2019-11-03: Bavarian Semmelknödel
A Semmelknödel is a bread dumpling/ball specialty from Bavaria (South Germany). In Germany it is known as "Bayerische Semmelknödel". Until 2 years ago this was a disaster every time I tried to make it in Canada (I come back later why). Semmelknödel are typically served with a creamy (mushroom) sauce or with a saucy meat-stew. Lets get started.
Semmelknödel in Bavaria are made from stale old buns or old white bread (Knödel made from "rye-wheat or black bread" are called Schwarzbrotknödel and Knödel made from soft-pretzel buns are called Brezn-Knödel). Here in Canada I have settled on using old baguettes for the knoedel/balls. In todays recipe I cut two baguettes into thin slices and put them into a large bowl. The baguettes are about 4 days old. My base recipe assumes 500g of stale, relatively dry white bread or buns. The Semmelknödel in the pictures represent about 800g of baguettes, so everything is scaled.
Then I heated up the milk (450ml in the base recipe) to about 30 to 35C (warm milk) and sprinkled it as good as possible over all baguette slices. I did this in multiple steps sprinkling the warm milk over the bread and then folding and turning the bread slices with my hands to find other drier slices in need of a milk sprinkle. I then covered the bowl with a lid and let the bread slices soak up the warm milk for about 30 minutes. Once during the 30 minutes I moved the slices at the bottom to the top and vice versa.
While the slices were soaking up the liquid I finely chopped a small onion (base recipe) and a bunch of parsley (curly parsley traditionally, but Italian parsley works equally well). I then melted 30g of butter (base recipe) in a pan and added the chopped onion. I started to sweat the onion and then added the chopped parsley. Once the onions turned yellow I switched the heat off and let everything in the pan cool down.
Once the baguettes slices were sufficiently soaked, I added the eggs (3 eggs in the base recipe) and the onion-parsley mixture to the baguette slices in several steps mixing everything together with my hands. I also added some salt, ground black pepper and paprika to the mix (to taste, some people like more salt, or more black pepper). I guess in my case I added about 2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of paprika. The mixing happens by hand and the idea is to distribute things as evenly as possible while the bread slices stay relatively coarse. Some slices will (partially) disintegrate, but the majority should still hang somewhat together. Finally I pressed the knödel dough into the bowl, covered everything with plastic wrap, and let stand for another 15 to 30 minutes to let the bread, egg, and onion-parsley mixture fuse into each other. The end result is a dough that can be nicely formed into ball and hangs together.
About 10 minutes before I formed the semmelknödel I heated up water in a wok and put our bamboo-steamer baskets on top. Once the water was on a rolling boil, I formed the knödel/balls with my hands and put them into the steamer basket. The base recipe yields between 8 and 9 knödel/balls. The steaming time is about 25 minutes.
During the steaming time I made an onion and mushroom based cream-sauce and also a cabbage stir-fry. My cabbage stir-fry has Chinese roots, but fried cabbage is also popular as a side dish in Bavaria. We also had some cold carrot-burdock stir-fry, some kimchi and some turnip-beet pickles this evening.
Tomorrow, we will fry the sliced leftover dumplings with some egg in a little oil or butter and have another super duper meal. Sliced fried Semmelknödel with eggs are as good as fresh made Semmelknödel with sauce or even better :-)
My recipe is basic with regards to its ingredient list. Some recipes suggest to add finely diced smoked bacon to the knödel dough. This adds another flavor to a knödel and provides some chewiness. Ground nutmeg is an ingredient that is added to the knödel dough mix by some recipes.
So what about the knödel disasters in the past. Traditionally semmelknödel are made in simmering water just below the boiling temperature. With one exception all my knödel fell apart during the simmering phase in the water bath after 5 to 10 minutes. Disintegration leaves a total mess in the pot that could not be eaten. My only successful attempt happened with bought sliced "knödel brot" (knoedel bread) from Bavaria when somebody flew over for a visit from Germany. All my other attempts using Canadian white bread, bread buns, and or tweaks of the various steps to somehow create a knödel dough that was suitable failed with my knödels falling apart. Only when one of my sisters mentioned that steaming instead of simmering was maybe also a possibility did I end up with a break-through. Ever since I started steaming my semmelknödels, things work like a charm. The knödel are perfect and taste delicious. The only explanation I have is that the white bread in Bavaria used for knödels is different from the white bread in Canada (probably due to differences in flour). But this is just a guess, I don't really know. What I do know, and have learned the hard way, is that steaming knödels works for me like a charm :-).
Semmelknödel in Bavaria are made from stale old buns or old white bread (Knödel made from "rye-wheat or black bread" are called Schwarzbrotknödel and Knödel made from soft-pretzel buns are called Brezn-Knödel). Here in Canada I have settled on using old baguettes for the knoedel/balls. In todays recipe I cut two baguettes into thin slices and put them into a large bowl. The baguettes are about 4 days old. My base recipe assumes 500g of stale, relatively dry white bread or buns. The Semmelknödel in the pictures represent about 800g of baguettes, so everything is scaled.
