Austrian Dumplings with Plum Jam, Poppy Seeds and Vanilla Sauce

Warm the 130 ml milk for the dough until pleasantly lukewarm, not hot. Crumble 12 g yeast into a small bowl, add all the lukewarm milk, 10 g from the measured 30 g sugar for the dough and 20 g from the measured 260 g flour for the dough. Stir, cover and leave for about 10 minutes, until the sponge is noticeably foamy. Meanwhile, melt 35 g butter for the dough and let it cool; reserve the remaining 10 g butter for greasing the parchment.

Put the remaining 240 g flour for the dough, the remaining 20 g sugar for the dough and 3 g salt in a large bowl; add 50 g egg, the sponge and the 35 g melted butter, cooled but still liquid. Knead by hand for about 10–15 minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic and only slightly tacky, and a stretched piece forms a thin membrane instead of tearing straight away. Shape into a ball, leave in the bowl and cover; set aside in a warm, draft-free place for about 50–60 minutes, until roughly doubled in volume. Do not add flour while kneading; prepare the sauce during this rise.

Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Pour the remaining 350 ml milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add 150 g cream, the seeds and the empty bean; heat over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, until the liquid starts to steam and small bubbles appear around the edges, but do not let it boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk 60 g egg yolks with the remaining 50 g superfine sugar until smooth.

Remove the vanilla bean, then pour the hot milk and cream into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly; pour everything back into the saucepan. Cook over very low heat for about 5–8 minutes, constantly sweeping a silicone spatula across the bottom and along the sides, until the sauce lightly coats a spoon and a line drawn through it with your finger stays clear. The sauce should remain smooth and pourable, with no lumps; do not boil it, and remove from the heat as soon as it thickens. Pour into a clean bowl, cover the surface directly with plastic wrap suitable for contact with warm food so that a skin does not form, and set aside while you shape and steam the dumplings.

Prepare a pot with a steamer insert that has a usable diameter of at least 30 cm and a tall lid that leaves at least 10 cm of space above the insert; all four dumplings will steam at once. Cut four 10 cm squares of parchment paper and grease them with all the remaining 10 g butter. Dust the work surface with the measured 10 g flour, gently deflate the risen dough, divide into 4 equal pieces and flatten each into a circle about 12–13 cm across, keeping the center slightly thicker. Place 30 g thick plum jam in the center of each, leaving a clean border about 3 cm wide; gather the edges over the filling, pinch firmly to seal and shape into a smooth ball with no cracks. Place each ball seam-side down on its own square of parchment.

Arrange the four dumplings on their parchment squares in the cold steamer insert in a 2 × 2 layout, leaving about 4 cm between them; the paper should not cover the entire surface or block the flow of steam. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave for about 25–30 minutes, until the dumplings are noticeably puffy and a gentle finger indentation at the edge of the dough slowly springs back. Toward the end of the rise, pour 1000 ml water into the pot and bring to a boil; the surface of the water must stay at least 2 cm below the base of the insert. Remove the towel before placing the insert over the water.

Place the insert with the risen dumplings over the boiling water, cover tightly with the tall lid and steam for about 25 minutes, starting when a steady flow of steam resumes. Keep the heat at medium so the water boils gently and steadily; do not lift the lid for the first 20 minutes so the dumplings do not collapse. After 25 minutes, check one with a thin skewer inserted from the side into the dough only, avoiding the filling: it should come out with no raw, sticky dough, and the dumpling should feel springy on the surface; steam for another 5 minutes if needed. Turn off the heat, wait about 2 minutes with the lid slightly ajar, then lift it off at an angle so that condensation does not drip onto the dumplings.

While the dumplings steam, mix 35 g ground poppy seeds with 20 g powdered sugar. Toward the end, gently reheat the vanilla sauce in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring without letting it boil. Divide all the warm sauce among 4 deep plates and place one hot dumpling on each, carefully removing the parchment with a spatula. Sprinkle each serving with one quarter of the poppy seed and sugar mixture and serve immediately, while the dough is at its fluffiest and the jam is warm.