Hungarian Plum Dumplings (Szilvás Gombóc)

Adapted from The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecsksey

Gizi

My friend Walter's mother Gizi was born in Budapest. She was very beautiful and a good cook, a fearsome combination. She taught me how to make her family's favorite chicken paprikash in person, and most, but not all, of her favorite recipes are written down. 

There were dishes Walter talked about that I had never heard of and had no idea how to make. Then one day Nach Waxman pulled The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecksey from a shelf at Kitchen Arts & Letters and put it into my hands, opening up the world of Hungarian home cooking to me. In its pages I found the recipes I did not have, but Walter talked about and craved, none more than what he calls "gum-boats."

[A] szlivás gombóc is a potato dumpling with a pitted purple plum inside it, and a melted sugar cube inside that. To the initiate, the moment of revelation comes even before the first bite, namely when he jabs his fork into the dumpling, and hot plum juice squirts out. From then on, it is a riot of sensations, gluey versus chewy, sweet versus bland-a unique item in anyone's repertoire.   Susan Derecsksey, Page 204 The Hungarian Cookbook

Once a year, when the Italian prune plums make their first appearance at the farm stand, I make these on a day I call Plum Sunday. I divide this recipe by 3, which makes enough dumplings to feed two greedy people.

Hungarian Plum Dumplings

Adapted from The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey

Serves 6

Please read the recipe all the way through before you start.

For the Dumplings

Can be divided by 2 or 3

6 medium russet potatoes (about 1½ to 2 pounds)
Salt

18 purple plums (Italian prune plums available in the fall)
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons salt
3 eggs, beaten
5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature, divided

18 small sugar cubes

To Finish

Even if I am dividing the recipe to feed fewer than 6 people, I never decrease the amount of butter for this step, and I only decrease the amount of breadcrumbs to ½ cup.

3 tablespoons butter

¾ cup plain dry bread crumbs
Ground cinnamon

Cinnamon sugar

The night before or early on the morning of the day you plan to make the dumplings, peel the potatoes, and steam them until they can be pierced easily with a cake tester. Put them through a food mill or ricer (I use a ricer), then spread them on a sheet pan, and let them stand overnight or all day in a cool place to dry them out. I throw a flour sack towel over them while they are drying out.

When ready to make the dumplings, put the potatoes into a mixing bowl, and mix in the flour and salt. Drop the beaten eggs into the bowl, and work the dough together with your floured hands. Beat in 5 tablespoons of butter, a tablespoonful at a time, then using your hands continue to work the dough until it is smooth. After resting for 20 minutes, roll it out ¼ inch thick on a floured board. Depending on how large the plums are, cut the dough into squares 4 by 4 inches or 3 inches by 3 inches.

Cut the unpeeled plums in half, and pit them.

To form the dumplings, take half a plum, put a sugar cube into the center of it, sprinkle on a little cinnamon, and put the other half of the plum over the sugar cube, re-forming a whole plum. Place the re-formed plum in the middle of a square of dough, pinch the dumpling closed, turning it into a round-ish ball. Place it, pinched side up, on a floured plate.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, and drop the dumplings one-by-one into it. Do not cover the pot. After a minute, give the dumplings a stir with a wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom. Once the dumplings rise to the surface, let them cook about 10 to 12 minutes. You don't want to overcook the dumplings, so just like when cooking ravioli, taste one. The plum should be hot and the dough firm, but not gummy, when done.

While the dumplings are cooking in the pot, brown the breadcrumbs in the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. As the dumplings are ready, lift them carefully out of the water with a slotted spoon, roll them in the browned breadcrumbs, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

Dumplings before being boiled