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| Cutting the 2 stale baguettes into slices. |
Then I heated up the milk (450ml in the base recipe) to about 30 to 35C (warm milk) and sprinkled it as good as possible over all baguette slices. I did this in multiple steps sprinkling the warm milk over the bread and then folding and turning the bread slices with my hands to find other drier slices in need of a milk sprinkle. I then covered the bowl with a lid and let the bread slices soak up the warm milk for about 30 minutes. Once during the 30 minutes I moved the slices at the bottom to the top and vice versa.
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| Pouring warm milk over the baguette slices. |
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| Distributing the milk into the baguette slices with my hands |
While the slices were soaking up the liquid I finely chopped a small onion (base recipe) and a bunch of parsley (curly parsley traditionally, but Italian parsley works equally well). I then melted 30g of butter (base recipe) in a pan and added the chopped onion. I started to sweat the onion and then added the chopped parsley. Once the onions turned yellow I switched the heat off and let everything in the pan cool down.
 |
| The onion parsley mixture |
Once the baguettes slices were sufficiently soaked, I added the eggs (3 eggs in the base recipe) and the onion-parsley mixture to the baguette slices in several steps mixing everything together with my hands. I also added some salt, ground black pepper and paprika to the mix (to taste, some people like more salt, or more black pepper). I guess in my case I added about 2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and 1 tsp of paprika. The mixing happens by hand and the idea is to distribute things as evenly as possible while the bread slices stay relatively coarse. Some slices will (partially) disintegrate, but the majority should still hang somewhat together. Finally I pressed the knödel dough into the bowl, covered everything with plastic wrap, and let stand for another 15 to 30 minutes to let the bread, egg, and onion-parsley mixture fuse into each other. The end result is a dough that can be nicely formed into ball and hangs together.
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| Eggs (base recipe: 3 eggs), salt, black pepper and paprika |
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| Mixing the eggs, onion-parsley, salt and spices into the soaked baguette slices |
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| Final mixing stage: Padding the knoedel dough down, adding afterwards some plastic wrap on top and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. |
About 10 minutes before I formed the semmelknödel I heated up water in a wok and put our bamboo-steamer baskets on top. Once the water was on a rolling boil, I formed the knödel/balls with my hands and put them into the steamer basket. The base recipe yields between 8 and 9 knödel/balls. The steaming time is about 25 minutes.
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| Heating up the water for steaming. |
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| Adding the knoedels to the steaming basket. |
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| Forming a knödel by hand |
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| Adding the last knödels into the 2nd steamer basket. |
During the steaming time I made an onion and mushroom based cream-sauce and also a cabbage stir-fry. My cabbage stir-fry has Chinese roots, but fried cabbage is also popular as a side dish in Bavaria. We also had some cold carrot-burdock stir-fry, some kimchi and some turnip-beet pickles this evening.
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| Our complete dinner tonight |
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| Another capture of our dinner tonight |
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| A close-up of a semmelknödel: Delicious. The coarse texture is typical for these knödel. |
Tomorrow, we will fry the sliced leftover dumplings with some egg in a little oil or butter and have another super duper meal. Sliced fried Semmelknödel with eggs are as good as fresh made Semmelknödel with sauce or even better :-)
 |
| Frying some knödel slices a day later. The scrambled egg mixture is yet to be added. In Bavaria this is often eaten with a green salad as a side dish. |
My recipe is basic with regards to its ingredient list. Some recipes suggest to add finely diced smoked bacon to the knödel dough. This adds another flavor to a knödel and provides some chewiness. Ground nutmeg is an ingredient that is added to the knödel dough mix by some recipes.
So what about the knödel disasters in the past. Traditionally semmelknödel are made in simmering water just below the boiling temperature. With one exception all my knödel fell apart during the simmering phase in the water bath after 5 to 10 minutes. Disintegration leaves a total mess in the pot that could not be eaten. My only successful attempt happened with bought sliced "knödel brot" (knoedel bread) from Bavaria when somebody flew over for a visit from Germany. All my other attempts using Canadian white bread, bread buns, and or tweaks of the various steps to somehow create a knödel dough that was suitable failed with my knödels falling apart. Only when one of my sisters mentioned that steaming instead of simmering was maybe also a possibility did I end up with a break-through. Ever since I started steaming my semmelknödels, things work like a charm. The knödel are perfect and taste delicious. The only explanation I have is that the white bread in Bavaria used for knödels is different from the white bread in Canada (probably due to differences in flour). But this is just a guess, I don't really know. What I do know, and have learned the hard way, is that steaming knödels works for me like a charm :-).
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