Germans are big fans of the dumplings. Some are made from bread, other from potatoes, and all of them taste pretty fantastic. Of the two, bread dumplings are a bit easier to make and there’s really very few ingredients or steps involved. It’s really a matter of perfecting your rolling technique and making sure there are no stray dry crumbs to throw off your dumplings while they boil.
If you live in Germany, you may be lucky enough to buy the dumpling bread by the bagful. Knödelbrot (dumpling bread) is sold by the bagful with exactly 400g of pre-shredded bread. You only need to add the ingredients, roll the dumplings up, boil them and enjoy. It doesn’t get much more simple than that. But if you have a bunch of stale rolls, bread heels or even big dough pretzels (although those are often reserved for special dumplings), you can make your own dumpling bread. Just shred the bread into large chunks with your hands or a food processor. I usually save all my leftover rolls for stuffing mix or French toast in the freezer so I’m glad to find yet another use for them. It’s easiest if you already have the bread cut up or chunked before you put it in the freezer because some breads harden after freezing and thawing.