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Main dishes

Spišské džatky: add flour to cooked potatoes and spoon out large potato dumplings

Name: Spišské džatky: add flour to cooked potatoes and spoon out large potato dumplings
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Slovak
Ingredients: 1 kg Potatoes; 1.5 tsp Salt; 100 g All-purpose flour; 150 g Semi-coarse wheat flour; 200 g Smoked bacon; 1 Onion; 150 g Bryndza (soft sheep's milk cheese); 4 glasses Soured milk (clabbered milk) (to drink alongside)

Spišské džatky are spoon-shaped potato and flour dumplings topped with bacon, rendered fat, and bryndza sheep's milk cheese. Serves 4.

Slovak cuisine · Grandma’s recipes · Translated from Slovak · November 1, 2026

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Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 hr
Servings: 4 servings
Difficulty: Easy
Cuisine: Slovak

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Džatky are a traditional dish from Slovakia's Spiš region, made from cooked potatoes and flour and shaped with a spoon into large dumplings. Add the flour directly to the potatoes in the pot with a little of their cooking water, let it steam under a lid, then mix everything into a smooth dough. There is no need to grate the potatoes or boil the dumplings in water. Top the plated džatky with bacon, drizzle with rendered bacon fat, and add bryndza, a soft sheep's milk cheese. Pan-fry any leftovers the next day.

Ingredients

4 servings

Units

Potatoes 1 kg
Salt 1.5 tsp
All-purpose flour 100 g
Semi-coarse wheat flour 150 g
Smoked bacon 200 g
Onion 1
Bryndza (soft sheep's milk cheese) 150 g
Soured milk (clabbered milk) (to drink alongside) 4 glasses

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Instructions

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

Cook the potatoes
25 min
Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Add enough salted water to just cover them and cook until tender. Drain, leaving about a finger's depth of water in the pot, and reserve the drained water in a cup.
Steam the flour
10 min
Pile both flours on top of the hot potatoes without stirring. Cover the pot and let steam over the lowest heat for 10 minutes.
Mix the dough
5 min
Mash the potatoes with the flour, then beat with a wooden spoon into a smooth, thick dough. If it is too stiff, add a little of the reserved cooking water.
Render the bacon
10 min
Dice the bacon and cook it slowly in a skillet to render the fat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until golden.
Shape the dumplings
10 min
Dip a spoon into cold water or hot rendered bacon fat, then scoop large dumplings from the dough onto warmed plates. Top with the bacon and onion, drizzle with the rendered fat, add crumbled bryndza, and serve with soured milk to drink alongside.

Tip: Do not stir in the flour right away; let it steam on top of the potatoes first so the dough does not taste raw. For a meatless version, use melted butter and quark (a fresh curd cheese); pan-fry cold džatky until golden.

Nutrition facts

Approximate values per serving, calculated from the ingredients

Energy: 856 kcal
Protein: 34 g
Carbohydrates: 107 g
of which sugars: 16 g
Fat: 32 g
of which saturates: 15 g
Fiber: 7.4 g
Salt: 4.4 g

Calculated from the raw ingredients, without frying oil. Where an amount is “to taste”, typical amounts are used. Food composition: USDA FoodData Central and product labels.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Spišské džatky: múku nasypete rovno na uvarené zemiaky a lyžicou vykrajujete veľké halušky