This typical Czech dessert always steals the show! Sweet and delicious, fruit-filled dumplings (ovocné knedlíky) are a dish often made in the Czech kitchens. This recipe will show you how to make blueberry dumplings from the yeasted dough.
What Are Czech „Ovocné kynuté knedlíky“?
They are sweet yeasted dough food, cut into pieces. The fruit mixed with sugar is wrapped in small pouches made out of dough. They are then closed and boiled in water.
When served, Czech fruit dumplings are sprinkled with grated “tvaroh,” ground poppy seed, powdered sugar and are poured over with melted butter.
MY TIP: try also these strawberry dumplings made from cottage cheese (tvaroh) dough (a real Czech thing!)
Pronunciation
I recorded a short audio clip on pronouncing the Czech word ovocné knedlíky. The first word in the audio is "ovocné knedlíky" (fruit dumplings), the last is "kynuté ovocné knedlíky", which means yeasted fruit dumplings.
Which Fruit to Use?
You can use any seasonal fruit in the dumplings. These are typical choices in the Czech:
- strawberries
- plums
- apricots
- blueberries
The fruit is sweetened with sugar because the dough itself isn’t sweet enough.
Don’t use frozen fruit in the dumplings because the dough could boil unevenly. However, you can use canned fruit quite well (let it dry off on a sieve first).
Filling Knedlíky
- Split the leavened dough into 2 halves. From each half, make a roll and cut it into same-sized pieces.
- Stretch each piece into a “circle” about 4-5 inches (10-12 cm) in diameter. Take care, so the dough in the middle of the circle isn’t too thin.
- Place the fruit in the center of the circle and add a bit of granulated sugar (I mixed wild blueberries with sugar in advance). Lift the circle edges, stick them together and close the dumpling.
- Roll the finished dumpling between your hands to get a nice round shape.
Boiling the Dumplings
Czech fruit yeasted dumplings are best boiled in gently boiling salted water.
Don’t place too many knedlíky in the pot. They’ll leaven a little when boiling them. Cover the pot with a lid and boil for 8 minutes, then take the dumplings gently out and place them on a plate.
There’s no need to flip the knedlíky while boiling.
Topping
Grated tvaroh (similar to US farmers’ cheese), icing sugar, and melted butter is our personal favorite.
Grated gingerbread with sugar and butter is another good option, and my grandma also used to make breadcrumbs fried on butter mixed with granulated sugar.
Czech yeasted fruit dumplings can also be sprinkled with ground poppy seed mixed with sugar.
🍰 More Czech desserts:
- Dukátové buchtičky – small yeast buns with vanilla sauce
- České koláče – authentic Czech kolache
- Lívance – yeast dough pancakes
Czech Yeasted Fruit Dumplings with Blueberries
Ingredients
Yeasted dough for fruit dumplings:
- 2 cups (240 ml) milk (lukewarm)
- 2 tsp active dry yeast (or 20 g fresh yeast)
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 7 and ½ cups (980 g) coarse flour (or all purpose flour mixed with semolina)
- 1 whole egg
- pinch of salt
Fruit:
- 2 cups blueberries
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Topping:
- farmers’ cheese
- butter (melted)
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- First, make a yeast starter: Heat the milk. It must be lukewarm only, not hot. Stir in a spoon of sugar, add yeast and mix it. Let it leaven for 15 minutes in a warm place. After 15 minutes, you’ll have a yeast starter with bubbling foam on the surface.
- Add flour, eggs, a pinch of salt, and the yeast starter into a large bowl.
- Mix it with a fork first, then knead it with your hands. Be patient; it takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes. You can also use a kitchen robot with a kneading hook.
- Put a pot filled with hot water in the bottom of an oven. Place the dough in the oven, too, on the middle rack. Close the oven and let the dough leaven in a humid and warm environment for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the blueberries with sugar, use a spoon.
