Polish strawberry dumplings or knedle z truskawkami in Polish is a delicious Polish summer dish consisting of round dumplings filled with strawberries and served with fried breadcrumbs, sweetened sour cream, and strawberry sauce. Kids are big fans of this dish!
About the recipe
Knedle are a classic Polish summer dish. Plums or strawberries are most often used. This dish is meant to be eaten as a light summer dinner that is not sweet as a dessert, but just a little bit on the sweet side. Polish people often eat sweet, not savory, dinners in summer, such as leniwe (potato cheese dumplings similar to gnocchi), naleśniki (crepes) with sweet cheese filling or fruit filling such as sauteed cinnamon apples. Sweet pierogi filled with sweet cheese filling or fruit filling such as blueberries (blueberry pierogi), strawberries, or cherries are also very popular.
The dough for the dumplings is made either with cheese dough (with Polish twaróg cheese) or mashed potato dough. If you’d rather make the potato dough, check out this recipe for Polish plum dumplings.
I have also a similar recipe on my website, for Austrian apricot dumplings (Marillenknödel), which are very similar to this recipe, but after being boiled, they are rolled in a fried breadcrumb-sugar mixture. They’re also very good!
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make knedle:
- All-purpose flour
- Cream cheese – in Poland Polish twaróg cheese (fresh curd cheese) is used here but since it’s probably difficult for you to find it where you live (as it is for me), I used cream cheese. It doesn’t produce identical results, but it’s close enough.
- Fresh strawberries – preferably medium- and uniformly-sized.
- Eggs
- Powdered sugar – is not always used, I like to use some in my dough.
- Vanilla extract – is not always used, but I like it. More polish would be using vanilla sugar, if you have it.
And here’s what you need to make sides for the dumplings:
- fried sweetened breadcrumbs (bułka tarta) – a condiment that Polish people serve with everything!
- sweetened sour cream
- no-cook strawberry sauce – not traditional but very recommended
How to make it step-by-step
Make the dough:
Add all the ingredients for the dough (except the strawberries) to a medium bowl. Knead by hand or use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until a smooth dough forms. The dough will be sticky.
(2 cups (250g) flour, spooned and leveled, 2 large eggs, beaten, 12 1/2 ounces (350g) cream cheese, 3 tablespoons (42g) melted butter, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon salt)
Spread the dough in the bowl, covering its sides so that every part of the dough is of a more uniform thickness. This will help it chill more uniformly (see photos in the body of the post for reference). Cover with a kitchen cloth and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Wash the strawberries (for the dumplings), remove the tops, and pat dry with paper towels.
(14 medium-sized strawberries)
Shape the dumplings:
Start heating salted water in a large pot.
Sprinkle your counter or a silicone rolling mat with flour. Scoop out a heaped tablespoon of dough onto the floured surface, dust your hands with flour, and flatten the dough into a circle. Place 1 strawberry over the dough, take it in your hand, press the dough around the strawberry, and seal well. You should not be able to see the seam. Place the dumpling on a floured plate.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients, you should have 14 dumplings.
Cook the dumplings:
Cook the dumplings in batches, about 4 at a time if you have a medium pot, and about 7 if you have a large pot. When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, add in the dumplings, then reduce the heat to low. The water should barely boil.
Cook them for about 8-10 minutes or until they come to the surface. For slightly larger dumplings you may need to cook them about 1 minute longer after they’ve come to the surface. If you’re not sure, cook 1 test dumpling and cut it in half – you should not see any raw dough around the strawberry.
After 1-2 minutes of cooking, try to stir the dumplings carefully with a wooden spoon so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
Take the cooked dumplings out of the water with a slotted spoon and drain well.
Prepare the remaining ingredients/sides:
Make the strawberry sauce: Clean the strawberries, remove the tops, and blend in a food processor or blender with powdered sugar until smooth.
(1/2 lb (225g) strawberries, 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar)
Make the fried breadcrumbs: Melt butter in a small saucepan. When melted, add the breadcrumbs and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until golden brown. Take the pot off the heat and stir in brown sugar.
(1/4 cup (45g) fine breadcrumbs, 6 tablespoons (85g) butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, or granulated sugar)
Make sweetened sour cream: In a small bowl, combine sour cream with powdered sugar.
