A comforting hands-off dinner for when the weather is grey and gloomy. Adding grated cheese to your dumplings really helps to ramp up the flavour. Make sure you go for an extra-mature cheddar, for a super cheesy taste.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Yields:
6 serving(s)
Prep Time:
45 mins
Cook Time:
5 hrs 45 mins
Total Time:
6 hrs 30 mins
Cal/Serv:
562
Ingredients
50g
plain flour
1.2kg chuck, stewing or casserole beef steak, trimmed and cut into 5cm chunks
250ml
beef stock
3Tbsp.
olive oil
2
large onions, finely sliced
2
large carrots, cut into 2.5cm chunks
200g
button mushrooms, halved if large
1
bay leaf
4
thyme sprigs
500ml
ale, we used Doom Bar
FOR THE DUMPLINGS
100g
plain flour
1tsp.
baking powder
50g
butter, chilled, coarsely grated
1Tbsp.
fresh parsley, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
1tsp.
freshly picked thyme leaves
50g
extra-mature Cheddar cheese, grated
Directions
Step 1
Put flour in a large bowl and season. Add ⅓ of the beef; toss to coat. Heat 1tbsp oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Shake excess flour from beef, then add to pan and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon to the slow cooker. Repeat until all beef is browned, adding fresh oil to pan between batches.
Step 2
Add stock to the pan, stirring to scrape up any sticky bits, then pour into slow cooker. Stir in onions, carrots, mushrooms, bay and thyme. Pour in ale and season. Cover with the lid and cook on high for 4hr.
Step 3
After 4hr, make the dumplings. Mix all ingredients, apart from cheese, in a bowl with plenty of seasoning, or pulse in a small food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add cheese and mix/pulse, then sprinkle over 2-3tbsp cold water and stir/pulse until dough comes together. Roll into 8 balls. Uncover stew, arrange dumplings on top, spacing apart. Re-cover with lid and cook on high for 1-1½hr.
Step 4
Check seasoning, garnish and serve.
GET AHEAD Make to end of step 2 up to 3 days ahead, cool, cover and chill. To serve, reheat thoroughly in slow cooker then complete recipe.
FREEZE AHEAD Make to end of step 2, cool, transfer to a suitable container and freeze for up to 1 month. To serve, defrost overnight in fridge. Reheat in slow cooker on high until piping hot; complete recipe.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
