Dumplings are a delicious dish made from unleavened dough and meat. And, perhaps, there is no person who would be indifferent to them. Everyone loves them, young and old. And proof of this is the store shelves, where you can see numerous varieties from different manufacturers.
And those who buy them in the store always know very well which ones are worth taking and which ones are not. Moreover, in addition to the filling, they always pay attention to the dough, and you can often hear that in certain dumplings it tastes better than in others.
But probably everyone will agree that you won’t find anything better than homemade dumplings and homemade dough anywhere. Despite the most expensive store-bought dumplings, they will never be tastier than homemade ones.
And all because almost every housewife knows how to cook this dish, and each has her own signature recipe for making the dough. There are quite a lot of such recipes, and every housewife believes that her recipe is the best.
Today I propose to understand all the known recipes, and find out how they differ from each other and which option is best to prepare dumplings from. And also learn more about the features and some secrets of its preparation.
Dough for dumplings - secrets and general principles of preparation
Although dumpling dough (unleavened) is called as such, it is used not only for preparing them, but also for preparing various pasta, dumplings, pasties, and manti. And although the former are boiled, the latter are steamed, and the chebureki are even fried in oil, the basis for all these second courses is made from flour almost the same.
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And to those who are preparing dumplings today - Bon appetit!
For the test you will need:
- 2 cups of flour
- 150 grams of cold water
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
To prepare homemade dumplings according to your grandmother’s old recipe, start by adding a pinch of finely ground salt in a mortar and a yolk to two glasses of sifted flour and mix a little. Now you need to combine two-thirds of a glass of cold water with the flour. To do this, make a hole in the flour and slowly pour water into it, constantly stirring with your hand so that no lumps form.
Add a tablespoon of any vegetable oil and start kneading the dough. Place it on a generously floured table and knead it with your hands for a few minutes. Constantly sprinkle the dough with flour so that it grips better and does not stick to your hands and the table. But do not make the dough too thick, it will crumble and it will be almost impossible to mold it.
The longer and better you knead and knead the dough, the softer and more elastic it will be.
Cover the finished dough with cling film and leave for 30–40 minutes in the refrigerator.
Minced meat for homemade dumplings
For minced meat you need:
- 0.5 kilograms of pork
- 0.5 kilograms of beef
- 1 medium sized onion
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- pepper
To prepare minced meat according to the classic recipe for homemade dumplings, grind the meat through a meat grinder. You can skip pork and beef separately, or you can alternate pieces. For Siberian-style dumplings, finely chopped meat is not used, but minced meat.
Some recipes for homemade dumplings also use chicken or turkey meat for minced meat, to which mushrooms are added if desired. But champignons can also become an independent filling for dumplings.
Finely chop the onion or chop it too using a meat grinder. If desired, the onions can be fried in vegetable oil. Add the onion to the minced meat and then add salt and spices to taste. You can use ground pepper, but the meat will turn out much more flavorful if you choose peppercorns, which should be crushed in a mortar and salt immediately before adding to the minced meat.
Add two tablespoons of very cold water. Mix the minced meat well, it should turn out homogeneous and not dry, after which you can start making dumplings.
Making dough for dumplings
- More details
Water can be replaced with milk, then the minced meat will be more fluffy. And to add spiciness to the meat, squeeze 2-3 cloves of garlic into it
How to make homemade dumplings?
Roll out the dough well with a rolling pin to form a thin, even sheet. It should not tear! Take a glass or cup with thin edges and start cutting out circles. Each such cake needs to be stretched a little more with your fingers so that it becomes very thin. Place a sufficient amount of minced meat on it (about a teaspoon).
There should not be too much meat, otherwise the dumpling will tear. Now just seal the edges and then connect the corners. To prevent the dumplings from sticking together on the plate, sprinkle them with a little flour. Combine the remaining dough, roll it out again and repeat the whole process.
Before sealing the loose edges of the dough, brush them with cold water. In this case, we will hold the dumpling very tightly
To avoid dough residues, you can choose a different modeling option. Some recipes for homemade dumplings suggest rolling part of the dough into a small sausage and simply cutting it with a knife. Then dip each piece in flour on both sides, roll it out with a rolling pin, put minced meat on it and seal it. One sausage will make about 20 dumplings. The only disadvantage of this method of modeling is that it is difficult to make dumplings of the same shape and size.
Homemade handmade dumplings are a classic option. However, you can also use a special form. In this case, divide the dough into two parts. They should be rolled out thinly, with each sheet being slightly larger than the shape itself. After this, spread one sheet over a dry dumpling pan, previously sprinkled with flour, and press it down well with your fingers.
