Sweet temptation for cold days

A cold winter morning, white mountain peaks, and an invigorating snowshoe hike through the idyllic Montafon valley. What could make such a day even better? The only thing we can think of is delicious pastries. One of our favorite dishes for the cold season is wonderfully fluffy steamed dumplings with vanilla sauce. Chef Florian has shared his recipe with us so that you can recreate it at home.

Ingredients

For the yeast dough:

- 500 ml milk
- 100 g sugar
- 42 g yeast
- 500 g flour
- 125 g butter
- 1 egg
1 pinch of salt
Flour for kneading

For the vanilla sauce:

- 4 packets vanilla sugar
- 200 g whipping cream
- 2 eggs

Preparation

Start with the yeast dough: Heat 250 ml milk in a small saucepan, making sure it does not get hotter than lukewarm. Then add a tablespoon of sugar and crumble in the yeast so that it dissolves. Cover the mixture with a cloth and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes.

Now mix the flour, 60 g sugar, 75 g soft butter in flakes, 1 egg (room temperature), salt, and the yeast milk together in a bowl. Knead everything into a smooth, supple dough and leave it to rise again, covered, for approx. 1 hour.
Knead the dough again and then divide it into 12 balls of equal size. Place these balls on a floured board, cover them and leave them to rise again for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the remaining milk, butter, sugar, and 1 packet of vanilla sugar in a large pot or roasting pan and heat until the butter melts. Place the yeast balls close together in the pot, cover, and cook in the oven on low heat for about 30 minutes, without opening the lid. (If the lid is removed, the steam dumplings will collapse).

Now you can turn your attention to the vanilla sauce:
Separate the eggs (you can use the egg whites for something else). Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan.
Beat the egg yolks and vanilla sugar in a double boiler over steam until frothy, stirring constantly. To create steam, fill a saucepan with approx. 1.5 cm of water, bring to the boil, and then place the double boiler on top. Add the cream, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens slightly. Serve the sauce warm or cooled with the steamed dumplings.

Our tip: Add the seeds from a Bourbon vanilla pod to the vanilla sauce. This refines the aroma.

We wish you every success and bon appétit!