Last night I cooked a really yummy casserole thanks to a recipe from the Hairy Bikers. It was perfect comfort food for a cold winter evening. It included a recipe for the addition of a potato cobbler made up of potato dumplings that I want to share.

The potato cobbler, made up of wonderful dumplings, was a magic touch with the casserole and could be used as an addition to any casserole so I thought I’d share how to do it. I still have a bit of work to do in order to make the casserole recipe work perfectly for me, such as reducing the recipe to fit the casserole dish I have and thicken up the sauce. While I know how I’ll do those two things I’ll let you check out the casserole recipe at it’s source while I just explain the potato cobbler.

These dumplings are made while your desired casserole is cooking – though it’s worthwhile cooking and mashing the potatoes before anything else and then setting them aside to cool while you do the rest of your casserole.

Potato Cobbler Ingredients

• 350g potatoes
• 250g (about 2 cups) self raising flour (or use 1tsp baking powder per cup of normal flour)
• 1 tsp salt (fine sea salt is the best option)
• 100g cold butter (cut into small cubes)
• 125ml milk

Potato Cobbler Method

Peel, wash and cut potatoes into small cubes. Place in a pot, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 15 minutes or until soft at at desired consistency for mashing. Drain and mash without adding anything. Mash until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Put flour (+ baking powder if being used) and salt into a large mixing bowl. Give a quick stir with your hands to mix the dry ingredients together. Rub in the butter by hand until it looks like coarse bread crumbs. Add the mashed potato and rub together with the butter and flour – it will start to resemble a dough.

Add the milk a bit at a time and mix till it forms a soft, smooth dough. The type of potatoes and their moisture content will change the amount of milk needed. If it ever gets too wet just add a bit more flour to get to the soft, smooth dough.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll into a thick sausage about 25cm long. Cut into 12 rounds.

Take your casserole out of the oven 30 minutes before it’s due to finish. Taste and season as necessary as you won’t be able to do this once the potato cobbler is in place as it will form a lid.

Top the casserole with the potato dumplings so they cover the filling – overlap a little to form the potato cobbler. Brush with a little extra milk to glaze and return to the oven with the lid of the casserole pot. Leave to cook for another 30 minutes (assuming the oven is around heated at around 200c) or until the potato cobblers are well risen and golden brown.

When you dig the sumplings out they should be a little crunchy on the top half and the bottom half would have submerged into the casserole soaking up some of the juices and flavour. They’re a great accompaniment on the plate.

For a bit of variation try substituting the potato with sweet potato (Kumara in New Zealand) or a dry style of pumpkin.

There you go – a tasty potato cobbler made up of divine dumplings to give you a hearty meal.