Now spread the meat, lightly pressing it with a spoon into the cells of the mold, and cover with a second layer of dough. Press it down well with your fingers again, and then roll it out on top with a rolling pin so that the cells of the dumpling maker become clearly visible. Remove any excess dough from the edges and turn the pan over. Tap the edge of the dumpling maker on the board or table several times so that the finished dumplings fall out.
Options for preparing dumplings
You can cook the dumplings right away. If you get a large number of them, then the rest can be placed directly on a plate (or put in a bag) in the freezer.
The dumplings are thrown into boiling salted water or broth and, until they float, stir periodically so as not to stick to the bottom of the pan.
They will never compare to those sold in the supermarket. They are very simple to prepare, but at the same time appetizing and so tasty. Try it and believe me, it’s a real culinary hit.
Cooking this dish can easily become a kind of family tradition that can unite several or more generations, but that’s not all the benefits. The positive points include the following: they will probably taste better than anything bought in a store, you can stick them and freeze them in a freezer full, and you will always have the opportunity to repeatedly boil or fry them. And of course, a truly high-quality and satisfying dish in a short time, and you will also feel like a real culinary hero.
So, dear friends, it is with great pleasure that in today’s article I will tell you how to prepare very tasty homemade dumplings using different recipes. And for lovers of Georgian cuisine I suggest.
Ingredients:
- Premium flour - 4 cups, 250 ml each
- water – 250 ml
- chicken egg - 2 pcs
- salt - 1 tsp.
Cooking method:
Sift the flour through a sieve into a deep bowl and remove exactly half a glass from the resulting total mass.
Then we drive in a few eggs here and knead the dough with our hands.
Pour the flour set aside onto a clean work surface, place the dough in it and knead it until ready, about 3-4 minutes.
In order for the dough to rest and the gluten to swell, it must be covered with a bowl for 15-20 minutes and left alone.
All that remains is to knead the dough once again, but thoroughly, for 10 minutes, using the remaining flour, after which you can start cooking the dumplings themselves.
How to make delicious homemade chicken dumplings
Ingredients:
- Dough
- chicken fillet – 300 gr
- onion - 1 piece
- soy sauce - 3 tbsp. l
- salt and pepper to taste.
Cooking method:
Wash the chicken fillet, then cut it into medium pieces along with the onion. Then we twist it in a meat grinder or grind it using a blender.
Add salt, pepper, any suitable seasonings to taste and add soy sauce. Then mix everything thoroughly.
Take a small piece of dough (how to make it is described above), form it into a sausage and cut it into round pieces 1.5-2 cm thick.
Using a rolling pin, roll them out individually into a small flat cake and place one teaspoon of minced chicken in each.
Now all that remains is to form the dumplings with your hands.
And boil them in salted boiling water, stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes until cooked. During this time they should all float to the surface.
A quick way to prepare dumplings using a dumpling maker
Ingredients:
- Dough
- homemade minced meat - 500 gr
- onion - 1 piece
- salt and pepper to taste.
Cooking method:
Add salt, pepper and onion minced in a meat grinder to homemade minced meat (pork and beef in equal proportions). Mix everything well until smooth.
Since we will be preparing dumplings using a special mold, it must be lightly sprinkled with flour. In this case, the dough will not stick to it.
Next, roll out two equal pieces of dough into layers, approximately 3 mm thick and slightly larger in diameter than the mold itself. We transfer one layer to the mold and carefully place on it in each translucent cell a piece of minced meat plucked off with wet hands, which needs to be slightly pressed, as shown in the photo below.
Cover the mold with a second layer, sprinkle it with flour and slowly roll it over it with a rolling pin with gentle movements. Thus, the dumplings should separate from the common layer.
We remove the excess pieces of dough to the side, turn the mold over and shake out the finished pieces from it.
We lay them out evenly and put them in the freezer, and when they are slightly frozen, they can be put into a bag and put back in the freezer.
This is a simple and quick way to make this wonderful dish.
Step-by-step recipe for making minced beef dumplings
Ingredients:
- Dough
- beef – 250 gr
- onions - 1 pc.
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ice water - 1 tbsp. l.
Cooking method:
1. See above for the method of preparing the dough.
2. We clean the beef from tendons and film, cut into medium pieces.
3. Peel the onion, cut it into pieces and grind it together with the meat using a blender or twist it in a meat grinder, preferably several times.
4. Pour salt and ground black pepper into the resulting minced meat, pour in 1 tablespoon of ice water, and mix thoroughly.
