Pampuchy, Polish steamed yeast dumplings: pillowy, white, with blueberry sauce or butter
Yeast dumplings steamed over a pot on a cloth, the way grandmothers in Greater Poland made them. No oven and no frying: soft as pillows, white as snow, with a smooth top. Sweet with blueberry sauce, sour cream or butter and sugar; savoury beside a goulash instead of potatoes. Twelve from half a kilo of flour.
Your own work in that: 1 h.
- Kneading 20 min
- Rising 50 min
- Shaping 10 min
- Rising 20 min
- Steaming 30 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneStart the yeast and knead
Cream the yeast with a spoon of sugar and 3 spoons of lukewarm milk, leave 10 minutes until frothy. Add to the flour with the salt and remaining sugar, pour in the rest of the milk and the egg; knead 8 minutes, then add the butter and knead 2 minutes more, until the dough is smooth, soft and comes away from your hand.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 250 ml milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 2 tbsp sugar · 1 pcs egg · 40 g butter · 1 tsp salt
Smooth, soft, comes away from the handFirst rise
Cover the dough with a cloth and leave somewhere warm and draught-free for 50 minutes, until doubled in volume. A finger pressed into the risen dough leaves a dent that slowly fills back.
Doubled under a clothShape the balls
Knock back, divide into 12 pieces and round each into a smooth, taut ball. Set on a floured cloth with space between, cover and leave 20 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the pot.
TipA smooth ball makes a smooth dumpling: the seam goes underneath. Any crack on top opens up in the steam.
Twelve taut balls, seam downRig the pot with a cloth
Fill a wide pot a third full of water and bring to the boil. Stretch a clean cotton cloth over the top and tie it with string or an elastic around the rim so it is taut as a drum. Tuck the corners up so they can't catch the flame. If you have a steamer or a steaming insert, use it, lined with pierced baking paper.
Cloth taut as a drum, corners tuckedSteam under cover
Place 3–4 balls on the cloth with space between (they double), cover with an inverted bowl or a lid and steam 7–8 minutes over medium heat. Don't lift the lid meanwhile: a rush of cooler air makes them sink. They are done when a skewer comes out dry. Lift off and put the next batch on at once — all the batches take about 30 minutes in total; top the pot up with boiling water if needed.
Ingredients: 300 g wild bilberries · 3 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp potato starch · 150 g sour cream, 18 %
TipSunken dumplings are almost always a lifted lid or too little steam. The heat should keep the water bubbling but not boil it away before you finish.
Seven minutes without lifting the lidBlueberry sauce and serving
Bring the berries with the sugar and 3 spoons of water to the boil, cook 3 minutes, thicken with the potato starch stirred into a spoon of cold water. Serve the dumplings hot, sauce poured over, a spoon of sour cream. Grandmother's version: melted butter and sugar, nothing else. Reheat cold ones 3 minutes in steam or fry in butter.
Blueberry sauce, sour cream, or butter and sugar
Before you start
Filled
Press a teaspoon of plum butter or 3 sugared blueberries into each ball and seal well: dumplings with a surprise, like buchty.
With goulash
Cut the sugar to a teaspoon: pampuchy instead of potatoes with goulash, beef roulades or a roast in gravy. In Greater Poland they are a common side for meat in gravy.
Without a cloth
A metal sieve over the pot lined with pierced baking paper, or a bamboo steamer. Works the same, less tying.
