Last Updated on 3 years by Tim

Today’s recipe is a very special one. I’m going to show you how to make German soup dumplings from scratch. They’re not as delicate and tiny as their Italian and Chinese counterparts. Instead, they’re large, hearty, and served inside a rich beef broth.

It’s a recipe from the Southern parts of Germany. It was originally invented to hide the meat from the gods during the fasting season. I mean, who can blame the monks for their meat cravings?

Up until today they remain insanely popular and are part of nearly every Southern German restaurant menu. Making these dumplings from scratch, however, seems to be on the way of getting a forgotten art. They’re readily available as instant food and for a lot of people the process seems to be too involved. But let me tell you, these are 100 times easier to make than ravioli or wontons.

German Maultaschen are wrapped in noodle dough

If you’re familiar with making your own pasta, preparing the dough will be a breeze. It’s the same egg pasta dough that is used to wrap ravioli. The basic ratio is 1 egg to 3.5 ounces (100 g) of flour. Add some olive oil and salt, and there you have it, homemade noodle dough.

For making noodle dough, I recommend you to use German-style dumpling flour, also known as spätzle flour or “griffiges Mehl” in Germany. This flour is similar to cake flour (German Type 405) but it is milled more coarsely and the dough, therefore, retains a little bite when cooked and the dough sheets won’t stick to the pasta machine. If you don’t have access to dumpling flour, substitute cake or all-purpose flour instead.

If you google the word ‘dumpling flour’, the first recommendations are usually for Chinese-style dumpling flour. But this is not the flour you are looking for. This is one is milled very finely to a powder and it’s usually bleached so the dumplings are unnaturally white. Don’t use that. Look for coarsely-milled wheat flour.

When mixing the dough, don’t add additional water too early. It will look like your dough won’t come together at first, however, after a few minutes of kneading you will see that all the flour gets incorporated. The worst thing you can do is add too much water to your dough so that it later sticks to your pasta machine.

It’s important to let your dough rest for at least half an hour to let the flour fully hydrate. Cover it with plastic wrap and leave it on the counter or in the fridge for longer rests. It’s impossible to roll out tense and unevenly hydrated noodle dough thin enough without breaking it. Don’t rush this step.

The filling is a mixture of ground meat and bratwurst

It’s best to prepare your filling while the noodle dough rests. The traditional way to fill these German soup dumplings is with a mixture of ground meat, bratwurst filling, and wilted spinach.

Make sure your ground meat isn’t too lean. It should have about 30 % fat content which is the usual amount for mixed ground meat that consists of half pork and half beef.

You can take any pale bratwurst you can locally source. Remove the casing and finely mince the filling. It’s best to use a food processor for this but it can also be done by hand.

After you’ve mixed together all the ingredients for your filling, always make sure to taste it. You cannot adjust the seasoning later on. I have no problem tasting the raw filling. However, in case you’re not into tasting raw meat and bratwurst, pan-fry a small burger patty and taste the cooked filling. Then, decide if the filling needs more salt. But be careful, bratwurst is usually very salty already.

Tips for assembling your soup dumplings

For rolling out the dough, it’s best to use a pasta machine. In case you’re unfamiliar with the process of rolling out pasta dough, Serious Eats has a great tutorial on that topic.

There’s no correct way of how thin your dough should be. Roll it out to your desired thickness. Remember that the dough will get thicker as it cooks. So it’s best to stay on the thinner side. You want it to be a little transparent like you can see on the recipe picture. Just remember to make your Maultaschen wrapper a little thicker than me, in case you have something to hide from the gods.

Once you’ve rolled out your dough, it’s time to assemble your dumplings. Fill your noodle dough by spreading the filling on the upper third of the dough sheet and then roll it towards you. Seal the edges by brushing on a little water and divide it into smaller dumplings. The process for forming the dumplings is nicely illustrated in the video below:

However, please note that they use too little filling and don’t roll the dough tightly enough. Here are my reference pictures for the proper amount of filling:

How to cook and serve German soup dumplings

The dumplings can either be cooked directly inside the beef broth you’re going to serve them with or separately in lightly simmering water. I prefer cooking them separately to keep my broth clear.