5. Roll out the dough into a flat cake 3-5 mm thick and cut out circles with a glass.
6. Place one teaspoon of minced meat in the center of each circle and make dumplings using any method available to you.
7. Now you can immediately boil them, or place them on a lightly floured board, put them in the freezer and freeze.
8. Place fresh or already frozen preparations in boiling and salted water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5-7 minutes from the moment they emerge. Serve the dish hot.
Dumplings with meat and cabbage (video)
If you, dear readers, are interested in this recipe, watch this video.
Bon appetit!
Delicious homemade dumplings will never compare with those sold in stores. Homemade simple, but at the same time so appetizing and tasty dumplings are a real culinary hit. Making dumplings can be a fun family tradition that spans several generations, but the benefits of making dumplings at home don't end there. The advantages of making dumplings yourself also include the following points - they will undoubtedly taste better than all store-bought dumplings; you will have a freezer full of dumplings and the ability to repeatedly prepare a hearty dish in a matter of minutes; and finally, you will feel like a real culinary hero, looking at the abundance of adorable dumplings that you have prepared with your own hands. And, of course, the gratitude of your loved ones and endless compliments will know no bounds. Well, have we convinced you? Then head to the kitchen!
It should be noted right away that making dumplings is not an activity for the lazy. It will require time, patience and perseverance. But it's worth it. Dumplings can be formed by hand, making traditional “ears” - which, by the way, are considered real dumplings - or you can use for this a device familiar to many from Soviet times called a dumpling maker, which was used by our mothers and grandmothers. Classic dumpling dough consists of flour, water and salt. However, there are many other options for dumpling dough - egg dough, choux pastry, milk dough, sour cream dough and kefir dough. To prepare the dough according to the classic recipe, add salt and water to a mound of sifted flour, then knead into an elastic dough that will not stick to your hands. Don't make the dough too stiff or too stiff - it should be soft and easy to roll out. As for the exact ratio of flour and water, here you need to rely on intuition and your experience, since the final result depends on the quality of the flour and the gluten content in it. It is best to use premium flour with a high gluten content - it will give the dumplings a snow-white color and prevent the dough from boiling. If you use eggs, make sure they are fresh. After kneading, the dough should be covered with plastic wrap or placed in a bag and left for 30-40 minutes at room temperature - this will make the dough more pliable and tender. The finished dough must be rolled out as thin as possible.
As for the filling, it can consist not only of pork, beef or lamb, as many mistakenly believe. The options here are endless - dumplings can be filled with minced turkey, minced chicken, mushrooms, fish, ham, shrimp, beans, cheese and herbs, boiled eggs and seaweed, lentils, rice and even kimchi. Regardless of the filling you choose, use about 1 tablespoon of filling per dumpling. If you choose a minced meat filling, you must add a few tablespoons of water and onions for juiciness - about 2 large onions per 1 kilogram of minced meat. The finished minced meat should not stick to your hands and fall apart into pieces if you form a lump out of it. Spices and herbs are a great way to add variety to your filling. In addition to standard black pepper, you can use red pepper, ready-made mixtures for minced meat and adjika, suneli hops, as well as cilantro, basil, parsley and dill.
After cooking, the dumplings must be frozen. Do this on a large tray or baking sheet, making sure none of the dumplings are touching or they will stick together. Once the dumplings have hardened, store them in the freezer for up to three months. Boil the dumplings in plenty of salted water, adding a few bay leaves for flavor. When the dumplings float to the surface, they need to be cooked for 7 to 15 minutes, depending on the size. Alternatively, you can fry the dumplings. This method is good if you want to diversify your usual diet. To do this, heat the oil in a frying pan, add the dumplings and fry until golden brown on both sides under the lid. After this, pour in a few tablespoons of water and simmer the dumplings until all the water has evaporated.
If you're making your first batch of dumplings, try some of the recipes we've suggested. Once you find a recipe that you like and meets your expectations, you can experiment with the ingredients and add your favorite spices.
Ingredients:
For the test:
3 cups flour,
1 glass of water,
1 teaspoon salt.
For filling:
500 g pork,
500 g beef,
2 onions,
salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation:
Sift the flour onto the table and make a well in it. Add salt, pour in water and knead the dough for 10 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave for half an hour. Meanwhile, make the filling. Make minced meat and onions, place in a bowl, salt, pepper and add a few tablespoons of water for elasticity.
