About this Dish
Czech bread dumplings — slices of steamed dough made from flour, eggs and stale bread, served with virtually every Czech main course to absorb sauces and gravies. Making perfect knedliky is a matter of Czech pride. The dough must be steamed, not boiled; the texture firm but not dense. Sliced and arranged around the plate in overlapping circles.
IngredientsServes 4
🍞Stale white bread rolls (rohlíky), 3 rolls cut into 1cm cubes
🌾Plain white flour (hladká mouka), 300g
🥛Whole milk, 200ml warmed
🧂Fine salt, 1 teaspoon
🥚Eggs, 2 large
🍞Fine breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons
🫧Baking powder, 1 teaspoon
🧈Unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon melted
Method
1
In a large bowl, whisk together the warm milk, eggs, melted butter and salt until combined. Add the flour and baking powder and stir until a sticky, shaggy dough begins to form.2
Fold in the stale bread cube pieces and breadcrumbs, mixing until the bread is evenly distributed throughout the dough. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let the dough rest for 20 minutes — this allows the bread to absorb moisture and the dough to firm up.3
With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into two smooth logs, each roughly 7cm in diameter and 25cm long. The dough will be sticky, so flour your hands generously and work with confidence.4
Wrap each log tightly in a clean damp linen cloth or muslin, twisting and tying the ends closed securely like a Christmas cracker. This is essential — the cloth holds the shape during steaming.5
Place the wrapped logs in a steamer basket over a large pot of vigorously boiling water. Steam for 20–25 minutes, turning the logs halfway through, until the dumplings feel firm when gently pressed through the cloth.6
Unwrap the logs carefully — watch out for hot steam — and immediately slice into rounds about 1.5cm thick using a thin sharp knife or, traditionally, a length of clean cotton thread pulled through. Do not let them sit in the cloth or they will go soggy.7
Arrange the slices in overlapping circles around the edge of a warm plate, ready to soak up svíčková sauce or any braised meat gravy. Leftover knedlíky can be pan-fried in butter the next day until golden — a treat in their own right.User Reviews
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