Spaetzle

Strawberry Girl's Note:

from Jeff Smith's "The Frugal Gourmet: On Our Immigrant Ancestors"

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons freshly rendered lard or 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 quarts water

Directions:

1. Using an electric mixer, blend the eggs, lard or oil, water and milk.
2. Stir the flour together with 1/2 tsp of the salt and the baking powder in a dry bowl.
3. Blend this mixture into the liquid.
4. Mix well and set aside for a moment. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tsp of salt. Using a spaetzle maker or spaetzle press squeeze the dough into the boiling water.
5. Use about 1/3 of the dough for each batch.
6. When the dumplings float to the surface, they are done. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place in a colander.
7. They can be served with way with paprika gravy or pan fried with a little butter, just until they are a bit golden, and topped with parsley.
8. Note: These dumplings can also be made by using piping bag or dropping very small amounts from a spoon.
9. The latter takes much longer.

Reviews

[imatrad]

Our family just LOVED these!!! Since I doubled the recipe I needed to thin the batter out a bit with a little more milk, so it would be more like a pancake batter. This was the first time I've made spaetzle, but it won't be the last! It takes a lot of time to get them into the little bits of dough to cook. So I improvised and ended up using a colander held over a large pot of boiling water and pouring some batter in, and then used a spoon to press down on the batter, pushing it through the holes in the colander. That was slow, so I tried using the bottom of a mixing bowl to press the batter through the colander, into the boiling water below, and it worked! It's messy to do it, and takes two people (one to hold the colander over the pot of water, but it's worth the mess and effort! And you get a lot of spaetzle out at once. After cooking, I fried them in some butter, and added some salt. These were so amazing, I'm going to buy a spaetzle press to use the next time I make them. Thanks Strawberry Girl.

[CappoMomma]

Oh my! I made this last night (recipe doubles easily). Wonderful! Wonderful. It was my first time ever making spaetzle. I didn't have and couldn't find (after a 2 day search) a Spaetzle machine/maker anywhere, but found *the perfect this for making them at Kohls. I used a pizza crisper (looks like a round pizza pan but has holes in the bottom) it fit over my pot of boiling water perfectly and using a dough scraper, made perfect little spaetzle. as someone suggested, I added some nutmeg to the mix. I sauted themas suggested and served them with German Pot Roast and gravy. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

[ShaylaErin]

I have eaten alot of spaetzle and this was my first time making spaetzle and it turned out perfect! I halved the recipe and used dark rye flour ( was out of regular ) instead. I used a cheese grated to press the spaetzle.