Cut off part of the dough (about a quarter) and roll out into a circle about 2 mm thick. Using a shot glass or a small glass, cut out circles - the basis of future dumplings. Place minced meat in the middle of each circle, tightly seal the edges of the dough with your fingers and connect the two ends to form an “ear”. Place the finished dumplings on a tray sprinkled with flour and freeze in the refrigerator. When the dumplings are frozen, transfer them to a bag and tie tightly.
Ural dumplings are not only a popular television show, but also a very tasty dish. A distinctive feature of these dumplings is the filling made from three types of meat. To prepare such dumplings, you should definitely use beef and pork, and you can choose the third meat component at your discretion - it could be, for example, lamb, chicken or turkey.
Ural dumplings
Ingredients:
For filling:
300 g beef,
300 g pork,
300 g lamb,
2 onions,
1/2 cup milk,
salt and spices to taste.
For the test:
3 cups flour,
150 ml water,
2 eggs,
salt to taste.
Preparation:
Sift the flour onto the table in a heap. Make a well and add water, eggs and salt. Knead the dough and leave under cling film for 40 minutes. For the filling, mince three types of meat together with onions, then stir with milk, salt and season to taste. Ural dumplings are always molded by hand in the form of “ears” without the use of a dumpling maker.
Dumplings with fish filling are just as popular a dish in Kamchatka (where they originated) as our traditional dumplings with minced meat. To prepare such dumplings, it is best to take several types of fish fillets.
Dumplings with fish filling
Ingredients:
For the test:
3 cups flour,
1 glass of water,
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt.
For filling:
1 kg fish fillet,
2 onions,
salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation:
Add the egg, butter and salt mixed with water into the well in the flour, poured in a heap on the table. Knead a soft elastic dough, which should be left for 30-40 minutes in a plastic bag. Grind the fish fillet along with the onion in a meat grinder or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Divide the dough into several parts. One by one, roll out each dough into a thin layer and cut out circles. Fill the mugs with fish filling and form “ears”. Cook the finished dumplings immediately or freeze them.
Delicious homemade dumplings have never left anyone indifferent, and if you want to truly surprise your family and guests, try making dumplings with very unusual fillings, using cottage cheese, cheese, mushrooms and potatoes. You can be sure that such dumplings will be appreciated by both adults and children.
Dumplings with cheese and curd filling
Ingredients:
For the test:
3 cups flour,
4 tablespoons vegetable oil,
1 glass of boiling water,
1 teaspoon salt.
For filling:
700 g cottage cheese,
300 g soft cheese, for example Feta or Brynza,
greens (dill or parsley),
salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation:
Grind cottage cheese and cheese using a meat grinder or food processor. Stir in chopped herbs and add salt and pepper to taste.
To prepare the choux pastry, you need to pour boiling water and vegetable oil into a large bowl, then add flour and knead the dough. It is important to work very quickly, as kneading the dough slowly may cause lumps to form. Immediately roll out the dough and form dumplings - either make “ears” or use a dumpling maker.
Dumplings with cheese and mushroom filling
Ingredients:
For the test:
350 g flour,
200 ml kefir,
1/2 teaspoon salt.
For filling:
500 g mushrooms,
1 onion,
150 g hard cheese,
butter,
salt and spices to taste.
Preparation:
Pour kefir into a bowl, add flour and knead the dough, first with a fork and then with your hands. Let the covered dough rest for half an hour. Meanwhile, fry finely chopped mushrooms and onions in butter. Let cool, mix with grated cheese, salt and add spices to taste. Form dumplings using the prepared dough and filling using any of the following methods.
Dumplings with potatoes and mushrooms
Ingredients:
For the test:
2 cups of flour,
2 large eggs,
1 teaspoon vegetable oil,
3 tablespoons of water,
salt to taste.
For filling:
300 g potatoes,
200 g mushrooms,
1 large onion,
100 g butter,
dill,
salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation:
Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and water. Make a hole in the center of the flour and pour the egg mixture into it. Using your fingers, mix all ingredients together. Alternatively, you can use a mixing fork initially. The finished dough should be smooth and homogeneous. Add additional flour if necessary to prevent the dough from being overly sticky. Wrap the dough in cling film and set aside for half an hour.
Boil potatoes, fry onions and mushrooms. Pass all ingredients through a meat grinder or grind in a food processor. Mix with melted butter, chopped dill, salt and pepper. Roll out the dough, cut out circles from it, fill them with filling and form “ears”.
Preparing dumplings definitely takes some time - we advise you to set aside an average of 2-3 hours for this task. At the same time, you can rest assured that your dedication and hard work will be rewarded, and delicious homemade dumplings will delight your family and guests.
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