My mission to clear out the kitchen cupboards is still going strong and today, I wanted to use up this sachet of Aunt Bessie's Hearty Dumpling Mix that was lurking at the back. I was making a beef in ale stew in the slow cooker (more about that in a later blogpost) so it was perfect timing. Now, I have a confession to make - this was the first time we'd ever tried dumplings so I wasn't really sure what they were supposed to come out like ! I think they worked though !
You just empty the sachet into a bowl and mix in 4-5 tablespoons of water to blend it into a sticky dough. I needed to add double the water for it to come together for some reason. I also decided to add some herbs to jazz things up a bit because I thought they'd be a bit bland otherwise.
I added a teaspoon each of Onion Salt, Garlic Pepper, Italian Herb Seasoning and Perfect Shake Fennel Seed, Tomato & Basil.
I left the stew bubbling away in the slow cooker all afternoon and plopped in the dumplings 20 minutes before I wanted to serve it.
They cooked through and swelled up in the hot sauce. I wasn't sure if I needed to turn them over but I didn't risk it because I was worried they'd fall apart and they seemed to cook through properly. We found them a bit bland but the kids loved them and they definitely bulk out meaty dishes and make them more economical. The kids said that they thought they were a bit like stuffing which actually gave me the idea of adding a bit of stuffing mix to flour (and whatever else you need to make dumplings - I'm sure google will tell me !) to come up with herby homemade dumplings packed with flavour.
I was slightly shocked when I saw the calorie and fat content of a couple of dumplings - 154 calories and 6.4g of fat, of which 3.7g saturates - eeek !
So overall, they're something I'll definitely have another go at but next time, making them from scratch. Let me know if you have any recipes or tips to share with me !
star rating : 3.5/5
RRP : 79p
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I've only ever tried making dumplings once before, and they were a complete disaster and tasted horrible, so I'm glad you reviewed this mix. I'll definitely use this in future.
ReplyDeleteEasy peasy!
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