Topfenknödel
A Viennese dessert from cafés and home lunches: tender quark dumplings, simmered in water and rolled in breadcrumbs toasted in butter. Topfen is the Austrian word for quark. Inside they are soft and lightly lemony, outside crisp and sweet. In Austria they come with plum compote or strawberry sauce. Two things decide success: smooth, well-drained quark and water that only just trembles — in a rolling boil the dumplings fall apart.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Chilling 30 min
- Crumb coating 5 min
- Simmering 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDrain and smooth the quark
If the quark is wet, squeeze it in a cloth, then push it through a sieve or blend it. Austrian Topfen is smooth as cream; lumpy Polish quark gives lumpy dumplings, and excess whey makes them fall apart in the water.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
Cream butter with sugar and egg
Cream the soft butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, grated lemon zest and a pinch of salt and beat another minute.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
Mix in quark, breadcrumbs and semolina
Add the quark, 70 g breadcrumbs and the semolina and stir with a spoon into an even, soft mixture. It will look too loose — that is normal.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
Soft dough — it firms up in the fridge.Chill the dough half an hour
Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. The breadcrumbs and semolina absorb moisture from the quark and the butter firms up. Only chilled dough shapes into dumplings that hold together as they cook.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
Toast the breadcrumbs in butter
Melt 60 g butter in a frying pan, add the breadcrumbs and sugar and toast 4–5 minutes over medium heat, stirring, until golden and nutty-smelling. Stir in the cinnamon at the end and tip the coating onto a flat plate.
Ingredients: 60 g butter · 80 g breadcrumbs · 30 g sugar · ½ tsp cinnamon
Golden and fragrant — the sugar darkens fast, so keep stirring.Shape the dumplings
With wet hands shape 8 balls of about 55 g. Cook one first as a test: if it starts to fall apart, add a spoon of breadcrumbs to the dough.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
Simmer in barely trembling water
Bring a wide pot of salted water to the boil and lower the heat until the water only just trembles. Lower the dumplings in with a spoon and cook 12 minutes — they float after a few minutes, but the centre needs the rest of the time. In a rolling boil they break up.
Ingredients: 250 g semi-skimmed quark (twaróg) · 50 g butter, soft · 20 g sugar · 1 tsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs egg · ½ pcs lemon, grated zest · 1 pinch salt · 70 g breadcrumbs · 20 g fine semolina
The water should only tremble — a rolling boil breaks them.Roll in the coating and serve
Lift the dumplings out with a slotted spoon, drain briefly and roll them in the coating straight away, while still moist — that is when the crumbs stick. Serve warm with plum butter or compote, dusted with icing sugar.
Ingredients: 120 g plum butter or plum compote · 1 tbsp icing sugar
Before you start
Which quark
Dry semi-skimmed quark pushed through a sieve works best — it behaves like Austrian Topfen. Creamy quark from a tub holds too much water: the dumplings come out soft, you need more breadcrumbs, and the flavour turns floury.
With fruit inside
A popular Austrian version hides a strawberry or half an apricot in each dumpling. Flatten a portion of dough on your palm, add the fruit, close it up and cook 14–15 minutes instead of 12.
To keep
Freeze shaped raw dumplings on a tray, then bag them; they keep a month. Cook them straight from frozen, adding 5 minutes. Always make the coating fresh.
