Skip to main content
Main

Dampfnudeln, or German Puddings

A yeast‑leavened dumpling made with flour, butter, eggs, milk, and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Dampfnudeln, or German Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Combine flour in a bowl and make a hole in the center.

  2. Add yeast and 1½ cups warm milk to the hole, mixing to form a batter.

  3. Let the sponge rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

  4. Mix in eggs, butter, sugar, and salt with a little more warm milk.

  5. Knead the dough until smooth and it no longer sticks to your fingers.

  6. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rise again until doubled.

Shape and rise

  1. Knead the dough into small balls.

  2. Place the balls in a buttered deep sauté pan.

  3. Sprinkle pounded sugar over the balls.

  4. Pour enough milk to cover the balls.

  5. Cover the pan with a lid.

  6. Let the balls rise by the fire until doubled in size.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes until golden brown.

  2. Serve warm on a napkin with custard sauce or fruit compote.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dumplings their structure.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the crumb during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning.
Milk
Provides moisture to hydrate the flour and soften the dough.

The step that matters

Knead until smooth and no longer sticky. Kneading develops gluten so the dough traps the gas from the yeast. Underkneaded dough stays sticky and may rise unevenly or collapse.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes