Ingredients
1 loaf of french baguette*
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Boiling, salted water
Directions
Preheat your oven to 300F. Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes in the oven to dry them out some (you are not to toast it though). Cool completely.
Melt the butter and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the parsley and sauté a bit longer, then set aside to cool. Sprinkle the salt over the cubed bread. Heat the milk almost to boiling, then pour over the bread mixture and leave to cool.
When everything is cooled, pour the onion and parsley mixture on top of the bread and mix well with your hands. Whisk the eggs and pour over the bread mixture, then mix everything again. If the mixture doesn’t hold its shape, add more bread crumbs. Let sit for 15 minutes or so as the bread will soak up more of the liquid and you may have to add more, or if it is still too liquidy, add some of the bread crumbs.
Bring the water to a low simmer. Heavy boiling will cause them to fall apart.
Shape the dough into dumplings, about the size of your palm. Drop the dumplings into boiling water and wait until the water returns to a boil, then cook an additional 10-12 minutes. Do this in batches as not to bring down the water temperature too much. Also, if one of the dumplings falls apart, you know that the dough is still too loose and add more breadcrumbs to the mixture.
Test one of the dumplings by cutting it in half. If it’s still doughy, let it cook a bit longer. After removing all the dumplings from the water, piece each with a fork or a number of times with a toothpick to release some of the steam (this is an important step, otherwise they get gummy very quickly). Serve immediately.**
* American baguettes are often made of sour dough and don’t like to absorb the milk and eggs. One alternative is to use Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Herbed Stuffing Mix (as it has larger chunks of bread crumbs). If you do use this instead of a baguette, skip the onions, salt and parsley as it already has herbs in it.
** Left over knödel can be sliced and reheated in a pan with butter. I actually prefer them this way.
