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How to make German shupfnudeln, also spelled schupfnudeln. They are basically German gnocchi dumplings, great with caramelized onions, sauerkraut and sausages.
I am obsessed with dumplings in all forms, and the Germans are experts at hearty, wintry ones. I already have recipes on this site for Bavarian bread dumplings, semolina dumplings, as well as all kinds of spatzle; my favorite is a bright green spinach spatzle.
Shupfnudeln, or schupfnudeln, are a mash-up of Italian trofie pasta and Italian potato gnocchi. They are a specialty of Swabia and Bavaria, but versions exist all throughout Central Europe. You may know these as fingernudel, too.
Really old recipes for shhupfnudeln combine flour and stale bread, but modern ones use potatoes, and the method is more or less identical to Italian gnocchi. The shape is different, though, more like a spindle, reminiscient of the pasta shape trofie.
I am indebted to the shupfnudeln recipe in Luisa Weiss’ book Classic German Cooking, which I highly recommend, for my inspiration here. The accompaniment to the dumplings is something I’ve loved since college: A mix of slow-cooked onions, sauerkraut and sausages.
Hard to get more German than that.
Making Shupfnudeln
Shupfnudeln are easy to shape, but they are a bit of a production. You need freshly mashed, or better yet riced, potatoes, and when you cook them you will want to boil and fry them in succession, so you need both a pot of boiling water going as well as a pan with butter.
Boil a russet potato — russets are better here — push it through a ricer or food mill, or just mash it, let it steam off so it won’t cook the egg. Mix an egg in there with the flour and a touch of salt and white pepper, maybe nutmeg, and knead into a soft but smooth dough.
You don’t really need to let the dough rest, so you can start by dividing it into large pieces. Shape a piece into a log 1-inch thick, then use a knife or bench scraper to chop that log into 1-inch pieces.
Take a piece between your palms and roll it into a spindle. I find that a quick 1-2-3 motion makes the nicest spindle. If you get too eager, the dough lengthens too much and you get weird “tails” on your shupfnudeln.
Set each dumpling on a floured surface until you’ve finished with all the dough.
Cooking Shupfnudeln
Get a large pot of boiling water going and salt it well. Next to that, put quite a lot of butter in a large pan and melt it over low heat.
Gather up a few shupfnudeln — I set them on the bench scraper — and drop them into the boiling water. They are ready once they float. Turn the heat to high on the frying pan. Use a skimmer to pick up and drain the dumplings, then set them in the pan.
Fry these until the color up and get some nice browning here and there. Move the dumplings to a pan and repeat the process. Make sure to lower the heat on the butter in between batches.
How to Serve
You can eat shupfnudeln simply, with sour cream or caramelized onions, but you have other options.
A good, solid brown gravy is one, but my go-to is a combination of caramelized onions, sauerkraut, sausages and parsley. This is my generic “German mix” that works with so many foods.
The only time consuming part of it is the onions. Real caramelized onions take at least 20 minutes, and if you want them truly caramel-colored, closer to 40 minutes. You could go the fast route though and saute your onions over high heat, so they get browned but not overly silky, but I love the contrast between soft and sweet onions and the tart, crunchy sauerkraut.
You could get all Italian with it and serve your shupfnudeln with pesto, too. A parsley and walnut pesto or an arugula pesto would be ideal.
Once made, the dumplings will keep a couple days in the fridge. You can reheat shupfnudeln by letting them come to room temperature, then cooking them again in more butter.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.
Shupfnudeln
Ingredients
SHUPFNUDELN
- 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- Salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (150 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1 egg
- Butter for frying
TO FINISH
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 pounds yellow onions, sliced thin root to tip
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- Salt
- 1 1/2 cups sauerkraut
- 1 pound sausages (brats, or something similar)
- 1/4 cup minced parsley
Instructions
- Start with the onions. Heat the butter in a large pan over medium-high heat and add the onions. Cook, stirring often, until they wilt. Sprinkle salt over them. Lower the heat to medium and cook the onions down, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft and brown. Add some marjoram as it cooks. This process should take between 20 and 40 minutes, and you may need to cover the pan to keep the onions from sticking to it. When they're done. turn off the heat.
- Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in salty water until tender. Drain and let them steam a minute or two, then push them through a ricer or a food mill. If you don't have either, just mash them well.
- Get a large pot of water going so you can boil the shupfnnudeln. You can use the potato water but you'll need to add to it. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a large pan over low heat.
