Spaetzle

[hdyhouse]

Last week I took an old favorite recipe for Spaetzle (a German noodle made out of flour and egg) and decided to see if I could make a l/c version. My first try was to use a combination of Carbquick, resistant wheat starch, and vital wheat gluten to replace the flour. That effort was a good start. However, the texture was not right. It was too soft, probably because of the levening in the Carbquick. I decided that the next time I tried it, I would use Carbalose flour, instead of Carbquick and would use Arise 8000 wheat protein isolate instead of vital wheat gluten to see if that combination would produce the "al dente" texture I was looking for. I just finished cooking the spaetzle with the new recipe and it is great. The noodles have a nice firm "al dente" texture and will work well for me for dishes that I would normally accompany with spaetzle. I see no reason that they could not also be cooked in a pot of chicken soup to make a nice chicken noodle soup.



Spaetzle:

3/4 cup Carbalose flour

1/4 cup Resistant wheat starch

1/4 cup Wheat Protein Isolate (Arise 8000)

2 eggs

1/4 cup cold water

Vital wheat gluten



Add the Carbalose, Resistant wheat starch, and wheat protein isolate to a food processor. Turn the processor on and with it running, add the 2 eggs through the feed tube. Then slowly drizzle in the cold water, until the mixture forms a ball. (You may need to add a little more, or less water.) Remove the dough ball and any loose pieces from the processor and shape into a ball. It will be a little wet. Take a heaping tablespoon of vital wheat gluten and spread it on your clean work surface. Roll the dough ball in the vital wheat gluten and press the ball flat with the palm of your hand, turning several times to get a dry exterior for both sides of the dough. Add more vital wheat gluten to the work surface, if necessary. Roll the dough until it is abput 1/8" thick. Cut the dough into slivers. I use the back edge of a table knife for this. I cut the dough into strips, about 1" wide and then cut those strips, on the bias, to make about 1/4" to 1/2" wide slivers.

I then cook the spaetzle in batches in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, and transfer to a covered dish with a little butter added, to keep warm. Repeat, until all the dough is cooked. The spaetzle may be served right away. However, for leftovers, I like to reheat it by frying the spaetzle in a little butter or bacon fat.

[rexsreine]

These sound great. How about the flavor? Is there much of the dreaded (at least to some of us) carbalose taste?

Ginny

[hdyhouse]

I noticed a taste with the CarbQuick. However, these did not have it, at least that was noticble to me. I just fried some in some bacon grease and they were excellent.

[rexsreine]

Ah, that good ol' bacon grease...!!!!

[stephdray]

Hey, I tried these last week and was super impressed. I tossed them in melted butter and a little parmesan cheese and served them under a pot roast.

The taste was quite good. I must have undercooked mine though b/c they were too chewy. But I'll definitely try again. This was a very easy dough to work with and may solve my pasta problems.

[LindaSue]

Here are the counts for the whole batch. How many servings does this make?

472 Calories; 18g Fat; 51g Protein; 67g Carbohydrate; 46g Dietary Fiber; 21g Net Carbs

[stephdray]

Originally Posted by LindaSue

Here are the counts for the whole batch. How many servings does this make?

472 Calories; 18g Fat; 51g Protein; 67g Carbohydrate; 46g Dietary Fiber; 21g Net Carbs

I got four pretty generous servings out of it, so I'm guessing it's about 5 carbs a serving. Since I served it with pot roast and a zero carb gravy that I made out of the drippings and xanthum gum, it was a bargain dinner for me.