Knödel Cooking Class

Some friends talked me into being brave and taking a cooking class in German this past week. Note, the class was in German not just in Germany.  Up until this class, my only experience with this type of food had been a plain, round, sticky dumpling somewhere between a golf ball and baseball in size. I really wasn't a fan. The class at Wirsthaus in der Au has changed my mind.

Work Table

The knödels we made were nothing like those sticky, white balls. This is not a great description but these knödel were something like a gourmet stuffing ball filled with delicious ingredients. The class was lots of fun and I even understood some of what the chef was telling us, maybe 30%, but my friends were translating and luckily a lot of cooking can be done by following the leader!

Partners in crime - Cheryl, Lana & Missy

We paired up to make five different kinds of knödel. That's when the prosecco started flowing. Definitely my kind of cooking class. My friend Lana and I made spinach, the rest of the class did beet, speck (bacon), cheese and a dessert knödel made with cookie crumbs instead of bread crumbs as a base. As a bonus we learned the perfect way to chop an onion as well as an awesome way to prepare spinach and get the water out of it.

Time to mix, with our hands!

Spinat Knödel

Andrea explaining that the dumplings will "dance" when they are properly cooked.

I have to say each and everyone one of them was amazing. The speck knödel was served in a soup. The next three were served together but each with their own sauce. The beet had a horseradish sauce, the spinach was topped with pesto and ruculoa, and the cheese was topped with a parmesan cheese sauce. They were incredibly amazing.

The dessert knödels were also terrific and served with our choice of schnapps. I tried hazelnut which did compliment it nicely.

It was a terrific way to spend the day, fun to learn something new and even a little fun to take the class in German.

Prosecco, Rot Wein oder Schnapps?

It didn't hurt that at one point this is what was sitting in front of me. Cheers!