8 Dumpling Recipes To Make Austrian Knödel

Dumpling recipes. Since Austrian knödel are my favorite mood food my collection of sweet and savory dumpling recipes has grown during the past years. When I dig into them, I bite into my home country. To show you how versatile and easy they are to prepare, learn how to cook eight different types dumpling types below.

What Are Austrian Knödel Made Of?

Throughout Austrian cookbooks, Knödel (or Knodel) appear in many recipes, either as a stand-alone meal or a side dish with meat, mushrooms or just lettuce. Depending on their variety, they are made or potatoes, bread and bread crumbs, soft cheese and semolina, and even yeast.

Where Do Knödel Come From?

Most of the dumplings originate from the former crownlands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bohemia and Moravia (today’s Czech Republic), and from Germany. Originally, the many Bohemian and Moravian cooks and nannies who used to work in bourgeois Viennese households introduced the Knedlicki to Austrian households.

The eight dumpling recipes below are based on 4 people and focus on either savory or sweet dumplings. While most of them are easy to prepare Austrian supermarkets also offer ready made mixtures for all the different Knödel.

Savoury Dumpling Recipes

1. Semmelknödel

Soft but solid in texture, this dumplings recipe is based on old bread rolls. It derives its taste from chopped onions and parsley. We usually eat them with roast pork (Schweinsbraten), gulash, deer stew, lentils or mushroom ragout. If you mix finely chopped smoked meat into the mass, you will get Tirolerknödel, a tasty stand-alone dish.

Ingredients:
6 old bread rolls (equals about 300 gr)
60 gr vegetable oil, lard or butter
50 gr flour
300 to 400 ml milk
2 eggs
1 onion
50 gr parsley
salt

Cut the bread rolls into small cubes and fry them in fat together with the finely chopped onion and parsley until crispy.
Whisk milk, eggs and salt, pour them over the bread rolls, onion and parsley until the rolls absorb the liquid.
Add just enough flour to create a sticky mixture, if needed, and mix well
Form round dumplings with your hands, put them in boiling salt water and let them simmer for around 10 minutes

My tip: Boil one test dumpling to find out whether additional flour is needed for the remaining mixture.

2. Serviettenknödel

Serviettenknödel is one of the German dumpling recipes and similar to Semmelknödel. They are shaped into a long roll and boiled using a cotton or linen napkin (Serviette). Today, people also use strong cling film which can be cut open after boiling. The Knodel are used as a side dish much like the Semmelknödel.

Ingredients:
6 old bread rolls (equals about 300 gr)
80 + 30 gr butter, and a little butter for the napkin
30 gr breadcrumbs
125 ml milk
2 to 3 eggs
salt

Cut the old bread rolls into small cubes
Whisk eggs with milk, 80 gr melted butter and salt and pour the mixture over the bread rolls
Coat a cotton or linen napkin with butter
When the bread rolls have absorbed the liquid, bind the mixture into the buttered napkin and form a long shaped dumpling
Bring salt water to the boil and let the mixture in the napkin simmer for around 45 minutes
Take the dumpling out of the napkin and slice it using a knife
Fry the breadcrumbs with 30 gr butter
Sprinkle the roasted breadcrumbs over the dumpling slices before serving them

3. Erdäpfelknödel

This dumplings recipe is one of the easiest for potato dumplings, which taste a little like Italian gnocchi. Potato dumpling recipes are heavier in texture than bread or soft cheese dumplings. They are a great side dish with roast duck or goose, but also with roast pork.

Ingredients:
1 kg baking potatoes
200 gr flour
70 gr semolina
40 gr butter
1 egg yolk
nutmeg
salt

boil the potatoes and pass them through a potato press while still hot
Mix the flour, semolina, a pinch of nutmeg, salt and the egg yolk to make a dough
Create golf-ball sized dumplings with your hands
Put the dumplings in boiling saltwater and let them simmer for 15 to 20 minutes
Take the dumplings out of the water and serve immediately

4. Tiroler Speckknödel

The bacon dumplings recipe from the Tyrol is another meaty version of dumpling recipes. They mix old rolls with finely chopped smoked bacon, onions and parsley, which creates a fantastic flavour. The Tiroler Speckknödel are eaten as a solid ingredient with clear soups (use small dumplings). They can be sliced and pan-fried and eaten with leafy green salad, white sour cabbage or lentils.

Ingredients:
6 old bread rolls (equals about 300 gr)
125 gr smoked bacon cut in small cubes
1 small chopped onion
1 tble spoon finely chopped parsley
50 gr butter
250 ml milk
2 eggs
flour as needed
salt

Cut the bread rolls in small cubes.
Whisk the eggs with milk and salt
Pour the mixture over the bread rolls and let them absorb the liquid for 30 minutes
Fry the onion in butter until golden
Add the cubes of bacon, the fried onion, parsley and just enough flour to create a not too soft dough
Form 10 dumplings out of the mixture
Put the dumplings in boiling salt water and let them simmer for around 15 minutes
Serve with lettuce or white cabbage (Sauerkraut)

My tip: Fry slices of left over dumplings in the pan. Tastes also great if you fry them with eggs. Serve with green leafy salad.

5. Fleischknödel

For a stand-alone dumpling dish this is one of the best recycling dumpling recipes if you have left over roast meat, minced meat or sausages.

