Dampfnudeln

I don't mean to suggest how to prepare and serve the best Dampfnudeln. There is a wide german world out there that will really tell you how to do it. But "Dampfnudeln" - like Buchteln and the Dalken - are really my favourites.
The Dampfnudel are "a piece of cake" to prepare. trust me.
All you need is a really good flour  (500 gr), fresh yeats (40 grams), half a liter of milk, 100 grams of sugar , 100 grams of butter at room temperature, and ... time.
It's the perfect pastry a knitting mom will serve for supper - while the dough is rising, you knit.
So - let's start:

Put the  flour in a bowl. Find a central place where you'll put the yeats, half the sugar and a quarter of the milk, lightly warmed. Mix a little bit, cover (first with some flour, then with a towel) and go knitting. Or crocheting. It works too. After half an hour or so add another quater of milk and half the butter. Another quick mix and you are ready for another knitting session. Now you are here.

  

It's time you drop knitting for a while and part the dough into 10 or 12 small, tennis-like balls.
Let the yeats  work for another 20  minutes. You may cast on a sock in the meantime.

Now take an iron or heavy bottomed pan. Put in the rest of your butter, the sugar  and the milk.  Put into this  milky nest your  dough, cover and let it simmer - strickly covered - for about 25 minutes. A very nice smell of caramelised sugar will take you away from knitting. The Dampfnudeln are ready, plae as you see them, but you have to serve them on the resverse side, where they will form a nice, brown crust. Enjoy them with a vanilla sauce, a vanilla puding, or just like they  came from the pan.