I have heard my grandfather, father and uncles talk about the steamed fruit dumplings my great grandmother used to make. I had never attempted to make these so I thought I would give it a go. This is not her recipe unfortunately, if it were it would entail cooking on a wood fired stove and using coffee cans to steam the dough. From what they have told me she would use either plums or apples and cook to a jam and fill the yeast dumplings. I had just bought some very nice pears and thought these would make an excellent filling for the steamed buns. There are a few steps to this dessert but really not difficult just be patient. I like almonds with pears, if you don’t have or want to use the almonds or almond extract you don’t have too.
Pear jam
4 ea bartlett pears peeled and cubed
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Toss pears in lemon juice and then remaining ingredients, place in a small saucepan and cook on medium-medium low heat until mixture reduces 30-45 minutes. Afterwards, I passed through a potato ricer, although you could use anything to mash the fruit pulp, you are looking for something like apple butter or thick applesauce. Let cool to room temperature
Creme anglaise
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups milk
⅛ tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
Place ingredients in a small pot and whisk- yolks, sugar, cornstarch vanilla and almond extract, milk and salt. Place on stove and medium heat, use a rubber spatula and scrape along bottom of pot to prevent scorching, smooth and slowly no big risk as long as you pay attention, you want the mixture to boil a little. Once the cream thickens, take off and add the butter, let cool.
Almond Topping
1 cup toasted almonds
⅓ cup powdered sugar
Toss warm almonds in sugar to coat and reserve
Dumpling dough
2 cups ap flour
1 ½ Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
½ cup warm milk
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp melted butter
Add the first sugar to flour in a mixing bowl. Add yeast, 1 tsp sugar and milk together to dissolve. Add remaining wet ingredients to milk and add to flour. Knead dough for 5 minutes and bring to a smooth shape, cover and let rise until doubled in size. Once it’s doubled in size, lightly flour your table and place dough on the table. I find wetting my hand prevents the dough from sticking to my hand. Cut into 4 equal portions and shape into 4 inch rounds, place a tbsp of your filling in the middle and pull the edges of the dough together to seal. Turn the dough over and make sure the dough is shaped round, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes. Prepare a large bottomed pot with 2-3 inches of water, place a colander in it and put a lid on it. When the dumplings have risen on the counter turn your “steamer” to medium heat, when hot place the dumplings in your colander spacing the best you can and cook covered for 15 minutes until the dumplings feel firm like rolls.
To serve, place in a shallow dish and pour sauce over them followed by sugared almonds.
– Enjoy, Peter
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