Schupfnudeln (German Potato Noodles)

It’s Octoberfest and my distant heritage is mostly German, so why not celebrate?  

So backstory…

Every Good Friday in Lent, my mom makes “Shoup Noodles”, which her mother made, which her mother made.  They’re basically a flour dumpling boiled in salty water and fried with potato slices on top.  Super delicious.  We love them!

But I always wondered if those Shoup Noodles were a German recipe brought over by my Great Grandma (she was a German from Russia who immigrated to the US when she was 10, in 1910).

So I got to researching and found Schupfnudeln… and now doesn’t that sound a lot like the Americanized shoup noodles? Ding ding!  We have a winner.

There are some differences between the family recipe and Schupfnudeln, namely that the potato is integrated right into the noodle dough (more like a gnocchi or a lefse, but totally makes sense), but they are shaped similarly.  They are also boiled and then fried, but the methodology is different.  My mom’s (great grandma’s) recipe calls for a small amount of water which is boiled off completely until the noodles fry, whereas Schupfnudeln are boiled, drained, and then fried in butter.

Schupfnudeln are a much more tender noodle and while very tasty, the family recipe trumps it with my bunch.  I was very happy to find and try the authentic recipe, but we’ll be sticking with our family tradition!

Schupfnudeln (German Potato Noodles)

Adapted slightly from My Dinner

1 pound potatoes

½ -¾ cup flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch ground nutmeg

Place the whole potatoes in a pot.  Cover with salted water and bring to a boil.  Cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender.  Remove from water and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Peel the warm potatoes and discard skins.  Put the potatoes through a ricer to mash.

Add the flour, cornstarch, egg, salt, and nutmeg to the potatoes and knead into a dough, adding more flour as needed.

Liberally flour a work surface.  Pinch off 1-inch pieces of dough and roll into a noodle, tapering the ends.

Heat a pot of salted water to a low simmer.  Add the noodles and cook until they float, about 5 minutes.

Drain.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the boiled noodles and cook until fried on all sides.