• #1
• Comment by cheese_puff

This dish reminds me of Michel Richard's apple risotto. But his "risotto" is made of apples only, plus sugar,butter,cinnamon etc. I don't have a  spätzle grate, so..for now, I have to dream about it.. Thanks!!

• #2
• Comment by Allen

The spatzli are beautiful -- I can only imagine how good they taste.  I've got to try this!It reminds me of an austrian dish my friend's grandmother made for me once when I visited.  It used a pancake-like batter instead of spatzli.  The batter is more or less stir-fried with minced apples and cinnamon sugar added, and fried until tender.  

• #5
• Comment by acediac

FX, I must say that your site is one of my favorite food sites that I've found recently. I'm in culinary school right now and your posts are really inspiring. It's nice to find others that are as obsessed with food as I am.. I need to go buy some apples! I haven't had spätzle in a long time.Cheese_puff, I too, do not have a spatzle grate, but instead try using a colander. I've had about the same results! I'm not particularly fond of uni-tasking equipment because I can't always find places to store it.

• #6
• Comment by William

cheese_puffIf you don't have a  spätzle grate, push the batter through a pasta colander (drainer). This is how my mom used to make it.

• #7
• Comment by mk

Great article, BEAUTIFUL photography. I love your Moroccan gsâ bowl, I haven't been able to find anything like it trolling the kitchen websites. Could you tell me where you found yours so I know where to start looking? Thanks!

• #8
• Comment by Dave

If you just add a little acid, such as lime or vinegar to the apple (depending on taste) it will prevent it from oxidizing (turning brown) you can really add very little lime/lemon and it will hardly affect the taste. although i might say the taste would probably be slightly more interesting with it.

• #13
• Comment by annie

Just today I claimed I had too many recipes and would no longer print any from the internet. your article was so tempting that I have broken that vow already! I have a dear friend who is Austrian and I would like to try this apple spatzle for her. thanks so very much.

• #14
• Comment by PJ

I have a spatzle machine that my mother bought in Germany before I was born. ( I was born in Germany!) Growing up we had spatzle about every month. When my mother passed away, I inherited the machine. It is the one you place the grate across the pot of boiling water and then fill the hopper and start passing the dough across the grates. It takes arm power! I am wondering where I can get a spatzle maker like the one you are using in the pics above. It looks alot easier and safer! I can't wait to make these apple spatzles!  They look wonderful!  Anything fried in butter is delicious! My husband loves when I make spatzle and stands over the frying pan when they are frying!! He said they'll make you "pretty"!Thanks for the recipe!

• #15
• Comment by Diane on holiday

Now that looks really yummy! I'll have to give that a go and see how it turns out! I'll have to use my potato ricer though as I don't have one of those marvellous flat screens to use to push the batter through!Mmm I wonder what it'll be like with carrots and courgettes grated up instead of the apple (And maybe not served with icecream but a little cheese sauce...)Thanks for the inspirational photos!

• #16
• Comment by Mary Neitzel

My son sent your apple spaetzle recipe to me in hopes that I will make it when he visits.  My family loves when I prepare regular spaetzle and this recipe would be the best finish to a meal.  I will try it soon.

• #17
• Comment by day

I liked this way of preparing a dish, quite new to me , it inspired me, one can make it with potato grates ,and add cheese instead of bread crumbs or with eggplants, and add garlic powder to the bread crumbs, with zucchinis too it will be good. Thanks for the article!

• #18
• Comment by John Kessell

God! The Swiss Apple Pasta!  Marvellous! And the photography! Good stuff!

• #24
• Comment by john

Where do you get the speatzle cover with the handle? can I get a company name and address? please. I have showed this article and picture of the pan thingy to a cooking supply store and they would die to order this. It is like the coolest and I want one and want to also know how much are they? in american money that is.

• #25
• Comment by Christine

Great article.  Loved the pics!  I think I am going to give this a try using a potato ricer!

• #26
• Comment by Elizabeth

I really like the huge colorful photographs and I think I'll try this recipe for breakfast.  Looks good.

