A Right British Crusty Dumpling

A Right British Crusty Dumpling

My sister Alison will be pleased when she spots these, I think most of my family members loved them when younger and I've continued to bake these ever since I left home. They don't do the waistline any good lol, but sure are delicious all year round. One of the best things about this mixture is that you can bake them as a crust like what I've done here, you can put them in a Stew, where they remain light and fluffy or you can use them as a substitute for pie pastry. I've even used the dough to make lemon tarts etc.

The ingredients that you'll need are shown below: Atora Suet is the best to use for these delicious dumplings. Self Raising flour, salt and if you want them a little more crunchy, then you can add Panko dried bread crumbs over there tops before baking. I've made them with and without the bread crumbs and both ways are just as delicious.

As mentioned before they can be added to almost any dinner or eaten like a biscuit, but be warned, if not added to a stew or mince etc they can be a little dry. We love them soaked in gravy stews or make Mince & Dumps with them.

First of all, add one mug of Suet, and two mugs of S/R flour to a large bowl (make sure that you always do one suet to two flour no matter what size of cup, mug etc that you use!). 

This is the Suet - It's a form of fat/lard!

This is how long it's been around

Add a good pinch of salt and mix a together. Then make a well in the middle of the mixture and add a small cup of water, bind the ingredients as much as you can carefully and keep adding drops of water until you form a nice soft dough BUT NOT STICKY. If you find that you've added too much water, simply sprinkle a little extra flour to bind.

Take hold of a fair amount like I show in the picture above and start kneading the dough for 1 minute in your hands, bringing the out side egdes inwards. Then press your finger into the middle (not all the way through) so it looks like similar to a doughnut as shown. In doing this, it actually helps the middles cook fully.

Lightly flour a baking tray if you're cooking them on their own and place them with at least an inch apart, as this dough really does expand in the oven and it creates super large crusts. 

You can brush them with a beaten egg as I've done in the picture above, and you can see the difference between the one on the right with the beaten egg and the one on the left without below.

The one on the left I would leave in 5 minutes longer

If you don't want them on there own like I've done here, then you  need to add them to whatever it is that you're cooking for tea before adding them to the oven or the stew pan, be careful when adding to stew, as you will need a large pan because they expand a lot more in a stew!

Ray and I also like them with Pork Chops and lots of gravy over them, or maybe try do them with Sausage and Gravy and add one to your plate lol

By the way, you can also freeze them too for a later day...