TREAT: Cheese Spaetzle (Kaese Spaetzle)

Kaese Spaetzle is something that I am always obsessed with when we go to Germany, and it is actually really easy to make the batter and prepare!  Unless they were just being nice, my sister and brother-in-law enjoyed it when they came to dinner!

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 Tsp salt 
• 1/8 Tsp pepper 
• 3 eggs 
• 3/8 cups 2% milk 
• 3 Tbsp Butter 
• 1 onion, thinly sliced 
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Emmentaler cheese

• Directions:

• In a large bowl, use a fork to break the yokes and mix together. 

• In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper.   Mix in the milk and the flour mixture in the egg bowl until smooth.  Let stand for 30 minutes. 

• This should form a soft and sticky dough.  Ideally, you should refrigerate the dough during the 30 minutes.

• Boil the water and add the spaetzle mixture to the water.   In order to add the spaetzle, you can either use a pastry bag or plastic bag (cut a hole in the corner and press it through), you can use a colander, a spaetzle press (which is ideal - see below) or you can cut pieces of the spaetzle on a cutting board.

You can use a pastry bag or a plastic bag (with a slight tear in the corner)

You can use a cutting board and "cut" the dough off the side into the water to create long noodles/dumplings

You can purchase a spaetzle maker here for less than $10

• When noodles float to the top, they are done (3-4 minutes) 

Pull out the spaetzle dumplings when they float to the top of the water.

Pull the noodles out of the cooking water with a slotted spoon and set aside.

• Once the noodles are cooked, brown butter and cook onions to carmelize them in a separate pan.  Once the onions are caramelized, add the spaetzle and sauté it together. 

• Add cheese and mix together with the entire mixture (use as much as you want - we use a lot!).  Enjoy!
• If you want to heat up left overs, you should do so in the pan because it helps keep the dumplings soft and the flavor strong.