• #27
• Comment by margaret

This is a beautiful informative site.  Thanks

• #31
• Comment by SirDonko

I am not familiar with the unit gr.  From what I found it is a grain... I could be wrong and I do not know how to use this measurement for cooking.  I googled some converters and came up with nothing of use and I do not have a scale. I am used to using cups and tbsp can someone help me out in converting please?

• #33
• Comment by PJ

Can you tell me the brand name of the "spaetzle utensil" you are using? The company name that makes it? I am absolutely sure that I can find it online and buy it. German stores have "online stores".  I will send you a picture of my spaetzel machine my mom bought in Germany before I was born.  It still works like the day she bought it but it takes alot of strength to hold the colander part on top of the pot of boiling water and then the other hand has to pull the chute full of dough across the grate. I really like the one you are using because it looks like it would fit perfectly, covering my pot I use to make this mouth watering treat!Thanks for your help!

• #35
• Comment by Stahlregen

Actually, those are not Spätzle, but rather Knöpfle ("small buttons", from german Knopf = Button). Traditionally, Spätzle are scraped from a cutting board into boiling salt water with a special scraper, resulting in an irregular, noodly shape - depending on how firm your dough is and how thin you scrape them, you either get thinner and longer spätzle, or stumpy, thick knöpfle. Most appliances (my advice would be to try searching for "Spätzlehobel" to find those) tend to produce knöpfle, mostly. The texture differences between the two variants do have an influence on the taste.If you want to scrape them, try getting a cutting board with a handle and a metal scraper, if possible (a flat knife can do the trick, too). Get a pot of boiling salt water, and put one or two spoons of dough on your cutting board. The dough should be sticky enough to only run down very slowly when you tilt one edge of the board down into the water. Wet your scraper by dipping it into the water and then use it to spread the dough to a thin layer. Now the idea is to cut off the lower edge of the spread dough and shove it down into the water, then repeat. If the dough flows too far down or your way to the water becomes too long, spread it again. Continue until the whole water surface is covered with spätzle, then let them cook for minute or so and remove them with a skimming ladle. Rinse and repeat.I wish I was as good as this as my grandma - I always end up with a mixture of spätzle and knöpfle.

• #36
• Comment by Traci ~ Soup of The Day

I make it with my ricer. Works great.   

• #38
• Comment by Mona

Wonderful recipe! I just got a Spätzlepresse, which immediately made a Swabian friend of mine cry bitter tears, but really: must faster than the Spatzenbrett. 'twas very tasty, my normal recipe, but yours here is definitely next on the list! & :-)

• #39
• Comment by Mich

Looks absolutely fabulous! I would like to make this for a family gathering, and wondered approx. how many people this recipe would serve? I thought of doubling it for 6 people? Great pictures by the way - kudos!

• #40
• Comment by Jonathan

Beautiful images make me want to rush out and make this.

• #44
• Comment by Niall Harbison

Hi there

I just found your blog through stumbleupon and am loving the design, nice and clean and simple. The recipes are looking nice as well and can certainly see myself making some of them in the future. I am actually looking for people with excellent food photos who want to share them with the world and interact with other foodies. I started by blogging myself about a year ago and was frustrated that not enough people were seeing the quality content I had and saw huge potential for people to share their food photos and videos with a bigger audience and ultimately drive more traffic back to their own site. Check me out at www.ifoods.tv and let me know what you think and keep up the good work on the blog!

• #46
• Comment by PJ

Fx:
Any luck finding the name of your spatzel grate? I have been searching the internet for one but I have had no luck. You can buy just about anything you want from anywhere in the World online but no luck finding a Spatzel Grate like yours. I am not going to stop looking though!!!!

• #47
• Comment by Shannon

This looks delicious! Your photos are beautiful! I highly enjoyed reading this!!

• #50
• Comment by meramarina

I have been a bit obsessed with this glorious food since seeing these photos recently--whoever thought that fruit peels, boiled dough and breadcrumbs could be so beautiful?--and Apfelspätzli appears in my life at the most fortunate time, because I will be in Switzerland next week!  I'll make the real thing, with genuine Thurgau apples!  Surely, the Deity of Dessert has blessed me.

