Tessa Gratton | Valentine's Day Recipe Roundup: LADY HOTSPUR + Giveaway!

Ready for yet another delicious dessert, perfect to share with your valentine? Fantasy author Tessa Gratton is here to tell us more about Lady Hotspur and a delectable dumpling dessert.

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Prince Hal has loved Hotspur since the moment she saw her--on a battlefield, rebelling together against an unjust king. Hal is a terrible prince, afraid of ruling, and hides herself in alcohol and wild parties, while Hotspur is consumed with duty to the land, her family, and her queen. But both women long to make their country better, and that mutual passion for Aremoria and each other ties them together with fire. Though their courtship is fraught with true Shakespearean romance, tragedy, war, redemption, and star-crossed destiny, Hal and Hotspur keep managing to come back to each other.

Lady Hotspur doesn’t cook. She eats what’s put in front of her, whether it be charred meat from an army fire, or fine cream and candied apples at the queen’s table. Hal, on the other hand, loves distraction, and if she had the chance, would concoct a delightful plan to whisk Hotspur away for a date. She’d have to make something simple, that didn’t require many ingredients or delicate timing, and if there was a chance for a dirty joke, that would be icing on the cake. That’s why I think Hal would cook Hotspur cherry dumplings.

CHERRY DUMPLINGS

Ingredients:

3 C mashed potatoes (instant is fine)(very salty and buttery is best)

4 large eggs

5 C flour

bag of ripe cherries, pits in

1 stick butter

sugar to taste

cinnamon to taste

Directions:

Stir potatoes, eggs, and 3 cups of flour until the dough is wet.

Knead in final two cups of flour. The dough will be sticky.

Divide dough into six clumps

Set one clump on floured surface.

Roll out until it is thin, approx 1/8 an inch thick or less

Add flour to rolling surface so the dough doesn’t stick

(always add flour if things start to stick to hands or rolling pin)

Cut dough into squares, 3 inch by 3 inch (larger is ok)

Put one washed cherry into each square

Fold dough around cherry, either in triangles or rectangles

(You can roll into balls if there isn’t enough dough to pinch shut)

Make sure there are no openings in the dough with pinching or rolling

Drop dumplings into boiling, salted water

After dumplings rise in water cook 10-15 minutes

Drain

Toss into a 10x14 glass pan

Add browned butter, sugar, cinnamon to taste, stir

Serve

Make jokes about eating each other's cherries, or handling balls, as you like.

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COMMENT TO WIN: What's your favorite dessert? Leave a comment with your answer and you'll be entered to win a copy of LADY HOTSPUR! US only - good luck!

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Say it isn't so. . .  tomorrow is the final day of our Valentine's Day Recipe Roundup! Check out the rest of our posts here: 

Piper J. Drake

Susan Stoker

Synithia Williams 

Tif Marcelo 

Mimi Matthews

May McGoldrick

Joanna Hathaway