This recipe for blackberry dumplings comes from my mum. In order to serve a large family, she prepared blackberries instead of a cobbler because they were abundant in Southern Missouri in the summer. This type of dumpling has never been described in a recipe, thus I believe she came up with it on her own.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
Ingredients
- 1 quart fresh blackberries
- 2 cups white sugar, or to taste
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup shortening
- 1 egg yolk
- 5 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Place blackberries, sugar, water, butter, and cinnamon in a large saucepan. Cook and stir occasionally over medium-low heat until blackberries have started to break down and form a sauce, about 20 to 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with a knife or pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir egg yolk into crumbs and add milk, a tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, until the flour mixture is moistened. Do not add more milk than you need: when you squeeze a handful of the moistened pastry mixture, it should form a ball. Divide the dough in half and shape into balls.
- Roll one ball into a 1/4-inch thick round, like a pie crust. Using a floured knife cut lengthwise 2 to 3 inch wide strips of dough. Repeat with the second ball of dough.
- Holding each strip of dough over the boiling blackberries pinch off 4-inch lengths and drop into the berries. Repeat until all the dough has been used. Cook dumplings over medium heat for 15 minutes. You may push the dumplings down into the juice but do not stir until they are fully cooked or they will clump together.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 285 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 54 g |
| Cholesterol | 22 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 210 mg |
| Sugars | 36 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made it just like recipe said. My family loves it
In southeast Missouri near Cape Girardeau, dumplings are rolled at church dinners and in many homes. This recipe is similar to the ones we make. We use peaches and cherries as well as blackberries. For tame blackberries you need the sugar because they can be very tart. Who needs fluffy dumplings when these are so much better.
This Recipies reminded me of my Aunt Jan who made them when I was younger. I doubled the recipie except I didn’t double the amount of sugar because my blackberries were sweet. But oh my goodness they were delicious. This an awesome recipe. Thank you.
My mother made this for me even after adulthood. She’s been gone a few years now and she made everything from memory, so no recipes laying around. Thank You.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Childhood favorite and great memories. Thx Charo
My dad kept talking about blackberry dumplings. He hadn’t eaten any since he was a kid. I saw blackberries on special at the local supermarket and picked some up and made these. He said they hit the spot just right. We had them with a little canned evaporated milk poured onto them like he had them as a kid and they were great!
This is not regional, or even America specific, or blackberry specific, or a poverty dish. This is a centuries old breakfast/dessert. Any seasonal fruit will do but I use less sugar, especially for a breakfast. I’m glad to see it has been shared, everyone deserves the joy of Blackberry (Raspberry is Spectacular!) Dumplings. Thank you for sharing!
Can’t wait to make these…My aunt used to make a blackberry and wet dumpling dish like this and would can it. My family is from St. Mary’s county in Southern Maryland. Now just need a good cabage only stuffed ham recipe. Yummy!
the sauce was too watery, and the dumplings were too tough.
Just made this with a few alterations and it’s delicious! I used a mixed berry (raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry) blend, with a half cup more of sugar a tablespoon of honey and about 2 tablespoons of vanilla. I left out the cinnamon because I don’t really care for it. That turned out wonderful… I did find that I needed quite a bit more milk than the recipe called for for the dough but it all turned out and I’m very happy with the results.
I grew up in south eastern Ky and we had this every summer during the blackberry season and had it often as the wild blackberries are abundant there. They were always so sweet and delicious. I now have blackberries in my yard that are nice and plump and very sour..yuck…not sure how this is going to turn out but going to try my dumplings with these awful blackberries. However we basically just used a pie crust, biscuit dough dumpling which always turned out fluffy and light. JUst flour, buttermilk, lard or shortening, we used lard then, and rolled out in 2×3 and I/2 inch thick in flour and dropped into the boiling liquid and berries. If the berries didn’t thicken we used corn starch or flour to thicken. Thanks for the memories.
It reminded me of my Grand Father’s. He died when I was 12 and I was too young to know I should ask for the recipe. No one in the family knew how and I’ve been wanting them for over 39 years. I decided to try this today and it bought back childhood memories. I now know why I clean as I cook because my grand dad did and he would fuss at my grand mother to get out of the kitchen while he was cooking because she was a messy cooker, dishes in the sink and on the counters. He would wash and I would dry. He was a GREAT cook! My dumplings were too long so I will shorten next time and I will use less sugar too sweet for me now that I’ve cut it out of my daily diet. Overall, EXCELLENT, simple and easy to follow recipe. Thank you!
Can”t wait to make these for my little one! I’m hoping these are something like the ones my I enjoyed made by both of my grandmothers when I was a child. (It’s apparently not just a regional recipe as both of my grandmas were from eastern ky and one of them probably never traveled out of state in her life 🙂 )
I am from Indiana. My mother made this blackberry and dumplings every year during blackberry season. This is a very good receipt.I am glad to find this. I didn’t know how mother made hers.
I was thoroughly disappointed with the outcome, especially since the recipe had been rated so highly. I heeded the advice of others and only used 1 cup of sugar, which was sufficient. I added a little lemon juice and a pinch of nutmeg to the berries. I also added 2 tablespoons of corn starch, because the berries never thickened. The dumplings call for no leavening agent and they tasted doughy and never quite done, although I covered and cooked them an extra 10 mins. I think I’ll pick them out and try some Bisquick dumplings to try to save the dish. Will not be using this recipe again.
Cinnamon is a great addition to the blackberry sauce.
Love this recipe, it’s like jumping back to Grandma’s house on the Holidays in the 60’s. Wonderful!
Very good! I used 2 cups blackberrys,1 cup figs,1/2cup rasberries and 1/2 cup halved strawberries, i used whole wheat flour yum .!
Wonderful to find this! A dear family friend whose roots were in Eastern KY coal mining country, made these for my sons 40 plus years ago. Great recipe for a quick dessert. Any fruit could be used, but blackberries that we had and have plenty of in W. TN, are best. Mrs. Powell made without egg or cinnamon. Yummm….
this is just what I have been looking for over the past 15 yrs.These are what my granny made.Ihad got the berries right but never got her dumpling stripes right. These are it!!!! Yeah,my granny was from Missouri and Illinois Area too. When the one review here said heavy dumpling I knew I had found the right one. The dumpling are like a cross between the pie dough and biscuits type dumplings which is what my granny’s was likeso I’m so happy to have found it.
My Grandmother was from Missouri as well and she made the best dumplings ever. Same as your recipe with few small changes. She made regular pie dough, no egg yolk or milk and salt was optional and sugar to taste. she never measured her ingredients, somehow she just knew. Try 1 cup butter flavored crisco and 1/3 cup (COLD) water and adding water by tblspns until a nice doughy texture. Then knead thouroughly. roll dough into strips and drop into berries. Thank you Juantia.