Topfentascherln

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Potato ricer or fine sieve
• •Rolling pin
• •Wide pot for boiling
• •Slotted spoon
• •Wide heavy-bottomed pan (28cm) for finishing

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil and rice the potatoes

   Boil the potatoes whole and unpeeled in salted water until a knife slides through without resistance, about 25 to 30 minutes depending on size. Drain them and peel while still hot. Use a tea towel to hold them if you need to. Press through a potato ricer or fine sieve onto a clean work surface and spread them out. Let them cool until you can comfortably work the dough with your hands. The potatoes must be dry. Any trapped moisture will make the dough sticky and impossible to roll.

   Peel while hot, not warm. Hot potatoes release moisture as they cool. If you wait until they're lukewarm, that moisture stays trapped inside and your dough pays the price.
2. 2

   Make the filling

   While the potatoes cool, prepare the filling. If your Topfen is wet, wrap it in a clean tea towel and squeeze out the excess liquid over the sink. Put the drained Topfen in a bowl with the egg yolk, sugar, Vanillezucker, and lemon zest. Stir until smooth and creamy. Drain the rum-soaked raisins (save that rum for the cook) and fold them in. Taste it. The filling should be sweet, a little tangy from the Topfen, and bright with lemon. Set it aside.

   Topfen and quark are not interchangeable with cream cheese, ricotta, or Greek yoghurt. Topfen has a dry, crumbly texture and a clean tang that the others can't replicate. If you can't find Topfen, full-fat quark is the closest substitute. Drain it well.
3. 3

   Make the potato dough

   Mound the cooled riced potato on your work surface. Scatter the flour over it, make a well, and add the egg, melted butter, and a pinch of salt. Work everything together with your hands, quickly and gently, until you have a smooth, soft dough. This takes two minutes, not ten. Kartoffelteig is not bread dough. The more you knead it, the more gluten you develop, and gluten makes potato dough tough and rubbery. As soon as it holds together and feels smooth, stop.

   Gretel always said Kartoffelteig should feel like a baby's cheek. Soft, smooth, a little yielding. If it feels elastic or springs back when you press it, you've overworked it.
4. 4

   Roll and cut the dough

   Dust your work surface generously with flour. Roll the dough out to about four millimeters thick. It should be thin enough to cook through quickly but sturdy enough to hold the filling without tearing. Cut it into squares, roughly eight centimeters on each side. A knife works fine. You don't need a cutter or a ruler. Gretel used a butter knife and her eye and they came out perfectly every time.

5. 5

   Fill and seal the Tascherln

   Place a heaped teaspoon of the Topfen filling in the center of each square. Don't overfill them. You need enough clean dough around the edges to seal properly, and a Tascherl that bursts open in the water is a sad thing to witness. Fold each square corner to corner into a triangle, or fold in half into a rectangle, whichever feels more natural. Press the edges firmly with your fingertips, then press again with the tines of a fork. The fork seal looks pretty, but more importantly it locks the filling in. Lay the finished Tascherln on a floured tray without touching each other.

6. 6

   Boil the Tascherln

   Bring a wide pot of salted water to a gentle boil. Lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. Slide the Tascherln in, a few at a time, and don't crowd them. They'll sink, then float. Once they float, give them another two to three minutes. A rolling boil will tear them apart. A lazy simmer treats them with the respect they deserve. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain on a clean tea towel.

7. 7

   Brown the butter and breadcrumbs

   Melt the 80g of butter in a wide pan over medium heat. Watch it carefully. It will foam, then the foam will subside, and the butter will start to turn from golden to a deep hazelnut brown. You'll smell toasted nuts. That's the moment. Add the breadcrumbs immediately and stir them through the browned butter. They'll sizzle and turn golden and crunchy in about a minute. This is what abgeschmalzt means: dressed in browned butter. It's the finishing move for half the Mehlspeisen in Austria and once you understand it, you'll use it everywhere.

   The window between browned butter and burnt butter is about thirty seconds. Stay at the stove and keep the pan moving. If you see black specks, you've gone too far and need to start over. Burnt butter is bitter and there's no saving it.
8. 8

   Finish and serve

   Slide the drained Tascherln into the pan with the browned butter and breadcrumbs. Toss them gently, coating every surface. Let them sit in the butter for just a minute so the outsides pick up a little color and crunch. Pile them onto warm plates, spoon any remaining butter and breadcrumbs from the pan over the top, and dust generously with powdered sugar. Serve immediately. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Soak the raisins in rum the night before if you can. An hour is the minimum, but overnight is better. The raisins should be plump and soft all the way through, not just damp on the outside. If you bite into a raisin that's still dry in the center, it needed more time.
• •Use real Vanillezucker, not vanilla extract. Austrian baking depends on it. Bury a split vanilla pod in a jar of caster sugar for a week and you'll have a supply that lasts months. The flavor is rounder and warmer than extract, and every Mehlspeise you make will taste better for it.
• •If your dough cracks when you fold it, it's too dry.Wet your fingertips and work a tiny bit of moisture into the dough. If it sticks to everything, it's too wet. Add flour a teaspoon at a time. Kartoffelteig is a conversation. It tells you what it needs if you pay attention.
• •Leftover Tascherln reheat beautifully in butter the next day. Let them get a proper golden crust on both sides in a hot pan. They're almost better the second time.

Advance Preparation

• •Raisins should soak in rum for at least one hour, preferably overnight.
• •The filling can be made up to a day ahead and refrigerated, covered tightly. Bring to room temperature before filling.
• •The potato dough must be made and used the same day. Cold leftover potato dough doesn't roll well.
• •Assembled Tascherln can rest on a floured tray in the fridge for up to two hours before boiling. Dust them well so they don't stick.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)