Croatian Plum Dumplings Recipe (Knedle sa Šljivama)

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Post author SJ

Written by our local expert SJ

Sarah-Jane has lived in Croatia for 10+ years. SJ, as she is known, has been traveling the Balkans & beyond since 2000. She now shares her passion for traveling with her husband & kids.

Croatian Recipes_Croatian Plum Dumplings Recipe

Croatian plum dumplings (knedle sa šljivama) – are made with a delicious mashed potato and can be eaten as a dessert or served as a main meal for vegetarians.

Plum dumplings are typical throughout Eastern Europe, not just with Croatians but also among Poles, Romanians, and Hungarians.

Except for the plums, all of these ingredients are standard pantry staples.

This plum dumpling is the perfect Croatian recipe to make as a low-fat dessert alternative.

A bowl of three Croatian plum dumplings, topped with a brown crumb-like mixture, set on a white lace tablecloth with a spoon placed inside the bowl.

Croatian Plum Dumplings Recipe (Knedle sa Šljivama)

Croatian plum dumplings (knedle sa šljivama) are made with a delicious mashed potato and can be eaten as a dessert or served as a main meal for vegetarians.

Ingredients

  • ½ kg potatoes (1.1 lbs)
  • ½ kg all-purpose flour or half-smooth half-course flour (3 1/2 cups)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 - 4 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 kg pitted plums (2.2 lbs)
  • 3 large tablespoons bread crumbs or 200 ml of sour cream (3/4 cup)
  • Sugar

Instructions

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until tender
  2. Mash and salt the potatoes, and allow to cool
  3. Once cool, add oil and whole egg, and the flour and knead
  4. Roll out to 1 cm thick
  5. Cut into squares - the size of the cubes will depend on the size of the plums. It needs to be big enough so, that it can wrap the plum
  6. Using lightly floured hands, take the square of dough and pat it flat in your hand. Place a plum in the center and bring the sides of dough up over plum
  7. Enclose the plum in the dough
  8. Moisten edges with water to seal - you now have your dumpling!
  9. Place the dumplings in boiling water, and cook for 20 minutes
  10. With a slotted spoon, collect the dumplings, and allow them to drain on kitchen paper
  11. Brown the bread crumbs in a little sunflower oil (or butter) and sprinkle over the dumplings
  12. Transfer the dumplings to a serving platter and layer with icing sugar

Notes

Optional: instead of sugar, you can use slightly warmed sour cream.

Croatian Plum Dumplings Recipe -knedle s sljivama Blog

Comments (9)

  1. This has to be my favorite of all my childhood food. But you don’t specify what kind of potatoes- what do you recommend for this recipe? My mom tried to teach me to make this once and I think I got the wrong kind of potatoes.

    1. The best are “old” potatoes… We have here usually yellow inside potatoes ,not white,and not young ???? if that can help…

  2. These are also my favorite childhood recipes, I make them with plum povidl if plums are not available, i prefer it actualy:)
    Just making them now, time consuming buit worth iot.

  3. Hey I am Tania, thank you for this wonderful article. But I have a question regarding the dough. In here you did not mention to adding same egg in making the dough. However i watched some on youtube they adding egg to make the dough. Can you advice weather both ways are very much okay or the difference between? Thank you

    1. Thanks Tania, in step 3, it says “Once cool, add oil and WHOLE EGG, and the flour and knead”. So, please do add the egg after it’s cooled. Enjoy.

  4. I sometimes use pitted dry prunes instead of plums. Do I still need to cook the knedle for 20mins?

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