Spaetzle - Quick Austrian Egg Noodles or Dumplings

General experience in the kitchen does help. I can recall trying to make these many years ago and ending up with a big inedible mess. Now I gave them another go, and thought, "Wow! These are really quite easy! And faster than I expected!"

Tasty, too; although I think I need to try them with several different flours. The one I used was a whole spelt flour, and I think I would prefer something that gives firmer, chewier results. It was fine though. Most recipes seem to call for all-purpose flour, but this a form of pasta and I would think a durum semolina would be ideal. Some people do call for a mixture of all-purpose flour and semolina. Some recipes call for beating the dough for quite a long time, which suggests that they expect you to use a fairly high protein flour like the durum semolina, although they rarely say so. 

The two of us ate this over two meals, but they were meals where I dressed the spaetzle with a little cheese, sauce, and some vegetables and that was the meal. If you are serving them as a side dish with meat, they will go quite a bit further. It is traditional to serve them with meat dishes, but they can also go into soup as well as being served the way we had them.

Is anybody out there an experienced spaetzle maker? Do you have tips or tricks to suggest, and what kind of flour do you use? (And if you are wondering, I did use 3 eggs even though the recipe calls for 4. That's because I have been getting some lovely duck eggs and they are definitely larger than chicken eggs.)

makes 4 to 8 servings
45 minutes prep time

I used a large-holed strainer and a silicone spatula to form the spaetzle. It took some effort to press the batter though the holes, but readily done enough. I did divide the batter in half and worked with one half at a time. For smaller households, half a recipe may be all you wish to make.

2 cups flour, see notes above
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper OR nutmeg to taste, optional
4 large eggs
1/3 cup water or milk

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.

Measure the flour and salt, and put them in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Season with a little pepper or nutmeg if it seems appropriate.

Break the eggs onto the flour. Whisk them together, trying not to get much flour into them until blended. Pour in the water or milk and now whisk everything to a smooth batter. It should be soft enough to change shape as it sits, neither too liquid nor too firm. You can adjust the liquid or flour quantities slightly if necessary. Whisk it briskly for several minutes, then let the batter rest for about 15 minutes.

When the water boils transfer the batter to a large-holed strainer. Use a broad, flexible spatula or similar to press the batter through the strainer in strands over the boiling water. Don't worry about cutting them off; as they get heavy enough they will break off and fall into the water. You may need to scrape the last bits off and flick them into the water.

Once all the batter is in, boil for 3 to 8 minutes, until the spaetzle float to the top and are firm and chewy in texture. Test several; because they go in over a few minutes you want to make sure that all of them are done. I'm suggesting a big range of time because I suspect it will depend on the thickness of your batter, the size of the holes it gets pressed through, and which flour you use.





Last year at this time I made Za'atar Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

Posted in: Ontario Food