Sweet Labneh Dumplings with Toasted Cardamom Crumbs and Sumac Cherries

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Despite living in Feldkirch, a small Austrian village near Liechtenstein’s border, for close to a year before starting university, I had never actually visited Vienna until a work trip in March 2022. While Austrian food seems to fly somewhat under the radar globally, thanks to my year in Feldkirch I already knew how phenomenal Austrian food is. In particular for someone as much into sweets and baked goods as I am. So I used my 36h in Vienna to get my fill of all the delicious Austrian food. In particular Austrian pastries and desserts made with Topfen.

Now, for the uninitiated, Topfen is what the Germans call Quark (and the French call Fromage Blanc). In short, it is a type of fresh curd cheese made with soured milk. Typically low in fat (although you can buy Topfen with different fat percentages) and high in protein you can use Topfen in much the same way as Yoghurt or Ricotta. In Austria (and Germany for that matter), Topfen (or Quark) forms the basis of cheesecakes, fillings for pastries and dumplings (“Knödel” or “Nockerl” in Austria), both savoury and sweet. Today, I want to share with you a recipe for the latter, but with a bit of a twist of course.

Topfenknödel or Topfennockerl (i.e. fresh curd cheese dumplings) are prepared in a similar way to Italian Gnudi - instead of Ricotta, here you simply mix Topfen with egg, salt and some semolina and/or bread crumbs for binding. The dumplings are then cooked in simmering water until they float to the surface before being rolled in breadcrumbs that have been caramelised in butter and mixed with sugar. They are typically served with a roasted fruit compote (“Röster” in Austria) and, should you so wish, some whipped cream on the side.

I was keen to try something a little less traditional and give these Topfenknödel a Middle Eastern twist. If I learned anything from eating my weight in Topfenknödel in Vienna and a whole lot of gnudi that Kaja and I made for one of our Two Kitchens Brussels Supperclubs is that you can probably make these types of dumplings with a number of different kinds of dairy, as long as you make sure that whatever you are using is not too liquid and/or you use extra semolina and/or breadcrumbs to absorb any excess water.

So instead of the traditional Topfen, these dumplings are made with Labneh. Labneh is something I often have at home (or at least a big tub of Greek yoghurt that can be transformed into Labneh overnight) and one of my favourite ingredients to use. It’s lusciously thick and beautifully milky and works wonders in so many different applications - as a bed for fried eggs and some za’atar oil drizzle for breakfast, as a stand-in for sour cream to top soup, to make cheesecake when you are out of cream cheese, to mix with whipping cream to make labneh whipped cream etc. etc. etc. To finish, these Sweet Labneh Dumplings are rolled in Toasted Cardamom Crumbs. To serve, I made some Sumac Cherries (but any poached or roasted or macerated fruits would work). And yes, if all you have at home or have access to is Ricotta or Topfen/Quark - by all means use that.