Croatian Cheese Dumplings (Strukli)

I made this version of Croatian Cheese Dumplings after I saw a recipe online. I was watching the Daily Show and one of the hosts, Michael Costa, was talking about a soup his family used to make. Though I didn't actually find that recipe, I did run across Croatian Zagorski Štrukli Soup from boondockingrecipes.com. I really liked the site and decided to try my hand at this soup.

The first step of this was to make the dumplings. Though the recipe called for pastry flour I was unable to find any. I went to a couple of stores but eventually I did a search online and found that I could substitute all-purpose and cake flour to mimic pastry flour. It was essentially a 1:1 substitution, so for 2 cups of pastry flour, I used 1 cup of AP and cake flour.

These dumplings came out very well, but in most recipes I looked at, they were layered dough dumplings with cheese in-between the layers. When I made these I made the mixture more like a ravioli or soup dumpling and made the dumplings pockets to hold the cheese center. I used a couple of eggs to bind them, but the cheesy center was still liquid cheese in the final product of my recipe.

All in all I was exceptionally pleased with the texture and flavor of these dumplings, I will try my hand at them again, to make a more traditional pulled dough style. The benefit of this recipe, is you can substitute the filling and this can be used in almost any soup, as the dough holds very well, and they are delicate enough for a spoon to cut through.

Enjoy.

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Ingredients

• ricotta 1 oz

• cottage cheese 12 oz

• dill, minced 3 sprigs

• preserved lemons, minced 1 T

• fermented garlic* 1 clove

• eggs 2 ea, +1 for dough

• sour cream 4 oz

• Wondra Flour 1/2 cup, as needed

• salt to taste

• pepper to taste

• flour, pastry** 4 cups

• nutmeg 1/2 tsp

• milk, warmed 1 1/2 cup

• oil, olive 1/2 cup

• sherry vinegar 1 T

*I had made a batch of this and have been adding it to recipes. This is an optional ingredient that I wanted to add to the filling.

**If you can't find pastry flour, you can sift together all purpose and cake flour at a 1:1 ratio. For this it would be 2 cups AP flour, 2 cups cake flour

Method of Procedure

1. Sift together your flours if needed. Add you flour(s), a pinch of salt, and nutmeg together.

2. Warm your milk so it's almost scalded and whisk in your oil, vinegar, and eggs, careful not to cook the eggs.

3. Add your liquid to your dry and knead for about 15 minutes by hand, gently folding over the dough. If needed add more flour.

4. Cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

5. Combine your ricotta, cottage cheese, dill, garlic, eggs, sour cream, and preserved lemons. Season to taste with salt and pepper and refrigerate while resting the dough.

6. If the filling is wet (if the cottage cheese and ricotta have too much water), whisk in wondra flour to help tighten the filling. It should be a very soft cheese filling, but not liquid.

7. Remove the dough and roll out thinly. Cut into circles for the dumplings.

8. Take your filling and place in the center.

9. Fold the edges over and pinch the dough together.

10. To cook, simmer lightly in chicken stock for about 8-10 minutes.

11. Remove and cool.