- Let the potatoes cool for a few minutes, then quickly mix in the egg, white pepper, nutmeg and flour. Knead into a soft, but smooth dough.
- Flour a work surface. Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Form a log with one piece about 1 inch thick. Use a knife or bench scraper to cut that log into 1-inch pieces.
- Using your palms with a 1-2-3 back-and-forth motion, roll a piece into a spindle shape. Set it down on the floured surface and continue with all the rest of the dough.
- When the shupfnudeln are all done, gather up about a quarter of them and boil in the salty water. When they start to bob to the surface, turn the heat to high on the pan with the butter. Gather up the dumplings and let them drain a second or two, then put them in the pan with the butter, shaking the pan as you do.
- Brown the shupfnudeln in the butter, turning them as needed. This sets them and gives you some nice Maillard reaction. Move the finished dumplings to a tray or plate. Repeat the process with the remaining dumplings. You will likely need more butter.
- To finish, brown the sausages in the pan you cooked the dumplings. Chances are they'll still be uncooked at the center, so drop them into the water you boiled the dumplings in and let them cook there for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove them and slice.
- Heat the onions back up and add the sausage, sauerkraut, parsley and shupfnudeln. Mix well and serve. Black pepper is a nice addition.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hank:
I tried this recipe yesterday. One issue – there are not eggs listed in the ingredient list, but described in the text while making the dumplings! So I winged it!
Thanks for all you do for us!
Bruce
Bruce: Gah. I thought I’d fixed that several times, but it apparently didn’t “stick” until just now. Sorry. Fixed it. 1 egg in the dough.
Made this tonight. Thankful my husband loves to do dishes as I really tore up the kitchen.
I think that there has to be a number off on the amount of onions as this was a crazy amount of onions! It was swimming in them. Wish I could attach a photo. But I love carmelized onions. Rather than 3 lbs, maybe next time I’ll reduce the onions to 1.5 lbs? When adding sauerkraut, the amount of vegetable matter is much more than the picture suggests. I pan fried the sausages and put them into the onions to stay warm.
Next time I’ll add the nutmeg and pepper to the egg, whisk, and then add to the potato/flour mixture to ensure the nutmeg and white pepper are evenly distributed. I think the nudeln could use with a bit of salt – will add maybe 1/2 tsp next time.
The nudeln came out great! About 1/2 way through I found a “2 hand rolling method” that really worked. At the end, I put them all back into the pan to reheat and then put then into the onion/kraut mixture. This was a really hearty dish and great for a cold night.
I can’t wait to make these! I thought this stuff was so time consuming until I tried Hank’s Nokedli; now I make it all the time.
Thanks for posting this! When I looked for the recipe a while back, it was hard to find – not a common recipe. For your laughs, you might want to know that when I ate it in Bavaria, it was called bubenspitzle. We make it gluten free by replacing the flour with potato starch and/or cassava flour.
Great recipe – kids devoured the nudeln, and my wife and I absolutely loved the combination of the sauerkraut and caramelized onions. Going to add this one to the standard rotation.
Classic recipe, I look forward to making yours.
In German it is actually spelled “Schupfnudeln” with a C. “Shupnudeln” is possibly Americanized.
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Don’t you love the name Dradewixpfeiperl? Easy to see why it didn’t catch on outside of Bavaria!
Have you tried making them with rye flour?
Marilyn: I figured the C was the German way. I think the SH is from places like North Dakota. I have not tried with rye, but you better believe I will now!
How much egg? It’s missing from the ingredients.
Michi: Fixed it. 1 egg.
You sure? It’s still missing from the ingredients list.
Hank: Your list of ingredients is missing the egg. 😉
if you wanted to premake this for a group of 10, would you freeze the dumplings after the boil – then just heat and brown them day of service?
Jay: I’d go all the way and brown them then freeze. I think they’ll hold up — but I haven’t tried this.
This looks great! I don’t like sauerkraut but I do love cabbage, so what I might do is add thin strips of cabbage to the onions so that they brown together, something my Hungarian grandmother would do. And then proceed with the sausage and the little noodles. Looking forward to this dish.
Hi Hank! I think an egg has been left out of the written recipe, no? Thank you for this awesome recipe – just might have to make it TONIGHT!
Julie: Step 4.
Mr. Shaw, the egg is missing from the ingredients list? I’m guessing that’s what Julie meant 🙂
This is such wonderful comfort food!
Thank you!
My family heritage is Greman and this reminded me of when my grandmother would make the Sphupfnudeln and Spatzle with venison