This is a one of the best Austrian desserts ever! “Topfenknödel” – strawberry curd cheese dumplings fluffy, soft, fruity and have a creamy consistency . The dumplings are filled with a medium sized Strawberry and Nutella and are covered in caramelized buttery bread crumbs. They can be prepared in advance and the curd cheese can be replaced as well with cream cheese. The perfect strawberry recipe to start into spring/ summer season. These dumplings can be enjoyed as a vegetarian sweet main dish or as a dessert.

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What are strawberry curd cheese dumplings?

Curd Cheese dumplings are a traditional Austrian sweet recipe that is very popular during strawberry season. These dumplings are low in sugar but still sweet because of the sweetness of the ripe strawberries and the added teaspoon of Nutella. We Austrians enjoy this deliciousness for dessert or for lunch . I love to enjoy those dumplings for lunch on a Friday or as a dessert on the weekends served with a scoop of ice cream and strawberry compote. It seems that we Austrians always had a sweet tooth and therefore even developed a category only for sweet main dishes.

The dough is soft and more like a batter and contains only 5 ingredients .The stuffing of the curd cheese dumplings varies and depends mostly on what’s in season. The dumplings get cooked in salted water and afterwards coated with bread crumbs which get browned and caramelized in sugar and butter.

blue plate with dumplings cut in half. strawberry in the middle, fork on the side

The origin of curd cheese dumplings.

The recipe origins from the bohemian empire which was ones part of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and is today the Czech Republic. It’s a well loved traditional dish and very popular in Hungary, Rumania, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Every nation claims this dish as his own of course and therefore the recipe varies in its ingredients, fillings and preparation.

While these dumplings get cooked in salt water in most Eastern European countries, in Germany these dumplings get baked.

What is curd cheese?

Curd cheese is a fresh cheese made from skim milk. It has a starter added to curdle the milk. It has a very light colour, and is soft and spreadable it has a slight sour tang to the taste, and is not aged at all.

Curd cheese tends to contain less fat than cottage cheese. It is sometimes called medium-fat soft cheese.

Cooking prep image. and in the frame. one hand with a strawberry curd cheese dumpling in hand, the other hand sprinkling flour on the dumpling. blue flowers in the frame. blue pullover in the back, blue candle. blue image/ find photography .
strawberry recipe, dessert recipe , topfenknödel

Substitutions for curd cheese.

If curd cheese isn’t available where you live here are some option you can use instead of curd cheese:

Quark trained with a cheese cloth, otherwise it’s to wet
Farmer’s cheese
Ricotta
Cream cheese
dry-curd cottage cheese
cottage cheese pressed through a sieve

The Ingredients:

Butter: Unsalted butter is what we use
Salt: a pinch of salt for seasoning
Curd cheese
eggs
flour
Strawberries
Nutella
bread crumbs
sugar
More Butter

Flatly with different small white plates filled with ingredients on sheets of old cook book pages. In the middle a blue plate with the strawberry curd cheese dumplings dessert. blue flowers hanging into the frame . strawberry season, strawberry recipes, Austrian dessert , Austrian recipe

What to serve with strawberry cheese dumplings.

Firstly these dumplings coated in caramelized bread crumbs are delicious as they are. Just served warm with some extra bread crumbs and a dust of powdered sugar but the following sides are great choices as well 😊.

vanilla ice cream is always a great addition to any warm-served dessert
apple sauce is a classic and you can’t go wrong with it
Strawberry compote is a great side as well. I even have a great recipe on my blog.😉
homemade fruit sauces are a great fit as well for this Austrian dessert.

topfenknödel- Austrian cheese curd dumplings cut in half filled with a strawberry and Nutella, on a blue plate with bread crumbs and powdered sugar

Variations of fillings:

I’m filling these curd cheese dumplings with whatever fruits are in season at the moment.

Apricots: use small apricots to get rid of the pit and put a sugar cube into the apricot instead
plums: its the same for plums. Get rid of the pit and put a sugar cube into its middle. If you don’t have sugar cubes just fill it with 1/2 tsp sugar
berries: different berries or a mix of different berries are great as a filling as well. I like to sprinkle them beforehand vanilla sugar
nougat filling: tastes so good
any kind of chocolate tastes great as well
a combination of white chocolate and raspberries makes for a heavenly delicious filling

dollops of nutella on baking paper in a white bowl, cut strawberries in another bowl on the side / strawberry season, strawberry recipes, Austrian dessert , Austrian recipe — teaspoons of Nutella prepared for freezing

What’s important when making these strawberry curd cheese dumplings.

