Swedish Delicacies Part 6: Kroppkakor

More Swedish cuisine experiments… I ran into a dish called “kroppkaka” on Facebook and I had no idea what it was. So I looked it up. Kroppkakor seem to be more common in southern Sweden, so maybe that’s why I had never heard of it. They are basically like dumplings, a dough made with potatoes, eggs and wheat flour, filled usually with meat and onions. They resemble the Chinese baozi, but are cooked and served in a different way.

This isn’t the easiest dish to prepare, but it’s definitely good. I made a vegetarian version with mushrooms and onions, but you can be creative and try different fillings.

What you need:

• 0,5 kg potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 2 dl wheat flour
• 0,5 tsp salt
• 500 g meat / mushrooms /something else
• 1-2 onions
• Salt
• Pepper

• Water
• Salt

• Lingonberry jam
• Melted butter

How to do it:

• Cook and mash the potatoes, let cool.
• Fry the onions and meat / mushrooms, let cool.

You can prep cook the night before if you don’t have the time to let everything cool down the same day.

Split the dough into equal sized parts, you can choose whether you want to make small or large kroppkakor. Make balls of the dough, press a hole in each of them and fill with 1/2 – 1 tbsp of filling. Cover the hole with dough. Use some flour if the dough gets sticky.

Boil a pot of water with some salt, put the dough filled balls into the boiling watering wait until they start to float, then let them boil for 3-5 minutes more.

Serve kroppkakor with lingonberry jam and melted butter, many people also serve vegetables or salad with them.

The first thing that crossed my mind when I tried them was: “What’s the point? It’s exactly like meatballs and mashed potatoes that Swedes love so much.” It’s way easier to prepare them separately than putting the meat inside the mashed potatoes. I don’t know if there’s a story behind this dish, but on the other hand, why not. 😀 They did taste very good, but took effort.

P.S. Kroppkakor are sold ready made in most supermarkets in Sweden, but I wanted to learn how to do them myself.