Relovable Bread Dumplings

Last weekend we had 18 friends (8 adults, 10 kids) staying with us at our cottage in the Bavarian Forest. It was great fun, although a bit of a tight squeeze. We take the kids skiing in daytime and do all the cooking at home. So all in all, quite a frugal way to spend a weekend.

Normally we always end up with too much food, which goes to waste at an event like this. Everybody brings too much, just to avoid any potential embarassement, if there wasn't enough. Well, this year we were not too bad. Maybe it is because the kids are growing and eating a lot more, or maybe we are all getting more sensible.

So the only thing I had left over was half a loaf of sourdough bread, which was getting very hard and a bit stale, and 4 white bread rolls.

Last year I found a great app released by the German Ministry for Food and Agriculture, called "zu gut für die Tonne". It was created in order to promote recipes which use up leftovers. Initially there was a collection of about 50 recipes, most of them really useful and delicious. Now there are lots more and some of them need so many ingredients that I have the suspicion that in the end more food waste is created rather than reduced.

Never mind. I got a really yummy recipe for bread dumplings from that app for Parmesan Bread Dumplings (Follow link for the original recipe). Here is my adaptation:

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized onion
75 g butter
350 ml milk
350 g bread (mainly sourdough, but you can mix in baguette, white bread rolls, bretzels etc.)
2 eggs
3 tbsp of any fresh or frozen herbs you have to hand: parsley, coriander or anything eadible you find in the garden
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 170° C.
2. Cut the bread into cubes of about 1 cm. 
3. Cut the onion into fine bits and fry them with the butter over a medium heat until translucent.
4. Add milk, bring to the boil and add salt and pepper. 
5. Pour this liquid over the bread-cubes and mix. Let soak and mix occassionally.
6. When the mix has cooled down to lukewarm, add eggs and finely chopped herbs.
7. Form into balls of about 4 cm diameter and place on a baking tray with baking paper.
8. Bake for about 20 -30 min or until golden brown on the outside.
9. I serve mine with a green salad and vinaigrette.
10. If there are leftovers again at the end, you can cut the dumplings into slices the next day and refry them.

Guten Appetit!