In my various trips to Eastern Europe, I had noted the fruit dumpling where a whole fruit forms the kernel of a tennis ball sized dumpling. Latvia to Croatia, each has its own unique take– sometimes served as a side dish and sometimes as a dessert.
Here is my take. You can slap this together without sweating- yet the taste is surprisingly decadent. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:
Potato masher, steamer.
INGREDIENTS
Makes 4
- 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, nuked in their jackets (4-5 mins) till soft
- 3/4 cup almond flour + 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder + a dash of salt
- 1 pluot, pitted and quartered and dusted with sugar to taste
- To top: cinnamon sugar
METHOD
Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher and mix in the flavored flour and knead till very soft (1-2 mins). Let rest for 10 mins. Make four equal sized balls. Flatten the ball, place a quarter of fruit in the center and encase it in the flour mix and smoothen the ball. Steam for 7-8 minutes. Dust with cinnamon sugar.
NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:
- In fact, the balls can also be simply microwaved for 1-2 mins, instead of even steaming.
- You can use plums or any other fruit of your liking.
- Sweet potato sizes may vary– as a rule of thumb, use the same volume of flour as the mashed sweet potato.
- The traditional method is to poach the dumplings– but the casing usually has white flour, eggs etc which I am not using. Hence steaming or microwaving is a very effective, easy, and foolproof alternative.


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