Easy Dumpling....really, no joke

I have not been able to make dumplings the way that my mother in law does. It seems that I do not have the knack for her recipe. So, I found another one that works really well. I actually took a few and meshed them together. These dumplings are really easy and that fact suprised me.

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of shortening
3/4 cup of buttermilk

Combine the first four ingredents until it forms a coarse meal.

Add buttermilk SLOWLY stirring with a fork until it is moist

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly about 4-5 times. You want to be careful not to overwork the dough.

You can use a rolling pin here but I find that hands are the best tools and you have more control. Either way the dough needs to be about 1/4 of an inch thick.

You can pinch off pieces but use a pizza cutter to cut your pieces up. Try to keep them 1-2 inches.

Let the dumplings set for about an hour and then add them to boiling broth. Make sure the broth is at a rolling boil. Of course homemade is best but if you do not have that go with a store stock.

They will need to stay in the pot for at least 10 minutes. But the time really is based on how big your pot is and how big your dumplings are. So use your judgement. They should be light and fluffy.