Christmas Eve dumplings “ears” are one of the most popular additions to red borscht during Christmas. It is a small piece of dough stuffed with mushrooms and cabbage. They fit perfectly with the soup, and are also tasty after cooking. A must on the Polish Christmas table 🙂

Stuffing:

Ingredients:

40 g dried mushrooms (i used boletus mushroom)
450 g of sauerkraut, washed and chopped
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 bay leaves
4 allspice
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of sugar

Procedure:

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly, transfer them to a bowl, pour cold tap water and cover. Leave overnight in a dry and cool place, this will allow the mushrooms to absorb the water and swell slightly. Pour the mushroom water into the dish, try a droplet to check that the water is not bitter, otherwise it is suitable for cabbage. Dry the mushrooms and dice them. Fry the onion on a slow fire in a pan, not until it is brown because it will be bitter. After about 8 minutes, you can add the mushrooms and fry for 2 minutes together. Put the cabbage in a pot, pour over the mushroom water or tap water (about one and a half glasses of pickling water is enough). Add the remaining ingredients and the fried onion with mushrooms. Cover the pot and bring to a boil, simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally (every 10 minutes). After this time, remove the cover and cook until the water evaporates. After cooling down, the stuffing is ready.

Dough:

Ingredients:

350 g of wheat flour sifted through a strainer
35 g of butter
125 ml of water
1 egg
pinch of salt
flour to sprinkle the countertop

Procedure:

Boil the water and add the butter to it to melt. Add salt to the flour, add a mixture of water and butter, stirring constantly with a spoon. Add the egg and mix the ingredients. Sprinkle flour on the countertop and knead the dough for 5 minutes until uniform. Cover with foil so that it does not dry out and set aside for 30 minutes to let the dough rest. Sprinkle the table top with flour and roll out a piece of dough to a thickness of about 2mm (keep the remaining dough covered so that it does not dry out). Using a glass or a round dish, cut a circle from the dough and put the stuffing on it. Fold the edges carefully, making sure that the stuffing does not get between the dough, because the dumplings may fall apart during cooking. Form an ear of the dumpling by connecting the both end sides. You can place ears on the pastry board until you finish wrapping everything. During this time, boil the water with a large pinch of salt. When the water is bubbling, add the dumplings in batches. Cook them for 2 minutes after they go up 🙂

Enjoy!