- Make two rolls out of the dough and cut each into evenly sized pieces.
- Take each piece and roll out a circle (not too thin!). Place blueberries mixed with sugar in the middle. Close the knedlík and roll it between your hands until it has a regular round shape.
- Boil the fruit dumplings at a low temperature for 8 minutes, cover the pot with a lid (don’t flip the dumplings).
- After taking them out of the pot, pierce each dumpling with a fork so the steam gets out. Grease them with butter so they don’t become dry on the surface.
- Sprinkle with farmers’ cheese and icing sugar, pour over melted butter.
Notes
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Anie
Thank you for the recipe, I have a quick question: Do I need wild blueberries only?
Petra Kupská
Thanks for your comment, you could use any blueberries you have on hand, just do not use frozen fruit, it’s not good when making yeast dumplings.
Gary Siwik
The author states that canned fruit may be used as long as it's drained in a sieve.
Petra Kupská
I completely agree. Canned fruit must be drained before it is used, as any excess liquid causes erosion of the yeast dough. A fruit dumpling with wet fruit cannot be sufficiently sealed, the dumpling then falls apart.
Jane Hartle
Hi, I was researching fruit dumplings and found your site. My mother was Czech and father was Slovak. My mother made these regularly with different fruits of the season, strawberries, cherries and plums mostly, along with plain small sausage looking dumplings finished with brown butter, bread crumbs, and sugar. I was looking for a recipe for these dumplings but I don’t recall my mother using any yeast. Is this optional?
She also made dumplings from potatoes so I get these a bit confused. My parents have passed now so I was happy to find your site to ask you.
Also what a great project for you and your boys! Congratulations on this idea.
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Jane, thank you for your nice comment first of all! You are right, fruit dumplings are a thing during the fruit season, which is June to September/October here in the Czech Republic. We usually make dumplings filled with fresh fruit, they taste the best 🙂 In Czech, there are most common about 3 kinds of dough for fruit dumplings. Those yeast fruit dumplings are very popular (at least in northern Bohemia, where I live). The other method of making fruit dumplings is to use tvaroh (quark or farmers’ cheese) and shredded boiled potatoes. However, these doughs are different, you can’s simply omit the yeast. I’m looking forward to late spring. I’m planning to make the cherry and strawberry dumplings with "tvaroh" and potato dough. I’ll definitely post the recipes here. Many greetings from Czech, Petra
P.S. - You mentioned "plain small sausage looking dumplings with fried breadcrumbs / sugar / butter", aww, that used my father to do, we call them šlejšky or šišky se strouhankou! 🙂
Sandra Trejbal Larson
Enjoy reading your recipes. I always use peaches or plums for fruit dumpling, now will try using blueberries. My grandparents were from Bohemia. One grandfather was a butcher. My paternal grandfather, dad and uncle were bakers. Love to bake and cook Czech recipes. At 78, for Easter I will make a pound cake in shape of a lamb like my dad made and the Easter bread. Our main course will be a ham. Thank you for your recipes. Happy Easter.
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Sandra, thank you very much for your lovely comment! Blueberries are a common choice for making yeast fruit dumplings in the Czech Republic. Using more significant round pieces of fruit such as plums, strawberries, apricots is an excellent option to make fruit dumplings with quark/potato dough. Happy Easter to you, too! Best wishes, Petra
Tereza
Hi Jane,
the one which you mean are bramborové šišky or bramborové taštičky s povidly. You use potato dough - no yeast.
Bramborové šišky - boiled potato dough in the shape of rolls, its served with melted butter, ground poppy seeds and sugar
Bramborové taštičky s povidly - it is filled with plum jam, boiled and served with fried scrambled bread, sugar and melted butter
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Tereza, thank you for adding more details, it is always interesting to learn how various dishes are prepared in different families. For example, in the Czech region where I live (northern Bohemia) the "bramborové šišky" dish is usually topped with fried breadcrumbs mixed with sugar. We usually sprinkle poppy seeds/sugar on cooked pasta, typically "nudle s mákem" – noodles with poppy seed. But when I mentioned this combination in a Facebook group focused on Czech food, only a few of its members were familiar with this dish!
