Homemade Spätzle Recipe - Swabia's Traditional Dumpling/Noodle Dish

thegeby.blogspot.com - As I promised in last week's post, this time I will describe how my awesome German friend Christiane taught me how to make homemade Spätzle to go with the Hirschgulash we also made.

Spätzle are kind of a cross between noodles and dumplings, so think of them as tiny dumplings or lumpy noodles. They are made very similarly to fresh pasta without all that rolling and cranking. Spätzle are a traditional starchy side dish from around these parts and beyond, including Austria and Switzerland, with the expected differences in recipes and cooking methods. In addition, you can buy them frozen or dried in the supermarket, but of course they are better homemade.
They are mostly thought to have originated in Schwabenland (Swabia), a former duchy that now lies half in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and half in southwest Bavaria. The regional seat is Augsburg, a town not far from here which is where Christiane is from.
But before we get into the ingredients and procedures, PLEASE learn to pronounce Spätzle properly. I don't know why, but it totally drives me crazy to hear someone say it like "spats" with an L at the end. Grrr...!!
In German, it sounds like you're slurring an "sh" at the beginning and it has kind of a "short E" vowel sound in the middle, as in "leg". Next is a "t", and it ends with what sounds like "ly" at the end. So, try this: SHPET-zlee. If you're still having trouble, check out the pronunciation recording by clicking here.
And, for the record, since this dish spans many generations and geographic regions, there are about a dozen spellings for it, including Spätzle, Spaetzle, Spaetzli and Spätzli, and probably as many pronunciations. But not "spats-l".
Christiane is very health-conscious and I think it was a real stretch for her to revert back to German food, but I'm so glad she did, even if just for that evening. That said, she modified the recipe a little and I think it made the Spätzle lighter and less filling than traditional recipes.

First of all, instead of regular, all-purpose wheat flour, she used Dinkelmehl, or spelt flour. It's much healthier than regular wheat flour and, besides, I just like to say Dinkelmehl.

Secondly, she used far fewer eggs in the dough than is usual. Instead of the recommended four or five eggs, she used only three. You'll find the full recipe and instructions at the end of this post.

When I walked into her beautiful kitchen for my cooking lesson, the first thing I saw was her Spätzlehobel, or Spätzle plane, the traditional tool used far and wide for making these little dumplings.

But I would have to wait until we got the venison stew going. After that, Christiane showed me how to make the tiny dumplings. First, the flour and salt go into a bowl and the eggs on top.

You can use your hands or, as she did, use a hand mixer with dough hooks to mix it up well. Add quarter-cups of warm water until the right consistency is reached. It should pull away from the bowl and be very, very elastic. It is hard to describe what the consistency is; the Germans say it should schwer vom Löffel reißen, or "come heavy off the spoon". Since that doesn't mean much to a novice, I made a gif animation of how it should behave if you stick a spoon in the middle and pull it out of the bowl:

Next you bring a big pot of salted water to a boil, put the scraper tool on top, and fill the receptacle with dough:

Move the receptacle back and forth over the pan, thus forcing dough through the holes in the tool and into the water below:

This is a hot and steamy process, but fun to do. I admit I kept inadvertently pushing the pan toward the back of the stove, thus exposing my wrists to the gas flame, but it only took one or two times for me to remedy that behavior. The procedure is also fun to make gif animations out of:

When the noodles float for a minute or two, they are done:
Then you remove them with a slotted spoon to drain in a colander:
Do only one batch at a time to avoid overcrowding the pot. When they are all done, it's traditional to empty the pot and add all the Spätzle back in with a couple of tablespoons of butter and saute them until they are slightly browned.

However, we just put them on the table as-is; they were even fantastic without the butter:

There are many variations for Spätzle, such as adding parsley, nutmeg or spinach to the dough before cooking. Christiane told me how to make Käsespätzle, or Swabian Mac-n-Cheese: layer cooked Spätzle in a buttered casserole dish alternately with Emmentaler (Swiss) and Bergkäse (Gruyere) cheeses. Bake til cheese is melted and top with caramelized onions. I've never made it at home but I've had luscious versions in restaurants around here.


There are several tools on the market for Spätzle making, and you can also use a colander and scraper for the job, too. Christiane told me about a newer type that is a round metal plate that fits over the top of the pot. It has holes in it and a plastic scraper that you use to push the dough through with, thus eliminating the back-and-forth motion of the Spätzlehobel.

I was so excited about having learned to make Spätzle that I went out the next week to my mecca kitchen supply store in Munich to buy myself a Spätzle tool. The new, round style was tempting, as were the other five types on the shelf, but I ultimately decided to go old school and bought myself a plane:

However, I almost lost my resolve when I saw the brand name on the round type, Spätzle-Ass, which means Spätzle-Ace.

And, of course, no job is finished until the cleanup is done, which is a rather sticky wicket after you've made Spätzle:

But we managed. As I write this post, I'm laughing about all the wine bottles and glasses I had to crop out of these photos!

But here's your official recipe:

Homemade Spätzle
Ingredients:
18 ounces (500 g) AP or spelt flour
3-5 eggs
warm water
½ to 1 tsp salt
butter for sauteeing, if desired

Instructions:
Combine flour, salt and eggs in a large bowl and mix with dough hooks or hands. Add water 1/4-cup at a time, mixing well between additions, until proper consistency is reached.

The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and be very wet and elastic and “come heavy off the spoon”: soll schwer vom Löffel reißen.

Heat a large pot of well salted water to a boil. Place the Spätzle plane on top of the pot. Drop large spoonfuls of dough into the receptacle on the plane until it’s almost full.

Hold the plane by the handle and move the receptacle back and forth across the top of the boiling water so it scrapes the dough back and forth. In the process, dough will be forced through the holes of the plane and drop in strands into the boiling water below.

Cook one receptacle full of dough at a time. If the water stops boiling, allow it to come to a boil again before proceeding.

The noodles are done when they come to the top and float for a minute or so. Remove from the pot with a large slotted spoon or mesh spider to a colander. Stir the colander occasionally to keep them from sticking while you finish cooking the rest of the dough.

Serve warm immediately as a side dish or freeze.

Photo for No Apparent Reason:

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