Grandmas Jamaican Fried Dumplings

In honor of Jamaican Independence day, I wanted to share my grandmas Jamaican Fried Dumplings! Dumplings are one of my favorite foods that my grandma makes. Sometimes she fries them and sometimes she’ll cook them in Jamaican soup which is equally as yummy. I just love them! They are extremely simple but they go a long way.

Meet my grandma aka gramma aka gran aka granny!

 

On April 24th, 1938 Miss Florence the glue that holds us all together was born in Enfield St. Mary, Jamaica. Like most women did back then, she had to cook and clean for her family. Grandma had her first child at 20 years old and in total had 5 children! She was basically a single mom doing housekeeping and childcare gigs just to keep her family afloat. She made her first trip to America to start a new life in 1973 but eventually went back. 

She eventually came back and settled in. Here we are today! I am so proud to call this strong woman my grandma. I just wanted to show my appreciation to her. I also wanted to add that when I told her I was making this post she said “MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THE DUMPLINGS HAVE TO BE FLAKY!” Ha!

So these dumplings are also called Johnny Cakes which came from the words Journey Cakes. Plantation workers would eat Journey Cakes for lunch or as a snack for their very long journey. These are a super easy dish to make! You probably already have the ingredients in your home.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tbsp of room temperature butter
• 1/3 cup of water

Directions for Jamaican Fried Dumplings:

1. Combine all of your dry ingredients and whisk it all together. If you have a sifter that would be great. I don’t and everything still blended easily.

2. Add in your room temperature butter, then gradually add in your water and mix it all together. The dough will start to form and you might want to use your hands to finish kneading/forming the dough. (Your impeccably clean hands, of course!)

3. Now that you have the dough, you can form your dumplings. Roll the dough in your hands until you have a ball. (Mine was a personal order and made 5 but double or even triple the recipe and you’ll have more. HA!)

4. Heat oil in a pan to fry the dumplings (Use the back of a wooden spoon to test how hot your oil is). Fry until they are nice and golden brown.

And voila! Simple but yummy fried dumplings! Dont forget to make sure that they are flakey! 😉

---

As always, thanks so much for reading! Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome. If you enjoyed this post, please comment, like and share! Make sure to check out my Instagram; @tianiangela_ and my latest video on Youtube💋