Spaetzle at Home: Crank Up the Fluegelhorn and Fill the Steins (Published 2013) (2024)

Unless you have an Eastern European heritage or a penchant for replicating the hearty cuisine of German beer halls, it may never have occurred to you to make spaetzle at home. I have both, and the small, squiggly egg dumplings are one of the first carb-heavy, comfort-food dishes I crave when the weather turns cold.

Making spaetzle is simpler than you may think. Mixing the ingredients is as easy as making pancake batter and uses pantry staples.

The only potentially tricky part is turning the batter into fluffy little dumplings. There are several approaches to this. Some people like to make a thick dough and grate it through the holes of a cheese grater. But if you keep the spaetzle mix as runny as cake batter, you’ll be able to push it through a spaetzle maker (or colander) into a pot of boiling water fairly quickly. A word about the spaetzle maker. I happen to be the proud owner of not one but two such wonders. People like to give them to me as gifts. This said, sometimes when I make spaetzle, I’m too lazy to get the ladder and pull a spaetzle maker out from the back of the top cabinet. Really, a colander works nearly as well.

Another thing to keep in mind: The spaetzle mixture will thicken as it sits, turning from something resembling cake batter to more like bread dough. Keep some milk nearby and stir it in as needed.

You can eat the spaetzle as soon as they are boiled, topped with a little butter. In Germany, it’s also common to fry the spaetzle and serve them crisp-edged and golden. I like to bake them covered with cheese until everything is bubbling and crunchy on top.

In this version of the recipe, I’ve added leeks and cabbage, both for sweetness and to add a little vegetable matter. And to make it all even heartier, I stirred a bit of rye flour into the batter. It gives a nutty flavor and makes this spaetzle gratin even more substantial — something my Eastern European ancestors would have approved of, I’m sure.