(1/2 cup (120g) sour cream, or yogurt, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar)
Serve the knedle with strawberry sauce, sweetened sour cream, and fried breadcrumbs.
Enjoy!
More summer Polish recipes
- Polish summer dinner
- Leczo (Polish-Hungarian sausage and vegetable stew)
- Chłodnik (cold cucumber soup)
- Butter Lettuce Salad (sałata ze śmietaną)
- Polish Tomato Soup (zupa pomidorowa)
- Chanterelle soup (zupa kurkowa)
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Polish Strawberry Dumplings (Knedle z Truskawkami)
Ingredients
for the dumplings:
- 2 cups (250g) flour, spooned and leveled + more for working with the dough
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 12 1/2 ounces (350g) cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons (42g) melted butter
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 14 medium-sized strawberries
for the strawberry sauce:
- 1/2 lb (225g) strawberries
- 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar
sweet fried breadcrumbs:
- 1/4 cup (45g) fine breadcrumbs
- 6 tablespoons (85g) butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
for the sweetened sour cream:
- 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream or yogurt
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
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Instructions
Make the dough:
- Add all the ingredients for the dough (except the strawberries) to a medium bowl. Knead by hand or use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until a smooth dough forms. The dough will be sticky.2 cups (250g) flour, spooned and leveled, 2 large eggs, 12 1/2 ounces (350g) cream cheese, 3 tablespoons (42g) melted butter, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Spread the dough in the bowl, covering its sides so that every part of the dough is of a more uniform thickness. This will help it chill more uniformly (see photos in the body of the post for reference). Cover with a kitchen cloth and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare all the other ingredients.
Prepare the remaining ingredients/sides:
- Wash the strawberries (for the dumplings), remove the tops, and pat dry with paper towels.14 medium-sized strawberries
- Make the strawberry sauce: Clean the strawberries (for the sauce), remove the tops, and blend in a food processor or blender with powdered sugar until smooth.1/2 lb (225g) strawberries, 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar
- Make the fried breadcrumbs: Melt butter in a small saucepan. When melted, add the breadcrumbs and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until golden brown. Take the pot off the heat and stir in brown sugar.1/4 cup (45g) fine breadcrumbs, 6 tablespoons (85g) butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- Make sweetened sour cream: In a small bowl, combine sour cream with powdered sugar.1/2 cup (120g) sour cream, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
Shape and cook dumplings:
- Start heating salted water in a large pot.
- Sprinkle your counter or a silicone rolling mat with flour. Scoop out a heaped tablespoon of dough onto the floured surface, dust your hands with flour, and flatten the dough into a circle. Place 1 strawberry over the dough, take it in your hand, press the dough around the strawberry, and seal well. You should not be able to see the seam. Place the dumpling on a floured plate. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, you should have 14 dumplings.
- Cook the dumplings in batches, about 4 at a time if you have a medium pot, and about 7 if you have a large pot. When the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, add in the dumplings, then reduce the heat to low. The water should barely boil. Cook them for about 8-10 minutes or until they come to the surface. For slightly larger dumplings you may need to cook them about 1 minute longer after they've come to the surface. If you're not sure, cook 1 test dumpling and cut it in half – you should not see any raw dough around the strawberry. After 1-2 minutes of cooking, try to stir the dumplings carefully with a wooden spoon so they don't stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Take the cooked dumplings out of the water with a slotted spoon and drain well.
- Serve with strawberry sauce, fried breadcrumbs, and sweetened sour cream.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- To make these dumplings, very often a mashed potato-based dough is being used. If you’d like to try that, you can find the recipe here: polish plum dumplings. Plums are another very popular summer fruit to use in these dumplings.
- Sweet fried breadcrumbs and sweetened sour cream are almost always served with these dumplings so please don’t omit them. Strawberry sauce is not traditional, but recommended!
- This dish is only lightly sweetened, it is not sweet as a dessert because it’s not eaten in Poland as a dessert but rather as a light summer dinner, more on the sweet side, than savory. If you’d like it sweeter, you can sweeten all the components more to your liking, you can also sprinkle some sugar over the strawberries before wrapping them with the dough.
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