Dumpling Mix/Roly Poly Mixes for the Pantry Shelf

We have had stew for tea tonight using up some of the Beef Skirt which was bought last week. OH requested Dumplings, so I have been a bought a packet to make up for him to have with his stew and mashed potatoes.  It cost me 90p for a 150g pack which should make 8 small Dumplings.

I followed the instructions and made the dough up as indicated from the packet mix.  However, in reality it tells you to use 6 Tablespoons of water, in reality I used more. Also, the Dumplings need cooking a lot longer than 20 minutes. They need longer so that the inside cooks properly which it will not do in 20 minutes.  The Dumpling should take on the flavour of what it is cooked with, but you should not have a floury bit in the centre. They did come up fairly light though.

I must say that the Stew was super tasty again.  Yet again another meal each for tomorrow.

I have also bought a 1.5 kg bag of SR Flour for 95p and a box of suet 240g for £2.10 as I have decided to compare the pricing and to see whether I can try and reduce the price of making up a few bags of Dumpling mix for my own Pantry shelf. Now I am not sure whether I have been able to source things as cheap as I could; I suspect not as I just used the Co-Op round the corner.  I suspect ingredients can be sourced cheaper. 

Stew in the winter months tends to be a regular occurrence so for me it also makes sense to have a few packets of homemade Dumpling mix to hand basically to save some messing about.  Dumplings are a padder outer for a stew.  I do not always serve them with a stew, but it will be nice to have them as an option without too much messing about.

Funnily enough, the recipe that is used on the Co-Op bag also seems to be the same one that is on the Atora Suet box.

The recipe for making the Atora Suet Dumplings is as follows:

Ingredients:

100g/4oz Self Raising Flour

50g/2oz Suet

Pinch of salt

Cold water (approximately 5 Tablespoons or enough to make a firm but pliable dough).

Method:

1.  Mix the Suet, flour and salt with the water.

2.  Divide the dough into 8 and gently shape into balls with floured hands to prevent sticking.

3.  Place on top of a simmering stew or casserole.  Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for about 20 minutes

On calculating the math, a dumpling works out at 10.89p each x 8 = approximately 87p per bag of 8.  For the four ball bag it works out at approximately 44p per bag.  Therefore a 3 pence saving per bag.  Not much, but a small saving and the plus side is I have three bags of eight dumplings and one bag of four dumplings ready in the Pantry.

Not a real success, however it is something I will try and do again probably with different ingredients for something else I want to keep in-house on the Pantry shelf.

These are my homemade Dumpling mix bags complete with labels and instructions:

Took less than 15 minutes to assemble all these.

Equally on the packet mix I used with the Stew earlier, there was a recipe for making your own Jam Roly Poly with the packet mix.  I will type up the recipe as it appears on the packet below, but equally you should be able to see the instructions by double clicking on the packet mix:

Here we go:

"How to make a Jam Roly Poly.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/Fan 180 degrees C/ Gas Mark 6.

1.  Make up the Dumpling mix as previously instructed.

2.  Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle approximately 20-30cm.

3.  Evenly spread your favourite jam or preserve onto the surface of the dough.

4.  Roll up neatly Swiss Roll style, from the narrow end transfer to greaseproof paper, with the seam facing down.

5.  Wrap up and twist the ends like a Christmas Cracker, then repeat with foil.

6.  Place the pudding onto a roasting rack set on top of a roasting tin.  Pour boiling water into the roasting tin until it is half full, this will create steam to make the pudding light and fluffy.

7.  Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.  Take care when unwrapping, allowing the steam to escape.

8.  Alternatively for a crispy crust, but less well risen roly poly follow the guidelines up until step 3.

9.  Roll up neatly and transfer to a greased roasting tin.

10.  Cover the tin very tightly with greased foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Even though the saving is small, if I source my ingredients a bit more carefully, I think for me this is going to be well worth keeping on the Pantry shelf.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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I have just read the ingredients list on the back of the bought Dumpling mix which reads as follows:

"fortified wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Palm Oil, Raising Agents (Calcium phosphates), Sodium Hydrogen carbonate, Potassium hydrogen carbonate), Rice Flour, Sunflower Oil".

The mix I used had SR Flour and Suet.  

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