Ingredients:
500 gr flour
200 gr meat, minced meat or sausage
50 + 20 gr vegetable oil, lard or butter
30 gr breadcrumbs
half an onion
parsley
625 ml water
salt

Salt the flour, scald with boiling water and form a dough
Using a spoon, cut equally sized pieces out of the dough
Press each of the pieces apart on a surface covered with flour
For the filling: Finely chop the meat or sausages and mix them with finely chopped fried onion and parsley
Put one or two tablespoons of the meat in the middle of each piece of dough
Form dumplings by closing the meat filling with the dough
Put the dumplings in boiling salt water and simmer for around 10 minutes
Fry the breadcrumbs in a little fat
Sprinkle the dumplings with the fried breadcrumbs just before serving them

Sweet Dumpling Recipes

6. Plum, apricot, cherry or strawberry dumplings

Our classic sweet dumpling recipes are based on potatoes or soft cheese, flour and sugar. Soft cheese dumplings are very fluffy. Whether you have them plain, with compote, breadcrumbs fried in butter and cinnamon, they taste amazing. Alternatively, fill them with different types of fruit, such as apricots, plums or strawberries. Other than that, this kind of Austrian knödel is also delicious when frozen: For example, Viennese ice cream parlour Eissalon am Schwedenplatz excels with its apricot ice cream dumplings.

Ingredients:
1 kg potatoes
500 gr fresh fruit
270 gr flour
50 gr breadcrumbs
30 gr semolina
60 gr vegetable oil, lard or butter
80 gr butter
1 egg
salt
sugar to sprinkle

Boil the potatoes, peel them while hot and pass them through a potato press (or crush them with a rolling pin)
Add 60 gr oil, lard or butter, flour, egg and semolina and quickly form a smooth dough (don’t knead forever as this makes the dough loose texture)
Create a long roll out of the dough, and cut in thumb thick slices
Press each slice apart and cover one piece of fruit in it, then form a dumpling with your hands. Just use enough dough to firmly cover the fruit
Put the dumplings into boiling salt water and let them simmer on low heat for 5 minutes
Fry the breadcrumbs in 80 gr butter
Take the dumplings out, roll them in the fried breadcrumbs, sprinkle with sugar and serve immediately

7. Cheesecake semolina apricot dumplings

One of my mother’s favourite sweet dumpling recipes, this has become a regular on my family’s dinner table.

Ingredients:
500 gr soft cheese (ricotta)
300 gr flour
120 gr butter
8 to 10 apricots
2 eggs
salt
peel of unwaxed lemon
For the fried breadcrumbs: 30 gr breadcrumbs, 30 gr butter
30 gr icing sugar

Whisk butter, lemon peel and a pinch of salt until foamy
Add the eggs one by one
Add soft cheese and flour until you create a smooth dough
Let the dough rest for 15 minutes
Cover each of the washed apricots in a layer of dough, just enough to close them in, and form dumplings with your hands
Put them in boiling salt water and let them simmer for around 15 minutes
Fry the breadcrumbs in the butter
Sprinkle the dumplings with fried breadcrumbs and icing sugar just before serving them

My tip: As a variation of fruit dumpling recipes, you can replace the apricots with nougat balls (for best results use Lindt’s Lindor nougat balls), which melt into chocolate sauce once you slice up the dumplings. Vienna restaurant Motto usually serves them with warm strawberry compote! Alternatively, you can create this type of Austrian knödel as golf-ball sized unfilled dumplings and serve them with fruit compote.

8. Germknödel

Yeast dumplings are the Big Mac among Austrian knödel. They are rich and filling ‘reward food’ and their gigantic size inspires awe. Germknödel come tossed with a black and white mixture of poppy seeds and caster sugar, and are surrounded by a mellow puddle of melted butter, or vanilla sauce. They are filled with Powidl, traditional plum jam of Bohemian origin. Yeast dumplings are high carbohydrate food and very popular at Austrian ski resorts.

Yeast dumpling recipes are for experienced cooks. It also shows that this knodel is slow food. It takes around 2 to 2.5 hours to prepare them (think of the reward!)

Ingredients:
250 gr plain flour; plus a little flour to cover the work surface
120 ml milk
12 gr yeast
200 gr (melted) butter to sprinkle; plus 3 tble spoons of (melted) butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
1 tble spoon crystalized sugar
120 gr plum jam (Powidl)
100gr icing sugar
100 gr grated grey poppy seeds

Dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk
Add 4 tble spoons of flour, the crystal sugar and a pinch of salt
Mix well, sprinkle with a little flour and let the dough extend until it doubles in size (in the oven on 40 degrees Celsius, with door left ajar)
Add melted butter, remaining flour, egg and egg yolk and form a smooth dough
Let the dough extend further for 30 to 40 minutes
Fold the dough together on a work surfaced topped with a little flour
Let the dough rest for 5 minutes and then roll out until 5 mm thick
Cut the dough in 5 x 5 cm large square shapes
Wet the margins with a little water
Put some plum jam in the middle of each square, close the dough around the jam and form dumplings
Put the dumplings on a board covered with a little flour, cover them with a tea towel and let them rest for 30 minutes
Boil water in a large spacious pan and add the dumplings (you may need to do this in two turns)
Let the water boil up once and then let the dumplings simmer under firmly closed lid for 15 minutes
Within this time period, turn the dumplings upside down after 10 minutes and let them simmer for the remaining time
Take the dumplings out of the water and immediately pierce them with a tooth pick or a long skewer stick, to prevent the dumplings from collapsing
For the poppy seed mixture: Mix the poppy seeds with the icing sugar and sprinkle it over the dumplings. Generously pour the melted butter over the dumplings and serve immediately.