I asked my friend Guido from Andwil in the canton of St. Gallen about this.  He wrote that he calls it öpfelchnöpfli.  Here in New Jersey, we have a summer carnival treat, funnel cakes, that looks very similar, but our version is just deep-fried dough with sugar on top, and the dough is squirted from a bottle rather than scraped.  I'm sure this is superior.  I can't wait to try it!  Really, these photos should be in Swiss tourism brochures;  forget all those mountains and cows!

So, this will be my first attempt at making Swiss cuisine, and I'm lucky enough to try it in a Swiss kitchen.  I'm not all that skillful with a stove, and the village of Andwil may go up in smoke and flames, but, should you hear of a fiery incident across the country, know that one American visitor to the land of Apple Pasta has died VERY HAPPILY! (if I got to eat it first, I mean)

One question, in case of success:  Can this dish be prepared with any other fruit, such as pomegranates or pears?  Thank you!

• #51
• Comment by Patricia

Wow!  Amazing photos, very detailed. This is a cool website! Step by step photos like this really helps, I can't wait to try this recipe!  I'll let you know how it turns out. Hopefully it will turn out just like how it looks and I can suprise my co-workers (where all foodies) and tell them I made it myself!  Thanks!  

• #54
• Comment by meramarina

The pilgrimage was successful!  Nobody was injured, and the spätzi was as delicious as I had hoped.  My Swiss friend's mother did a lot of the work, since she's an experienced Swiss cook, and she had the proper sort of back-and-forth sliding scraper in her kitchen.  I searched for one to purchase, but I was told this implement is old-fashioned and mostly no longer in use.  

This nice Swiss lady used your recipe--it makes A LOT!  And, thanks very much for posting the German translation;  She doesn't speak much English and it was a great help.  The only difficulty we had was getting the grated apple into the dough.  The pieces would not easily go through the holes in the grate.

We also made a plain version without the apples, sugar and cinnamon--also wonderful!  
Thank you for helping to make my visit to Switzerland extra-special with this recipe!  

• #56
• Comment by don siranni

Fx: before I try this-what's HDR? I can guess,but can't think of actually what could be,and I thought I knew intimately all these products..

• #58
• Comment by Karen Bonfantini

So glad I stumbled upon your website.  I have never had spaetzle, but after seeing your recipe, I requested a spaetzle maker for Christmas.  Made it yesterday and it was wonderful.      

• #60
• Comment by Kim

I have just discovered spaetzle in general.  

This looks so yummy.

Wonderful article with great pictures.

I'm off in search of the spaetzle tool you used.

Thanks for sharing.

• #62
• Comment by Claudio Czapski

Hi François
I was just looking for spätzle scrapers and I found one almos identical to yours, made by Fissler in Germany. Available in several stores (such as Galeria Kaufhof) for about 30 euros.
Claudio

• #64
• Comment by nameShirley Freed

This appears to be a recipe I should like to try.  Why am I unable to download the last half (?) of the recipe's instruction?

• #65
• Comment by Susan Kline

I love your recipe and will be sure to try it.  I grew up eating spaetzle (our family's way of spelling it) and forgot how much I enjoyed it.  My grandmother and her sisters made it and it was delicious. Their heritage is Swiss and a grandmother from Alsace Lorraine which I'm told varied between French and German.  We never had a dessert version and I want to use yours.  It sounds and looks so very good.  The dishes I remember where the spaetzles were added were sauerbraten and pork with sauerkraut.  Delicious!.  Thanks so much for sharing and giving me a trip down memory lane!  And I love your pictures.  I think they add a great deal to the recipe.  Regards, Susan

• #66
• Comment by Matthew

I tried your recipe, but it didn't turn out very well.  I think I may have used too much apple juice in the dough.  How much liquid is one glass supposed to be in imperial measurements?  I tried one cup, but the dough seemed a little too runny.

I'll try it again soon though, hopefully with better results.

• #67
• Comment by Kazim

DRIED MANGO IS HEAVENLY!! YAY for a hanubsd approved meal I am SURE my hanubsd would approve of that meal too, it looks incredible!  I think apples and chicken sound amazing together!