German Potato Balls

Prepare the potato mash. Peel the potatoes and place them in a medium pot with cool water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, cool, and mash. You should have about 3 cups.

Put a large pot of water on to boil.

In a large bowl or the potato cooking pot, combine the potato mash with the egg, ¾ cup of flour and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix together with clean hands until a sticky dough forms. (If, as you try to roll the dumplings, it seems unworkably sticky, add more flour in 1-tablespoon increments, mixing the dough as you go, but the less flour you use the better they’ll be in the end.)

With clean, floured hands, take a small clump of the sticky dough and roll it into a ball about the size of a shooter marble or a grape. Repeat with remaining dough. You should have about 75 balls.

Drop several balls into the boiling water. After about a minute, they will float and “wiggle-woggle” for a minute or two before rising to and remaining on the surface. Use a slotted spoon to move them to a paper-towel-lined plate where they can cool and dry.

Once you’ve rolled and wiggle-woggled all the dumplings, you can store them in large zip-top bags in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

For serving, fill a 12-inch skillet — we use one of those plug-in skillets so we don’t take up a burner — with a single layer of room temp potato balls, leaving enough space to comfortably stir and rotate the balls. Add the butter and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook on medium-low until warmed through, regularly rotating with a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes. The balls should get warm and butter-coated first on the low heat, and then increase the heat to just below medium and allow a beautiful golden-brown crust to form, again, regularly rotating them for even cooking. When you have a steaming skillet of golden-brown spheres, 15 to 20 minutes, they’re ready to serve.