This weekend I made egg whites for breakfast. And where there are leftover egg yolks, there are Spaetzle (Homemade German Noodles) to be made! Spaetzle are very simple to make, but definitely require some muscle, as the dough gets very thick. In the grand scheme of when my parents make spaetzle, this is a small batch recipe. This fed our family of 4 for 2 dinners. Spaetzle heat up very well for a second time in boiling water.
SPAETZLE – HOMEMADE GERMAN NOODLES
Ingredients
3 cups flour
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
water
1 tsp. salt
Directions
Put a pot on the stove and get your water boiling. Salt the water. Put flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the egg yolks and egg whites. Begin stirring flour into eggs a little at a time. As soon as the dough gets thick and unmanageable, add some water. This is where it gets tricky because I can’t tell you exactly how much water to add. You just need to eyeball it. You don’t want the dough to be thin. You want it to be thick, like wall paper paste. The dough will be sticky. I added water 3 times to this batch – adding maybe 3-4 tablespoons at a time. Once the dough is ready, place it in the spaetzle (noodle) machine and push! Boil the noodles. You want them to float on the top of the water and then you still want them to cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and drain. Enjoy!
Stirring the Spaetzle Dough
The Destroyer loves anything messy and sticky spaetzle dough is no exception! Though since the dough is so thick and unmanageable for a 2 year old, he came and went rather quickly.
Spaetzle Dough - Sticky & Thick
The dough will be thick and sticky. If you think it looks like wallpaper paste – you’re all set!
Spaetzle Machine
This is a spaetzle machine I bought in Germany. Mine has slit and comma holes on the bottom and therefore, my noodles tend to look more like fettucine/regular noodles. My parents’ machine has holes and their spaetzle look much more homemade and authentic. You can purchase a spaetzle machine here. Amazon also has these other spaetzle maker impostors. They look like graters with a contraption on the top. While I have never used one of those, they just look way too complicated and messy. Run. Get the push machine. If you don’t want to splurge on the real German spaetzle machine, you can use a potato ricer like this one. (Sidenote: My aunt in Germany laughs at these machines. She makes spaetzle by hand which basically entails slapping the dough on a wooden board that is slanted on the end and using this plastic tool that looks like a squeegee to scrape the spaetzle into the boiling water. She is hardcore!)
Spaetzle Cooking
Here are my spaetzle cooking. I haven’t made them in a while and I was a little nervous. My dad even called me while I was making them to “make sure I was doing ok”. WTF? It is water, flour and eggs. How much could go wrong? Oh….Um…yeah. I forgot. We are talking about me. Anyway – CheezWaster christened them as tasting just like Opa’s. A sure sign that I did good! And my dad even ate them the next day saying they were good (but that they needed more salt – in my opinion, they didn’t, but he is the pro).
