For sculpting dumplings, steep unleavened dough is used. Its recipe is quite simple and includes only three ingredients: flour, water and eggs. This simple combination allows you to make dough for dumplings that rolls out thinly, does not break, does not crack when frozen and perfectly holds the meat filling.
Ingredients and proportions
To prepare dough for dumplings (based on one kilogram of minced meat), you will need:
- wheat flour of the highest grade - 3 cups,
- chicken eggs - 2 pieces,
- cold water - 0.5 cups (100 ml).
If desired, you can add salt to the dough, but this is not necessary: dumplings are usually boiled in salted water. Many housewives make dumplings without using eggs, only with flour and water. However, it is eggs, acting as an excellent binder, that allow the dough to acquire the necessary density and elasticity.
Dumplings dough recipe step by step
- Pour the sifted flour into a wide bowl or onto a clean work surface. Take the top of the hill with your hand and make a depression that resembles the mouth of a volcano (it is called a "crater" or "well").
- Pour the eggs into the well.
- Begin to beat the eggs slowly with a fork, gradually stirring in the flour. Make sure that the egg mass does not overflow over the edge of the crater.
- Pour water in small portions (1-2 tablespoons). Continue stirring. At this stage it may seem that this amount of liquid is not enough, but it is important to "hold" yourself and not violate the proportions by adding more water. Otherwise, the dough for dumplings may not be firm enough.
- When flour flakes begin to appear in the thickening dough, proceed to kneading with your hands. Gather flour evenly from the edges of the slide with the palm of your hand and pour into the center, pressing it against the liquid mass. Increase the pressure as the dough thickens. Continue until the dough has absorbed all the flour.
- Knead the resulting mass vigorously with both hands. You should have a firm, smooth, elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands.
- Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic or place it in a bowl and cover with a lid. Leave to "rest" and distance for 20-30 minutes. After that, you can start rolling the dough and sculpting dumplings.
Useful Tips
Making dumplings dough is a business that requires strong hands. The more dough you need to make, the more effort it will take to knead. Therefore, if you plan to sculpt a large batch of dumplings, the dough can be divided into 2-3 portions and knead each of them separately.
To prevent pieces of the shell from getting into the dough, you can first break the eggs into a cup, slightly beat the contents, and only then pour into the flour.
Dumplings can be made colorful by replacing the water in the recipe with beetroot or spinach juice, which kids usually like very much such colorful dumplings.
Dough for dumplings or homemade noodles is made according to the same recipe as for dumplings. However, for making dumplings, it is usually not rolled out so thinly.
