GERMKNÖDEL
(Yeast Dumplings)

500 grams wheat flour
30 grams yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
250 milliliters warm (not hot!) milk
30 grams sugar
2 eggs
30 grams melted, warm butter
1 teaspoon salt
3 drops lemon flavor
plum preserves
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

For yeast dough it is important that all ingredients have basically the same, warm temperature. So, put eggs, flour and all that stuff out of your fridge into your warm kitchen at least on hour before you want to start.

Sieve the flour into a bowl and create a little depression in the middle. Put the teaspoon of sugar, the yeast and 5 tablespoons of the warm milk into the depression (if you use 'wet' yeast, crumb it with your fingers into
little pieces) and use a fork to gently mix them with some of the flower until you get something that looks very much like an old vulcano that has a grey, muddy see in its crater. Let the bowl (covered with a kitchen towel) rest at a warm place for about 15 to 30 min.

Add the sugar, the eggs, the molten butter, the salt and the aroma to the dough, but put them at the side of the vulcano mountain, don't throw 'em in the middle. Starting from the center and using your hands, mix the yeast with the flour and the other ingredients. Add as much of the milk as necessary to get a non-sticky, kind of dry dough. Again, let the covered bowl rest at a warm place for about 45 to 60 min.

Take the dough, knead it well and form the dumplings. One dumpling has roughly the size of a snow ball. You can create Bavarian Germknoedel and put plum preserves into the center of each dumpling. The same warm place: put the finished dumplings at rest for a short time.

To cook the dumplings, put them into cooking salt water and let them boil for 20 min. The pot has to be covered all the time. Serve them with brown butter and vanilla sugar, or ground poppy and sugar.