Anita
How thin should you roll out the dough? My were very tasty but pretty doughy and a couple came open during boiling. Is there a certain way to roll them out? Also, my grandmother used to make a bread called Hollis, she said it was a Czech recipe but when she passed we could not find it.
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Anita, thank you for your question about the fruit dumplings.
The thickness of the rolled-out dough should be about as thick as a straw. A thinner one might tear when forming the dumplings.
These yeast dumplings contain more dough. Fruit dumplings made with potato or cottage cheese dough are also popular in the Czech Republic. This dough is very thin and basically just coats the fruit inside. I will post a recipe for this kind of dumplings (made with potato & cheese dough) in the summer, as soon as the fresh fruit season starts here!
The dumplings came open during cooking: Dumplings need to be appropriately closed; I use my fingertips and press both edges of the dough firmly. Then I gently roll each dumpling between my palms to give it a regular shape.
The dough shouldn't be too dusted with flour; the flour prevents the dumpling from closing well. A slightly sticky dough surface is an advantage.
Either way, I'm so glad the dumplings were successful and tasty!
Anita
Sorry, the bread name was holska.
Petra Kupská
Yep, I think it is a pastry called "houska" in the US. In Czech, we call it "vánočka" and it is a braided sweet bread, usually with raisins and almonds, baked at Christmas. Here is the recipe: Vánočka - please see if it is what you are looking for. Many greetings from the Czech Republic, Petra
Elizabeth
I love baking so I enjoyed reading your recipes from your beautiful country & since my heritage is Polish, some recipes reminded me of my mother's!
Petra Kupská
Dear Elisabeth, thank you for your kind comment and supportive words. I live just a few kilometers from the Polish border, and we go to Poland from time to time for nature or shopping. Moreover, both Czechs and Poles are Slavs, neighbors, and our national cuisines are similar in many ways! Best wishes, Petra
Marissa
Hi! My grandfather was Czech (my great grandparents moved over in the early 20th century). I grew up eating a lot of sisky at my grandparents. Sisky being very similar to this dish (boiled fruit dumplings). I had never heard of ovocne but this dish seems so similar to what I ate. Is sisky and ovocne knedliky similar dishes? Or did my grandpa just call it something different? Is sisky a different dish?? Unfortunately, my grandpa passed away in 2020 and I can no longer ask him these questions about my Czech heritage. I would love your insight!
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Marissa, thank you for your message and a nice question about Czech food. I did a little research and found out that fruit dumplings have various names in different parts of the Czech Republic. One of the names is sisky (spelled šišky in the Czech language), which is common in the Eastern Moravia region. This region is characterized by very rich cultural traditions, including Slovácko, Wallachia, Zlín, Hodonín (parts of Eastern Moravia). Isn't it possible that your grandfather came from this region? I myself am from northern Bohemia, where we make a floury dish made of potato dough in the shape of small sausages under the name šišky. Our šišky can then be sprinkled sweetly (poppy seeds, fried breadcrumbs with sugar) or salty (with bacon, onions, etc.). I hope this helps 🙂 I send my warm greetings from Bohemia, Petra
Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale
Hi my parents and grandparents were Czech and so I grew up with exclusively Czech cooking. When I married a 'Brit' I had to learn new ways of cooking. Our knedlicky were either with cherries or peaches and served with melted butter and cinnamon sugar. These comprised lunch on a summer day. Terribly decadent!
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Eleanor, thank you for your kind comment. Peaches and cherries are some of the most common fruits used for filling sweet dumplings. This nicely confirms that your roots are typically Czech! Also in our family, filled dumplings appear very often in summer when the fruit season is at its peak. Children especially love them.