Dumplings?

emily_jackson

I tried to make beef stew and dumplings last week, and the recipe I was following said to make a dough with self-raising flour, butter and water, but the dough was a little sticky, and when I tried to add the dumplings to the stew, they just dissolved into a sort of buttery mess! Does anyone have any ideas as to where I might be going wrong? Thanks!

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meritaten

um - I always use beef suet, SR flour, a little salt and pepper for the basic dumpling. you can add dried herbs or grated cheese if you want flavoured ones. but I have never used butter.
the mix does need to be a little sticky, and the stew MUST be bubbling when you add the dumplings or they do break up.

LameWolf

I use one heaped spoon SR flour to one rounded spoon veggie suet, seasoning/herbs to taste, and enough water to form a dough. Never made dumplings with butter.

PasturesNew

If they're in any way too wet, add more flour. You really have to add the water very slowly and ensure the flour is soaking up all the moist bits as you go.

emily_jackson

Thanks for all the suggestions! The beef stew tasted nice (even with a bit of buttery dumpling goo!) so it would be great if I could crack the dumplings x

meritaten

funnily enough Emily this is what OH had for supper last night. beef stew and dumplings.
the only way I think it would work if you used butter, would be to freeze the butter and grate it into the flour. then be very careful to mix with a fork or spoon and NOT touch the mix. butter melts very quickly and if it does that before the flour starts cooking - that's probably why you ended up with a goo.

Nargleblast

You can make a frugal version of dumplings with just SR flour, water and seasoning (I think they are called Norfolk dumplings). Just make sure the mixture is dry and non-sticky, rolling the dumpling balls in more flour if necessary. Drop them into the stew about twenty minutes or so before serving.

meritaten

Emily - was just thinking - you SURE the recipe was for dumplings? because the Americans make 'biscuits' to go with beef stew which is much more like a 'scone' cobbler topping. (btw, scone cobbler topping is absolutely gorgeous with a rich beef stew)?

YORKSHIRELASS

I always use vegetable suet and simply twice the self raising flour to suet. So for 4 of us I might do 2 oz of suet to 4 oz of sr flour. A pinch of salt and enough water to make it into a dough. Roll lumps of the dough into even sizes balls and add to hot stew. Return to a fairly hot oven for about 20 minutes until they are golden brown on top.

I have never added butter to dumplings either but as meritaten says I have made cobblers before, they are just something completely different!

Ches

I use vegetable suet but my sister uses butter/marge and both are nice. If you make it too sticky knead the dumping mix in flour before you seperate it up and drop in the stew which should stop them from breaking up. Either way its half fat to SR flour.

meritaten

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

I always use vegetable suet and simply twice the self raising flour to suet. So for 4 of us I might do 2 oz of suet to 4 oz of sr flour. A pinch of salt and enough water to make it into a dough. Roll lumps of the dough into even sizes balls and add to hot stew. Return to a fairly hot oven for about 20 minutes until they are golden brown on top.

I have never added butter to dumplings either but as meritaten says I have made cobblers before, they are just something completely different!

Yorkshirelass - exactly the same as me! I really don't mind if its vegetable suet or beef suet, except I don't bother rolling them into balls - I just drop 'scoops' into the bubbling stew!

in the days when I ate food made with wheat flour - I preferred cobblers to dumplings. OH prefers dumplings so gets his way every time now I have developed wheat allergy!