Marillenknoedel

As soon as I spotted the small apricots at the Farmer's Market on Thursday, I knew I had to make some Marillenknoedel. I wasn't sure that I could - and for some reason I couldn't find a good American recipe (i.e. with American measurements rather than weight measurements). So, I just winged it. (I based my recipe on the memory of how my friend made these in Vienna and the Billa cookbook from the 1980s.)
The cast of characters:

• about 3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt. Place this in a coffee filter resting in a colander over a bowl and let it sit overnight so that the extra whey drains off. This makes a semi-passable form of Topfen or Quark, although some American recipes suggest using pureed ricotta cheese.


• about 3/4 to 1 cup of flour


• 1 egg yolk


• pinch of salt


• 1 Tbsp melted butter


• 6-8 small apricots, slit to pull out the pit, with a sugar cube (or just spoon in some sugar like I did) placed inside


• butter, sugar, and bread crumbs from 2 pieces of bread for the outer coating (I used multi-grain bread, toasted, then whirled in the mini-food processor.)

Mix up the yogurt, butter, egg yolk and add the flour until you get a sticky dough you can form into a ball with your hands. Let that rest in the fridge about 20-30 minutes. The roll it out about 1/2 a cm thick. Use a cup or just a knife to cut circles of dough, place the circles in your hand and envelope the lovely apricots, pressing to make sure none of the apricot juice will escape. This is not an exact science, after all, a three-year-old helped me - which means that first I floured his hands, then he wiped them on his shirt, he formed a ball, dropped it on the floor, etc.

Anyways, make the balls. I think I made 7 apricots and then I had a little dough leftover so I made one cherry dumpling (not recommended - said three-year-old spit that out later). Then boil some water, lightly salt it, and let the dumplings have their moment in the hot tub, taking care not to let them stick to the bottom or to each other. (Lightly simmer them about 10 minutes. They should be floating when they are done.)Meanwhile, put some butter, sugar and breadcrumbs in a skillet to brown and crystallize, then roll each dumpling in the mixture. JK's mom uses more butter than breadcrumbs, but I like them dry and the sugar just a bit crunchy.

Plop those babies on a plate, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Mahlzeit! JK used to eat this as a meal as a kid.
By the way, it was his idea to be buried in the sand. But he was NOT going to put even a toe in the water... (Nor did he care to eat a Knoedel after he tried the cherry one, but that meant more for us!)