Don’t let your water or broth boil too heavily or your dumplings might fall apart. You just want to steep them inside the hot liquid until the filling is cooked through which usually takes about 10-15 minutes. Make sure your broth or water is lightly salted so that the flavor and seasoning remain inside the dumplings.

The traditional way to serve them is in a rich beef broth along with a Swabian potato salad. The potato salad is supposed to be added to the broth at the table. You can see the proper way to eat Maultaschen in the recipe picture. Now, of course, I don’t want to be pretentious. Everyone should enjoy the food however he or she likes. But if you’re eating them alongside as two separate dishes you’re missing out on a great experience.

German Soup Dumplings (‘Maultaschen’)

August 21, 2019

by Tim

Cuisine German

Category Beef Dumplings Pork Soups Swabian

Persons

6

Serving Size

3-4 dumplings per person

Ingredients

For the noodle dough:

• 10.5 ounces (300 g) coarsely-milled wheat flour (‘griffiges Mehl’ | ‘Spätzlemehl’) or all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs, size L
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 medium-sized onion, finely minced
• 5 ounces (150 g) spinach
• 14 ounces (400 g) mixed ground meat (50 % pork, 50 % beef/ fat content: 30 %)
• 7 ounces (200 g) bratwurst, casing removed
• 1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 egg (size L)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• salt, to taste

To serve:

• 12 cups (2.8 liters) beef broth
• red wine vinegar, to taste
• freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 4 servings Swabian potato salad

Instructions

Start by preparing the noodle dough:

• In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Slowly incorporate the eggs and olive oil and briefly knead the dough until smooth. If your dough doesn’t come together after a few minutes of kneading, add a few splashes of water. However, stay patient and only add a little water at once. Cover the kneaded dough tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter or in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

Prepare your filling:

• While the dough rests, prepare the filling. Heat the butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Sweat the onion for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Add the spinach and saute until it is wilted which should take no more than 2 minutes. Place the spinach-onion-mixture on a large cutting board and finely chop. Add the spinach-onion-mixture into a large mixing bowl. Finely mince the bratwurst filling. Add the ground meat, bratwurst filling, parsley, egg, and mustard to the mixing bowl. Season the filling to taste with nutmeg, black pepper, and salt. If you’re not willing to taste the raw filling, pan fry a little burger patty inside a saute pan and taste the cooked filling. Be careful when seasoning as the bratwurst and mustard are already salty.

Assemble your dumplings:

• Divide the rested noodle dough into two evenly sized pieces. Roll out each piece of noodle dough in batches using a pasta machine until the dough sheet is slightly opaque but not paper thin. Before you start to decrease the width of your pasta machine, pass the dough through the widest setting of the machine a few times and fold it afterward to develop and align the gluten network. You can also try rolling out the dough by hand, however, this is far more laborious than using a pasta machine.
• Fill your pasta dough by spreading the filling on the dough sheet leaving about 1 inch of space at the edges. Lightly wet the edges with water. Roll the dough sheet into a sausage and use the handle of a wooden spoon to divide the sausage into individual dumplings. There should be no air pockets inside the dumplings and they should be wrapped very tightly. Cut the dumplings to separate them and lightly dust them with flour.

Cooking the dumplings:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a light simmer and let the dumplings cook inside the simmering water for about 10 minutes. Heat the beef broth and season to taste with red wine vinegar, nutmeg, and salt. You could also cook the dumplings inside the beef broth, however, this traditional method could cloud your broth. Once the dumplings are ready, drain them, divide them among individual soup bowls, and ladle over the hot broth. Serve together with a Swabian potato salad.

Tags

beef,

dumplings,

pork,

soup,

swabian

https://www.mygermantable.com/german-soup-dumplings-maultaschen/