One of the highlights of  summer is when the golden deep yellow apricots come into season. Hungary is blessed with a wonderful climate for this fruit. My family used to have a big apricot orchard and  I never got tired picking the fruit there.  Jam making is still popular along with the mouth-watering quick summer cakes with fruit scattered all over and of course the apricot dumpling. Here is a version covered with ground poppy-seeds and icing sugar.

The dough is potato based and exactly the same as for the plum dumpling .

Ingredients (to make about 15 dumplings)

For the dumplings

• 800g potato, (cooked, peeled and finely mashed)
• 1 medium egg
• 300 g (~5 cups) flour
• 0.5 tsp salt

The filling:

• 15 small apricot, stoned – if making it from a larger fruit can use a half for each dumpling.
• 1 tsp of granulated/caster sugar for each dumpling
• 1 tsp of cinnamon powder – optional

Coating

• 5 tbsp poppy-seed
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar
  (I grind the poppy-seed and the sugar together in a coffee grinder)

Method

1. Cook the potato with skin on, when ready peel and mash finely, let it cool completely
2. Add the egg and as much flour as the potato takes on about 300g (~5 cups) but it can vary, get a soft but homogenous dough that is easy to shape.  If the potato is old and thick-skinned you may skip the egg too just add the flour it will hold together.
3. Roll out the dough about 0.5 inch thick, place an apricot with stone removed on it with a tsp of sugar and form dumplings, similarly to the picture below.
4. Bring a big pan of lightly salted water to the boil, reduce to just simmering point, carefully lower the dumplings in it and cook till they come to the surface (do give them a nudge after a minute or two to make sure they are not sticking to the bottom) Cook for a further 4-5 minutes after they come to the surface.
5. Take them out with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with /roll in the ground poppy-seed and sugar, serve warm.

TIP: You can coat these in toasted breadcrumbs too just like at the plum dumplings, in which case you can add a bit of cinnamon too to the apricot before shaping the dumplings.