Jamaican Dumplings: Fried, Boiled and Spinners Recipe

Jamaican dumplings are simple flour dough, cooked one of three ways: fried until golden and fluffy, boiled into firm, chewy discs, or rolled into thin spinners and cooked in soup. They show up at almost every meal. Sunday breakfast in a lot of Jamaican homes is ackee and saltfish or callaloo with fried dumplings, or mackerel rundown with boiled dumplings, green banana and yam. Saturday is soup day, and the pot of beef, chicken or red peas soup isn’t finished until the spinners go in.

Ask any Jamaican and they’ll tell you their family’s dumplings are the right ones. Some add butter, some swear by a little cornmeal, and some use nothing but flour, salt and water. What follows are the plain versions most of us grew up on, with the texture cues that matter more than exact measurements.

Fried, boiled or spinners: which one you need

• Fried dumplings (many people call them Johnny cakes) have baking powder in the dough, so they puff up, crisp outside and soft inside. Breakfast food, mostly.
• Boiled dumplings are just flour, salt and water, kneaded firm and boiled. Dense, chewy and filling, part of what Jamaicans call hard food alongside yam, green banana and dasheen.
• Spinners are boiled dumpling dough rolled into thin logs and cooked in soup or stew peas, where they also thicken the pot.

Across the Caribbean you’ll find cousins of these: fried bakes in Trinidad, Johnny cakes in the Eastern Caribbean, and flour dumplings in soups from Guyana to Barbados. The Jamaican versions are the ones below.

Ingredients

Both doughs start with 2 cups (250 g) of all-purpose flour, which makes enough for a family breakfast or one big pot of soup.

For fried dumplings (makes 8)

• 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 g) cold butter, cut small (optional)
• About ⅔ cup (160 ml) cold water
• About 1 cup (240 ml) vegetable oil, for frying

For boiled dumplings or spinners (makes 8 to 10 dumplings, or about 30 spinners)

• 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt, plus 1 teaspoon for the pot
• About ⅔ cup (160 ml) cold water
• About 8 cups (2 liters) water, for boiling

Cups are US cups. If you weigh, spoon the flour into the cup and level it; scooping straight from the bag packs in more flour and gives you a drier dough.

How to make fried dumplings (Johnny cakes)

Prep: 15 minutes, plus 10 minutes resting. Cook: 12 to 15 minutes.

1. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. If you’re using butter, rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the water a little at a time, mixing with your hand, until the dough comes together. Stop when it’s soft but not sticky; you may not need all the water.
4. Knead for 2 to 3 minutes, just until smooth. Cover and rest for 10 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball between your palms, then press it down a little so it’s about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick.
6. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan over medium heat. It should come about halfway up the dumplings. It’s ready when a pinch of dough sizzles straight away, or about 340°F (170°C) on a thermometer.
7. Fry the dumplings in batches without crowding the pan for 12 to 15 minutes in all, turning every few minutes, until they’re golden brown all over and sound hollow when you tap them.
8. Drain on paper towels and serve warm.

Texture cue: a good fried dumpling is crisp and golden outside and light inside. Break the first one open: the middle should be fluffy and dry, not damp or doughy.

How to boil Jamaican dumplings

Prep: 15 minutes, plus 10 to 15 minutes resting. Cook: 15 to 20 minutes.

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add half the water and mix with your hand, then add the rest a little at a time until you have a firm dough. It should feel stiffer than fried dumpling dough and shouldn’t stick to your hand.
2. Knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Cover and rest for 10 to 15 minutes while the water heats.
3. Bring the 8 cups (2 liters) of water to a rolling boil and add the teaspoon of salt.
4. Pull off pieces about the size of a golf ball (you’ll get 8 to 10). Roll each into a smooth ball, then flatten it between your palms into a thick disc. Press a dent in the middle with your thumb so the center cooks through.
5. Drop the dumplings into the boiling water one at a time, give the pot a stir so they don’t stick to the bottom, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Lift one out and cut it open. It should be firm and evenly cooked with no raw, pasty streak in the middle. Lift them all out with a slotted spoon and serve hot.

How long to boil Jamaican dumplings

Golf-ball-size discs take 15 to 20 minutes at a steady boil. Smaller or thinner ones cook in 10 to 15 minutes, and big, thick ones can need closer to 25. Floating means they’re close, not finished, so give them a few more minutes after they rise and cut one to check.

