Recipe:Fruit Dumplings (Ovocné knedlíky)

One of the great treasures of the Czech kitchen is the fruit dumpling, mentioned in the householdaccounts of noble estates from the early 17th century. Dried plums were used in winter, while the fruitseason began in early spring with sweetened rhubarb, then with cherries, strawberries, sour cherries,forest blueberries, greengages, apricots, summer pears. The dough can also be prepared with potatoes or curd cheese. Mix 15 g yeast with 40 g sugar and 1 pinch of salt until the yeast has liquefied. Sieve 250 g flour into a bowl and add the liquefied yeast, 1 egg, 250 ml milk and 1 packet of vanilla sugar. Work the mixture into a dough, sprinkle with flour and leave to rise for 45 minutes. Then roll out the dough thinly and cut into 20 small squares. Stone and wash 20 strawberries or apricots. If they aren‘t sweet enough, add a sugar lump in place of the stone. Wrap the fruit in the squares of dough with wet hands and let them rise for another 5-6 minutes. In the meantime, bring to boil 3l salted water, divide the dumplings into 4 portions and cook each portion separately for 8-10 minutes on medium heat. When cooked, remove prick several times with a fork and set aside in a warm place until all the dumplings are ready. Finally, melt 200 g butter and serve up the dumplings. At the table, sprinkle the dumplings with 150 g icing sugar and 400 g grated hard “tvaroh“ (Czech curd cheese) and pour melted butter over them.