He said my dumplings were too soft.
Meg’s recent trip to the Excellent Dumpling House reminded me that I hadn’t finished blogging about the chicken and dumplings I made last week.
If you recall, I had serendipitously stumbled across a lovely organic stewing hen and wondered what to do with it. After putting a great deal of thought into the matter, there was no way around it. I was going to have to make a broth--and so I did: six pints of clear, deep golden broth to be used later that day for chicken and dumpling stew.
I think I’d only ever made fresh dumplings once before in my life, and then they were unwieldy things, dropped by heaping teaspoon directly into soup. The dumplings below were rolled out and cut into pieces, which sounds like a lot of work, except that this dough was incredibly easy to handle, not temperamental in the slightest.
I followed the instructions to the letter and produced these beautiful, light & fluffy dumplings. Later, my husband (who nonetheless helped himself to two helpings of the stew) told me that the dumplings were a bit too soft. The noive! He was comparing them to his beloved grandmother’s dumplings, though, and what wife’s dumplings can compare?
Next time, I suppose, I’ll work with the dough a bit more to give it a little more body, but if, consequently, he tells me they’re too tough, I’ll conk him over the head with my spoon.
Dumpling Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1½ tsp. double acting baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. Kosher salt
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium eggs, slightly beaten
1/8 cup buttermilk or low fat plain yogurt
Method:
1. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and stir until well blended.
2. Cut in the unsalted butter with a pastry blender until the flour resembles course corn meal.
3. Combine the slightly beaten eggs with the buttermilk or yogurt. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir the egg mixture into the flour, using as few strokes as possible.
4. Lightly flour your work surface, and turn the dough onto it. Sprinkle a little flour on the dough to prevent it from sticking to your fingers.
5. Gently flatten the dough with the heel of your hand, sprinkling a little more flour if it sticks to your hands or the work surface. Fold the dough in half, and gently press it flat again. Repeat this gentle flattening and folding process until the dough is just smooth. Do not try to knead the dough as you would bread dough. Overworked dumpling dough becomes tough and will not rise properly.
6. Roll the dough on a well-floured board to a ¼-inch thickness. Cut into strips that are one-inch wide and two-inches long. Set dumplings aside until needed.
I’d post the stew recipe except I wasn’t completely happy with it. Though it had great flavor (with that broth, how could it not?), it was a mite too soupy, so I’ve got to be on the look-out for a stewier stew.
9:45:56 PM 
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