecessor of the cottage cheese dumpling is the simple dough dumpling. It is impossible to determine its origins, but the flat cake, porridge and the dumpling-shaped pastry made from it existed before the beginning of the millennium. Some finds suggest that convincing evidence dates as far back as 1800 BC. Shocking, that as long as four thousand years ago, fruit and meat were stuffed into pasta, and it is thought that this is where today's cottage cheese dumplings originated. It reached its present form much later.
It probably arrived in Hungary through Austrian mediation in the 19th century. This can only be deduced from the surviving cookery books. Dumplings have been part of the diet for thousands of years, but they have long been part of the traditions of the northern peoples. The earliest dumplings were made with the simplest solutions, from bread and flour. Regional options were added to this. Some added fish pulp, meat and later vegetables. This is the dish that was mixed with everything, so a wide variety of free-picked fruits and flowers were added.
Dumplings made from potatoes became known only towards the end of the 19th century, as did the Viennese bun dumpling. The sweet versions came much later. At first, the most popular sweet dumplings filled with fruit were in the Austrian capital and spread from there to our country.
Secrets of a good cottage cheese dumpling
To put it simply, the secret to a good cottage cheese dumpling is attention to detail, precise work and the time taken. As with all food, it all starts with the ingredients. Cottage cheese dumplings are a simple, inexpensive pasta dish. It is made from a mixture of cow's curd, semolina and eggs, which is then cooked for a few minutes, rolled in toasted breadcrumbs and served with a variety of seasonings. To prepare the dough, the cottage cheese is broken up and mixed with the semolina and eggs. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and whip the whites to make softer dumplings. Season the mixture with a little salt and leave to stand for a few hours so that the semolina soaks up the eggs and the dumplings do not fall apart during cooking. It is a simple process, but one that can easily go wrong. Cottage cheese dumplings are sometimes filled with fruit or jam. The toasted breadcrumbs are flavoured with vanilla, ground cinnamon and walnuts.
There is also a lot of variation when serving the dumplings. The most common is vanilla sauce, but you can also eat them with sour cream or powdered sugar. You can also put fruit mousse on top, as it pairs perfectly with cottage cheese.
A quick recipe
Ingredients: 500 g cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 50 g icing sugar, 70 g semolina, zest of 1 lemon
Preparation: Mix the cottage cheese with the other ingredients, cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Form into balls and cook. Cook in half and half using water and milk. Then a little salt, sugar and vanilla pods can be added. Boil for at least five minutes, then simmer on low heat for about twenty minutes. When ready, roll the dumplings in toasted breadcrumbs, serve with sour cream and icing sugar.#
