Spätzle

The dough is scraped off a wet board into the water, and the eggs are counted by the servings.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 400 g plain flour, or a coarser Dunst-grade flour
• 5 eggs, which is one per serving and one more
• 1 teaspoon salt
• about 60 ml water, only if the dough will not scrape
• 40 g butter, to finish

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS SCRAPED OFF A WET BOARD INTO THE WATER, AND THE EGGS ARE COUNTED BY THE SERVINGS. Its Preparation section gives both. The rule of thumb is TO USE A NUMBER OF EGGS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF SERVINGS, PLUS ONE. And they are made BY SCRAPING LONG, THIN STRIPS OF DOUGH OFF A WOODEN, SOMETIMES WET, CHOPPING BOARD INTO BOILING SALTED WATER, WHERE THEY COOK UNTIL THEY RISE TO THE SURFACE.
2. SO THE DOUGH IS DELIBERATELY TOO SOFT TO ROLL. A pasta dough you could roll would not scrape. The article's test is viscosity, and the practical one is that a spoonful should sag slowly off the board rather than drop.
3. AND THE FLOUR IS NOT PASTA FLOUR. It names BREAD WHEAT, NOT THE DURUM WHEAT USED FOR ITALIAN PASTA, milled more coarsely than baking flour -- a grade called Dunst. It gives a CHEWIER TEXTURE, and with it the dough may need the water.
4. WATER IS A CORRECTION, NOT AN INGREDIENT. The article is careful about this: with fine flour and the full count of eggs, ALL FAT AND MOISTURE IN THE DOUGH IS DERIVED FROM THESE, AND WATER IS RARELY NECESSARY. Add it only if the dough is too crumbly to scrape.
5. BEAT IT HARD FOR FIVE MINUTES AND THEN REST IT. It should come away from the spoon in strings. Rested half an hour, it scrapes cleanly; unrested, it tears.
6. WET THE BOARD AND THE KNIFE, AND KEEP WETTING THEM. A dry board holds the dough and the strips come off in lumps.
7. SCRAPE THIN STRIPS STRAIGHT INTO BOILING SALTED WATER, in batches that do not crowd the pan. Long thin strips, not squares: the shape is the dish.
8. THEY ARE DONE WHEN THEY RISE, WHICH IS THE ARTICLE'S OWN TEST, and that is a minute at most. Lift them out as they surface rather than waiting for the batch.
9. INTO COLD WATER ONLY IF THEY ARE FOR LATER, otherwise straight into foaming butter. Rinsed and left, they stick into a block.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes