Zwetschgenknödel

I love writing German titles for my posts and keep everyone guessing what the heck I'm talking about; but I won't leave you hanging for long - I'm sharing my Grandma's recipe for her delicious plum dumplings today!

It's a huge mess - but absolutely delicious - so I suggest you don't try this when your kids are around and you stock up on wine or chocolate before you begin...

Plum dumplings

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup hot milk
• 3/4 cup instant mashed potato powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 package cream cheese
• 1 cup plain yogurt, unsweetened
• pinch of salt
• 40 frozen Italian plums

for the topping:

• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter

Start by mixing 2 cups of the flour with the milk and instant mashed potatoes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and knead well (I always use a spoon, but you can use a mixer with the hook-attachement also). The dough is going to be really sticky and won't cooperate, but that's how it's supposed to be. Add flour until the dough has the consistency of really soft playdo (you might need more than 2-1/2 cups of flour altogether).

Spread some flour on your work surface and take a quarter of the dough, forming it into a roll about 12" long and 3/4" thick. Place the frozen plums on top of the dough, then cut the dough just as wide as the plum and form a dumpling (you can just cut pieces of about 1" off the dough and wrap it around the plum - I'm just doing it like my Grandma always did).