Our Little Dumplings

Credit: Christopher Hirsheimer

Spätzle, literally "little sparrows" in German, are the tiny egg dumplings that R. W. Apple Jr. served at his Pennsylvania Dutch Thanksgiving dinner. Simple though they are, making them can be tricky. Veteran cooks cut the batter into tiny ribbons or push it through a colander or even just pinch off bits of dough. We discovered a foolproof alternative: the Viennese Spätzle Maker. Place it over a pot of boiling water, spoon batter into the hopper, then push and pull it across the perforated screen. The small dollops of dough that emerge cook into perfect spätzle.