If you’re boiling hard food, the dumplings can go in the same pot as the green banana and yam. Add them once the water is boiling hard so they hold their shape.

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Spinners: Jamaican dumplings for soup

Make the boiled dumpling dough; for one pot of soup or stew peas, half the recipe is usually plenty.

1. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a large marble.
2. Roll each one between your palms into a thin log about 3 inches (7 to 8 cm) long, a little thicker in the middle and tapered at the ends. The rubbing motion is where the name comes from.
3. Drop them into the soup when it’s at a steady simmer, about 15 minutes before it’s done, and stir so they don’t clump.
4. They’re ready when they float and are firm all the way through, usually 12 to 15 minutes. Taste one before you take the pot off.

Spinners go into beef, chicken and red peas soup, stew peas and, for a heartier pot, fish tea. They release a little flour as they cook, which is why Saturday soup gets that thick body.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Fried dumplings raw in the middle: the oil was too hot, so the outside browned before the inside cooked. Turn the heat down to medium and give them the full 12 to 15 minutes. Keeping them about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick helps too.
• Fried dumplings greasy: the oil wasn’t hot enough when they went in, or the pan was crowded and the temperature dropped. Wait for the test pinch of dough to sizzle, and fry in batches.
• Hard, tough dumplings: too much kneading for fried dumplings, or too much flour worked in. Knead fried dough only until smooth. For boiled dumplings, firm is right, but rock hard usually means the dough was too dry.
• Boiled dumplings falling apart or slimy outside: the dough was too soft, or the water wasn’t boiling when they went in. Firm the dough with a little more flour and wait for a rolling boil.
• Pasty center in boiled dumplings: they came out too soon, or they’re too thick. Boil a few minutes longer, and press that thumb dent into the middle next time.
• Dough too sticky: flours absorb water differently. Add flour a spoon at a time; next time hold back some of the water and add it slowly.

Variations

• Cornmeal dumplings: swap ½ cup of the flour for ½ cup (about 75 g) of fine yellow cornmeal. Works for boiled or fried dumplings and gives a golden color and a bit more bite. Coarse cornmeal makes a gritty dumpling, so use fine.
• Whole wheat dumplings: use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose. The dough needs a little more water, and the dumplings are denser and nuttier. All whole wheat works for boiled dumplings but makes heavy fried ones.
• Banana dumplings: peel and finely grate 1 green banana and work it into the boiled dumpling dough in place of some of the water, adding flour until the dough is firm. Wear gloves or oil your hands, because green banana sap stains. They come out slightly grey-green and earthy.
• Self-rising flour: fine for fried dumplings; leave out the baking powder and salt.
• Butter or no butter: butter makes a richer, more tender fried dumpling. Some cooks use a spoon of oil in the dough instead, and plenty use none at all.
• Festival: a different thing. Festival is a sweetened cornmeal and flour dough fried in long fingers and served with jerk and fried fish. If you want sweet, make festival rather than adding sugar to dumplings.

What to serve with Jamaican dumplings

• Fried dumplings: ackee and saltfish, callaloo and saltfish, fried or escoveitch fish, ackee and corned beef, or just butter and a cup of hot chocolate tea.
• Boiled dumplings: mackerel rundown, ackee and saltfish, curry goat, brown stew chicken or oxtail, with yam, green banana and dasheen on the side.
• Spinners: Saturday soup, stew peas and fish tea, as above. A glass of peanut punch after a bowl of soup is the full country treatment.

For the rest of the table, from ackee and saltfish to curry goat, see my guide to Jamaican food, and if you’re making a whole Jamaican breakfast, cornmeal porridge is the other half of it. On the island, a breakfast plate with fried dumplings is easy to find at cookshops; my list of the best places for authentic Jamaican food has where to look.

Storing and reheating

• Fried dumplings are best within an hour of frying. Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in a 350°F (175°C) oven or an air fryer for 5 to 8 minutes; the microwave makes them chewy.
• Boiled dumplings keep in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days. Drop them into boiling water or soup for a few minutes to warm through, or slice them and fry in a little oil or butter until golden, which a lot of Jamaicans like even better than the first day.
• Dough: wrap it tightly and refrigerate for up to a day. Let it sit out for 15 minutes before shaping. Fried dumpling dough made ahead rises a little less, so the dumplings come out slightly denser.
• Cool cooked dumplings and get them into the fridge within 2 hours.