By the way the "Stif and Poofal" sounds like something we had at home
in Sheboygan, WI (60 years ago) made by my German grandmother on
Thursdays when the cleaning woman came...called "dampfnudeln". (We
also had a wonderful vegetable soup before.) They were steamed
raised dough (not unlike Chinese Buns I discovered, only bigger) and
then served with vanilla sauce or/and stewed dried fruit. The
leftovers were fried in a cast iron pot which I still have and
occasionally use.
I just found the correct spelling and recipe in an old cookbook
(1935) that my grandmother must have brought over to the States to
join us when she came in 1937.