The dough is very soft and sticky. The best way to make the dough pliable is to chill it for 2 hours.
While the dough is chilling I’m dropping teaspoon sized amounts of Nutella on a baking sheet and freeze them. This way its easier to fill the dumplings.
Dust your kitchen surface and your rolling pin enough before starting to roll out the dough.
Dust your hands. This prevents the dough from sticking to much to your hands.
Cut the dough into squares, transfer a square into hour hand put a nutella drop into the middle and small strawberry .
Afterwards I close the dough arounds the filling and pinch the openings together with my fingers and than roll it into a ball.

Some more tips…

the dough is about 1cm thick, this will prevent the dough to tear when closing it around the filling.
I cook the dumplings for about than minutes in salted water. The water should gently bubble .
The dumplings are ready when rising to the surface .
Immediately coate the dumplings with the caramelized bread crumbs after cooking.

Carefully put the dumplings into the bubbling water and cook for 10 minutes

Can these Austrian curd cheese dumplings be prepared in advance ?

These dumplings can easily be prepared up to 2 days in advance . Just follow the recipe until the dumplings are stuffed and rolled into balls. Sprinkle them with some flour put them on a tray ands cover them with cling fling or aluminum foil and keep them in the fridge for up to 2 days.

How to store leftover dumplings.

In case you really have some left over dumplings put them into an airtight container and keep them in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Reheat them in a pan together with the leftover caramelized bread crumbs over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes.

At last if you tried this easy strawberry recipe for “Erdbeer Topfenknödel” aka Strawberry curd cheese dumplings and found the recipe and post helpful please give it a rating and leave me a kind comment. Nothing makes me more happy than hearing from you ❤️😊.

– Nina <3

If you’d like to stay up in the loop follow me on Instagram. 😊❤️

Easy Strawberry curd cheese dumplings – best Austrian dessert

5 from 1 vote

Recipe by Nina Course: DessertCuisine: austrian

Servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Calories

306

kcal

This is a one of the best Austrian desserts ever! "Topfenknödel" – strawberry curd cheese dumplings fluffy, soft, fruity and have a creamy consistency . The dumplings are filled with a medium sized Strawberry and Nutella and are covered in caramelized buttery bread crumbs.

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

Dumplings dough
160 g 160 butter cut into small cubes
2 2 eggs
500 g 500 curd cheese or any substitution found in the blog post
1 tbsp 1 white sugar
1 pinch 1 salt
tsp zest of 1 lemon
300 g 300 all purpose flour
Filling
16 16 strawberries medium sized, cut of a little bit of the and the greens.
1 tbsp 1 vanilla sugar
100 g 100 Nutella or any other nut cream you prefer
Buttery caramelized bread crumbs
120 g 120 butter
80 g 80 white sugar
80 g 80 bread crumbs made of white bread

Directions

Dumplings dough
Start with mixing together the butter eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached for 2-3 minutes.
Add all other ingredients and mix until it forms a dough.
Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and chill the dough for 2 hours.
Filling
On a baking paper drop teaspoon sized Nutella creme on a baking paper and freeze until you start with the filling.
Use medium sized strawberries for the filling. If there are only large ones available cut into thump sized pieces . Mix the strawberries with the vanilla sugar and set aside.
After the dough is cold and chilled sprinkle your working surface and your rolling pin with enough flour other wise the dough will be too sticky .
Roll out the dough until it's 1cm thick (0,4 inch)
Dust the dough surface and cut into 10cmx10cm quarters (3 1/2 inch x 3 1/2 inch)
With the help of a spatula take one dough square into your dusted hands.
Put a Nutella drop and a strawberry on top and close the dough around it. Everything should be covered by the dough.
Pinch the seams together . Make sure the dough ball isn't open anywhere.
Roll the dough into a ball . But be carefully.
Put the dumpling on a flour dusted tray and repeat with the other dough squares.
Cooking the dumplings
Fill a medium sized heavy bottom pot with water and heat heat until it cooks.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt and reduce heat until its a gentle bubbling.
Put the dumplings into the bubbling water but make sure that there is still enough space between the dumplings.
Let the dumplings cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the dumplings rise to the surface .
When the dumplings are done, transfer them one at a time with a skimmer into the bread crumbs and coat every dumpling on all sides .
Repeat with the rest of the curd cheese dumplings.
Serve warm and with a dust of sugar. Enjoy!
Buttery caramelized bread crumbs
Heat a medium sized pan on medium high heat and let the butter melt.
When the butter is melted reduce the heat to medium and add the sugar. Let everything caramelize for 1-2 minutes. But make sure it doesn't get burnt.
At last add the bread crumbs. Mix everything together and let the bread crumbs get golden brown before switching off the heat.