German Potato Dumplings are a wonderful side dish idea. It's mostly served with delicious meals such as Sauerkraut and Sausage, Sauerbraten with Red Cabbage.
Potato Dumplings, aka Kartoffelknödel in German, are easy to prepare.
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📕 What are German Potato Dumplings?
The German Potato Dumplings are common round dumplings prepared with potato dough.
The dumplings are served as a savory side dish in all the German-speaking countries such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Neighboring countries and former countries from the empire, such as the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (North Italy) and Slovenia, count these potato dumplings as their traditional food.
Potato Gnocchi from Italy resembles the German Potato Dumplings.
In fact, potato dough is quite a popular dough variety in Central Europe and other dumplings and noodles are prepared with this dough as well.
👄 German Names
Potato Dumplings are known as Kartoffelknödel or Kartoffelkloß in most parts of Germany.
In Austrian, we call the Erdäpfelknödel, in Bavaria the potato dumplings are known as Reibeknödel.
The word for dumpling in German is "Knödel/Knoedel or Kloß/Kloss".
In North Germany, they will say Kloß and in the southern regions Knödel.
The Potato is known as Kartoffel in German.
In Austria and Bavaria, potatoes are called Erdäpfel (literal translation, Earth apple).
🥔 Ingredients
Here is an overview of what you will need to make these from scratch at home. The detailed US and metric measurements are located in the printable recipe card further below.
- Potatoes - A mealy, easy to boil, variety. They shouldn't be too hard. Russet potatoes are a great choice!
- All-purpose Flour
- Corn Starch - If you don't have corn starch, use just all-purpose flour. Corn starch helps to bind and makes them a bit softer.
- Salt
- Nutmeg - Important flavor giver, don't skip adding a pinch!
- Egg - Also helps to keep your dumplings together when boiling them and adds flavor.
- Butter (optional) - Adds flavorful but not a must.
🔪 How to make them?
To prepare the potato dumplings, you will need to follow simple steps.
Step 1
Mash boiled potatoes.
Place mashed potatoes with flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and egg into a bowl.
Step 2
Combine to a smooth dough.
Shape into balls.
Step 3
Keep a pot with salt water to boil.
Drop dumpling balls into the boiling water.
Boil until they swim on top. Strain and serve up.
💡 Tips
We learned to make these dumplings in school (I went to school in Austria) and the teacher shared some tips with us.
- Prepare the dough with hot potatoes, it will blender better.
- Don't over mix your potato dough or else your dumplings will turn out stone hard.
- Always use salt water to boil. They just turn out better.
- Shape them while the water is boiling, and drop them into the water. Don't leave them to sit for all too long on your kitchen counter.
- You want your water to boil lightly, not too much. Too much movement can damage your dumplings.
- After dropping the dumplings into the water, check if they are not sticking to the bottom of your pot. Loosen them up with a cooking spoon.
- When you see them floating to the surface, leave them there for another minute or so before you take them out. That's to make sure they are properly cooked through.
- Don't overcrowd your pan.
🍱 Storing
If you plan on eating the potato dumplings within 48 hours, prepare the dough and store it in the fridge until you get time to boil and eat them.
I think the dumplings taste better when freshly boiled.
You can boil the potato dumplings and keep them in the fridge, but then they tend to get chewy and hard.
To reheat, place them into the oven and gradually heat up for a few minutes.
To store the German potato dumplings over a longer period of time, freeze them.
Prepare the dough, form the dumplings, cook them and then wrap them in a clean wrap.
Freeze the potato dumplings.
To take the frozen dumplings out, defrost them in room temperature water and cook them again so that they get hot.
🍴 Serving
The savory potato dumplings are usually served with saucy/gravy-rich meat meals, such as Beef Goulash.
Also, fall-themed meals such as a venison dish as served with these potato dumplings. Here are some more ideas.
💭 FAQs
No, you can't skip adding the egg to this recipe. The egg helps in keeping your dumplings together.
Because you don't get potato starch everywhere, and I personally never have it in my pantry. Why buy an ingredient for just one recipe, right? But you are, of course, free to switch the all-purpose + corn starch with potato starch in this recipe. Potato starch would be a more suitable choice, but it's not the only choice.
Yes, there is a Bavarian variation where they add 2-3 bread croutons as a filling. It adds a crunch to the dumpling center. Flatten a dumpling ball in your hand into a circle and place 2-3 croutons into the center. Wrap the potato dough around the croutons to close the dumplings and boil as directed in the recipe. You can also fill your potato dumplings with chopped bacon or ground beef (or corned beef) or chopped sautéd mushrooms.
They can fall apart if you didn't measure your ingredients (sorry, but cups won't do it) or if you skipped adding an egg. When shaping them, make sure that they are pressed and rolled into a round ball. The dumplings need to be added to boiling water, never cold water, and the water shouldn't be bubbling too much because that's how the dumplings can fall apart with the movement.
Potato dumplings will get rubbery and hard when boiled for too long. Also, overworking your dough can result in hard and chewy dumplings. If you measure and add too much flour, your dumplings can turn harder, too. Choose easy cook-through mealy potatoes, instead of hard potato varieties.
Dear Reader, how and with what are you planning to serve the potato dumplings?
📖 Recipe
German Potato Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
- 10.6 Ounces Potato boiled, about 3 potatoes
- 1 Cup All-purpose Flour + some more flour to shape dumplings
- ⅓ Cup Corn Starch
- Pinch Salt
- Pinch Nutmeg
- 1 Egg
- 1 Tablespoon Butter melted, optional *See Notes
Instructions
- Boil potatoes and peel.10.6 Ounces Potato
- Place your peeled boiled potatoes in a bowl. Mash them.
- Add the all-purpose flour and corn starch to the potato mash. Season with a pinch of salt and finely grated nutmeg.1 Cup All-purpose Flour, ⅓ Cup Corn Starch, Pinch Salt, Pinch Nutmeg
- Mix everything together.
- Make a slight well in the center and drop the egg into it. Add the butter too if you want your dumplings to turn out more smooth.1 Egg, 1 Tablespoon Butter
- Mix the potato dough ingredients and start to create a dough by forming it gradually. The end result should be a smooth dough. Do not over work your potato dough or else it will turn out hard!
- Keep a pot with salt water to boil.
- Now shape your dumplings by taking some from the dough and rolling it into a round form. It helps to roll the dumplings out with flour because they can get sticky. Use up all the dough.
- Once the water is cooking, drop your dumplings into the water. Make sure that they don't stick on the bottom of the pot. Gently move them. Also, the water shouldn't bubble too wild or else the dumplings may fall apart.
- Leave the dumplings cook uncovered until they swim to the top.
- Allow them to swim to the surface, watch them for a minute max and take them out with a slotted spoon.
- Strain and serve up.
Notes
- You may or may not add butter. This is up to you. I think the dumplings turn out more smooth with the butter, but if you want to cut on fats, then you can skip the Tbs.
- The corn starch makes the dumplings more elastic and maybe a bit lighter. You can choose to skip the corn starch and use simply all-purpose flour only instead.
- Do not skip the nutmeg. You need the nutmeg in the dumplings for flavor.
- Calorie per serving is for one dumpling.
