Lately, I’ve been using my crockpot more. It’s an easy way to make stew with lots of vegetables. I’ve especially enjoyed lamb stew, but I realized I was increasing my consumption of red meat. Now I’m using chicken. I could try turkey, too.
I got an urge for dumplings, so I thought I’d try making some with the crockpot stew. The tricky thing I discovered is when to put them on top of the stew.
I had problems a couple of times with the vegetables in the bottom of the pot, where you’re supposed to put them because they take longer to cook, not being done when the meat on top is. So, I’ve been cooking the vegetables on high, then putting the meat in later. However, the last stew I made, the vegetables cooked more quickly when they weren’t under the meat. I took the cooked vegetables out, then cooked the meat separately because I didn’t want the vegetables to get mushy.
So, for my first attempt at crockpot dumplings, I mixed up the dough and spooned it on top of the meat and broth when it was boiling. It takes 30 to 45 minutes to cook the dumplings, so if you can figure out when the meat will be done, put the dumplings in 30 to 45 minutes before that. Make sure the crockpot is on high and the liquid is boiling.
Here’s the recipe:
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of butter
½ cup of milk or more, enough to make the dough the right consistency to drop off the spoon
Mix the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it’s the size of small peas. If you don’t have a pastry blender, you can use two knives moving in the opposite direction to cut in the butter. A fork works, too. Add the milk. Mix just enough to combine all the ingredients. Using a tablespoon, drop the dough on top of the boiling stew in the crockpot. Place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the crockpot then put the lid on top of that to make a good seal so the dumplings will steam properly.
I had hoped to show you a photo of the nice fluffy dumplings in the crockpot. However, as you can see from the photo, I ate all of them.
Enjoy.
