Plum Dumplings (Galuste cu Prune)

These Plum Dumplings are a traditional Romanian dessert. Delicious plums are wrapped in a potato dough and covered in sweet buttery bread crumbs.

I’m so happy to share with you another one of my childhood favorite Romanian recipes. These plum dumplings, or “Galuste cu prune” as we call them in Romanian, are such a great treat. Not only are they Romanian, but I believe they are an Eastern Europe favorite.

I remember this was, and still is one of my mom’s favorite desserts, because she simply loves plums, so this is a dessert that she actually made for us. She is not one to make desserts, but these plum dumplings is one of those rare things she did make for us, and I’m so glad she did, because here I am sharing this wonderful recipe with you.

What are plum dumplings?

As I said, this is one of those unique “desserts”, if you will, that you see popping up all over Eastern and Central Europe. We’re creating a dough similar to gnocchi and wrapping that dough around perfectly sweet plums. You then boil the dumplings then roll them through a sweet buttery breadcrumb mixture. They are traditionally served with a good dollop of sour cream and will be gobbled down before you can say boo.

If you’re looking to try out a recipe that is a little adventurous, or connect with your European roots, this recipe is what you’ve been looking for! It’s simple and completely drool worthy, so let’s get into it.

Ingredient Notes

• Plums – Pitted and halved. If your plums are massive feel free to quarter them. Some people will actually make these with a whole plum, but it totally depends how big they are.
• Sugar – We’re using both powdered sugar and regular old granulated sugar today. If you don’t have powdered sugar available regular sugar will work in its place. We just need some sugar to sweet the tart plums.
• Potatoes – I love using Yukon gold potatoes in this recipe, we want something that mashes well and isn’t too waxy.
• Butter – I always use unsalted, but if you only have salted, just omit the salt in this recipe.
• Breadcrumbs – Finely ground plain breadcrumbs is what you’re looking for, make sure to not use the seasoned ones. If you only have Panko breadcrumbs, I would pulse them a few times in a food processor to turn them into finer crumbs.
• Eggs – 2 eggs to act as the binder in our little dumpling dough.
• Flour – All purpose works just fine for this recipe.
• Semolina – This is the coarse flour made from durum wheat that is commonly used in pasta. If you can’t get your hands on any you can always substitute it with equal amounts of all purpose flour but it may result in a softer, less workable dough.

How to make plum dumplings

1. Prep the plums: Wash the plumbs and pat them dry. Cut them in half and remove the pits. Place the plum halves in a bowl and sprinkle them with the icing sugar. Toss and set aside.
2. Cook the potatoes: Wash and scrub the potatoes and cook them whole with skin on, in boiling water until fork tender. Depending on the size of the potatoes, this could take 40 to 60 minutes. Drain and let them cool.
3. Prepare the breadcrumb mixture: Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the breadcrumbs and brown for a few minutes over low heat, until the breadcrumbs start to turn golden brown. in a non-stick frying pan melt butter then add the breadcrumbs and brown it on low heat. Stir in the granulated sugar and let it cool completely. Set aside.
4. Make the dough: Once the potatoes have cooled enough to work with them, remove the skin, it should easily come off. Using a box grater, finely shred the potatoes into a bowl. To the same bowl (make sure potatoes have completely cooled), add the eggs, salt, flour, semolina and mix using a wooden spoon. The dough will be very sticky but homogeneous. In case your dough is too wet you could add a a tbsp of flour and a tbsp of wheat semolina but no more.
5. Boil water: Add water to a medium size pot and bring to a boil over high heat; when water start to boil add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to it.

Assemble the dumplings

1. Form the dumplings: With your hands slightly wet, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Using your hands, flatten each piece so that it’s about ¼ of an inch in thickness. In the center of each piece, place half a plum, then seal it and shape it into a ball. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
2. Cook the dumplings: Place the dumplings into the pot with boiling water, 3-4 at a time, and cook them until they rise to the surface. Using a slotted spoon, take them out and place them directly into the skillet with the breadcrumbs mixture. Roll them around to make sure they are perfectly coated all around. Repeat with remaining dumplings.
3. Serve when completely cooled!

Using unripe plums?

No problem! If that’s the case then stuff the plums with sugar after it’s been pitted before wrapping it in dough. If you’d really like to kick it up a notch then take sugar cubes, dip them in some dark rum and stuff them in the plums. This step is a must if your plums aren’t sweet enough.

Make sure your potatoes are fresh!

You can’t use leftover mashed potatoes for this recipe – sorry for the bad news! Mashed potatoes are usually packed full of cream, salt, pepper, even chives occasionally. We want just some plain old potato, mashed up, similar to a gnocchi.

Tools you’ll need

This recipe has a long list of instructions but it’s actually very simple! All you need is:

• A potato masher, ricer or just a box grater
• A large pot
• Slotted spoon
• A skillet

And that’s it! I know for sure you have these lying around, just begging to be used.

How to serve

These plum dumplings are a picture perfect dessert, side dish, appetizer, or even a vegetarian main, depending on how much you eat and how sweet you like your meals. I like to snack on these all on their own but they’re also perfect with some sour cream or a steaming mug of coffee, prepared in whichever style you prefer.

Leftovers

Store these plum dumplings in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap right in the fridge. They will keep for up to 5 days this way!

Freezing

I don’t recommend freezing uncooked plum dumplings, because they may fall apart. Fully cook the dumplings in the boiling water before spacing them out on a baking sheet and popping them in the freezer for an hour. Remove them from the baking sheet and place in a large freezer bag and these bad boys will keep for up to a month stored in the freezer.

Just remove them from the bag and pop them in boiling water for up to 15 minutes before coating them in the bread crumbs. Delish!

More Related Recipes:

• Plum Galette
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
• Cabbage Rolls