Saturday: Dumpling Story

Well, I guess it's more like a dumpling recipe, with a little prelude:

I decided to make and share my Grandma May's maple dumplings as part of our dinner party. It seemed like an appropriate dish-it's warm and doughy and sweet-the epitome of comfort food, and it fills the space with a mapley good scent. There's really nothing better or more delicious on a cold fall day. There is also an element of improvisation to this recipe-my grandma's family moved to Saskatchewan from Quebec, and this recipe is sort of a Fransaskois take of a Quebecois dish. My grandparents, unable to find, or maybe unable to afford, real maple syrup, boiled the dumplings in a sauce made of brown sugar, water, and Mapeline brand imitation maple flavouring. The first time I made them, I used real maple syrup, and while the dumplings were really very tasty, they didn't taste a thing like the ones I remembered my Grandma making. The version I made was the Prairie version--it is the one that reminds me of home, and it is also the one that seems the most appropriate to make in a makeshift, cobbled together kitchen for new friends and strangers.

Grandma and Grandpa Dumplings

You need:

1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup milk
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 tsp maple extract

* as a note, you can substitute 2 cups of maple syrup for the brown sugar, boiling water, and maple extract if you are interested.

And what you shoud do is this:

Sift the flour, measure and sift again with baking powder and salt. Add the shortening, cut into the dry ingredients and mix as you would for ordinary pie crust. Pour the milk in all at once and mix quickly. The dough should be quite firm. Heat the 2 the water, brown sugar, and maple extract in a sauce pan, and when it boils, drop in the dough by spoonfuls. Cover the saucepan, lower the stove to a simmer, and let the dough poach without boiling for 12 to 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this time. Serve each dumpling with spoonfuls of maple sauce and a drizzle of cream.

As an aside, I doubled this recipe, did most of my measuring with a New Gallery coffee mug, used Vitasoy instead of milk, and decided to forgo sifting altogether. The dumplings were still delicious.