Handmade Spaetzle!

Hubby and I attended a cooking class last week to expand our experiences.  What a delight it was.  Even my husband exlaimed, "That was so much fun; let's do it again!" which, coming from him, is a HUGE compliment.


What I liked best about the class was they gave handouts for the recipes to take notes for tips and tricks to better understand what you're looking for when making it yourself.  In addition, we got to sample each dish on the list!

What I did not like was that it wasn't hands-on learning, so that when you get home you kind of have to guess how the textures should feel when you're working with the dough either in preparation or cooking.

Below is my first experience making a German doughy-delight: Spaetzle!  Though not served in a traditional fashion (baked with an inordinate amount of cheese and bacon and sausage), it was a decent first attempt.   Hubby Rating: 7/10

In a large bowl, whisk together

• 6 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk or cream

Add to this

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp butter, softened

Stir ingredients together thoroughly; the dough will seem to pull away from the bowl.  Keep mixing until you feel your forearms start to burn... fiercely!  Dough should be like super-thick pancake batter (not runny).  Let sit in fridge 15-20 min.

Bring to a rolling boil a large pot of salted water. Prepare an ice-water bath in a large bowl (water with ice cubes in it; cold refrigerated water works too, but has to be replenished after every use).

Using a spaetzle maker, push batter through into the boiling water, making sure to create movement in the water so the pieces don't clump together.  Cook for about 2 minutes.

With use of a porous spoon or basket ladle, scoop spaetzle noodles out of the boiling water and deposit in ice-bath to cool and set.  Remove and drain.  Toss in olive oil.

It is normal to either bake or fry the spaetzle once made.  I tried to fry ours but the batter was a little too moist and the noodles were a tad on the gluey side, so didn't fry up so well.  While the noodles were being cooked, I had heated up some roast beef and diluted gravy we had from a previous dinner.  This was poured over top the noodles and served hot.  Super delicious, even if the texture was off!