Spätzle is my absolute favorite German food. If I could eat it every day I would. You can make it with a number of other dishes – brats, roasts, ham, rouladen. It tastes good with everything. It’s typically served with gravy, but I love it plain with butter and salt. It also reheats well, so you can make a big batch and reheat the leftovers for the next day.
The best part of spätzle? It’s incredibly easy to make, and the ingredients are probably already in your kitchen.
Spätzle
You’ll need:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 ¼ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- Pinch of salt
You’ll also need a spätzle maker. You can find them almost everywhere online. If you have a local German deli or store, you might be able to find them there, too. (In a pinch you can also use a colander. It’s much messier and more labor intensive, but it still works.)
Get a large pot. Fill it with water, add salt and set it to boil.
Put the 2 cups of flour in a large bowl and create a well in the center. Put your eggs in the center and start scrambling them and incorporating the flour. Then very slowly add in the milk. Start with one cup, and then add more as needed.
Set your spätzle maker on top of your boiling pot of water. There should be little hooks on each end to help balance the spätzle maker while you work.
You want a brownie-batter consistency where the dough is fluid enough to pour but still sticky enough to cling. Mix thoroughly. Similar to the pancake batter, I like to put the batter into something that can pour it.
Pour your batter into the top of the spätzle maker and then quickly start moving the mechanism back and forth. It cooks very quickly. In order to have it cook evenly you must get all of the batter into the boiling water as quickly as possible.
The spätzle is done when it all rises to the top. This typically takes 2 to 3 minutes.
Add some butter and salt and top with some chives. Or smother it in gravy. It’s good either way.
Pair your spätzle with some other German staples and dig in!
What’s your favorite German food?
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- pinch of salt
- Bring large pot of water to a boil.
- Create a well in the flour and add in eggs and salt
- Slowly incorporate milk while stirring until you achieve a fluid but stick consistency similar to brownie batter.
- Place the spätzle maker on top of the pot of water and fill the reservoir.
- Quickly move the mechanism back and forth until all the batter is used up.
- Boil until spätzle rises to the top (2-3 minutes).
- Remove from water, drain, and serve.
