Dumplings

I made beef stew for supper and it looked like it might not quite be enough. It was too late to make potatoes or rice, and I've been thinking of making dumplings for a while. Here was my chance. I found this on allrecipes.com

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup milk

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium size bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to make a soft dough.

Drop by spoonfuls into boiling stew. Cover and simmer 15 minutes without lifting lid. Serve.

To make parsley dumplings, add 1 tablespoon parsley flakes to the dry ingredients.

Notes:

The reviews on the recipe suggest stirring the dough only until the dry ingredients are incorporated, much like if you make biscuits or muffins. Don't overmix.

I put in the butter softened, not melted. It worked well.

I turned the stew down to minimum to allow it to simmer, dropped in the dumplings, covered the pot, and allowed it to simmer for the entire 15 minutes. The dumplings were cooked through completely.

Makes me want to play around with the recipe... like making cheese dumplings in taco soup. Mmm.