Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Homemade Egg Noodles

Homemade noodles
When I was little my mom made me chicken noodle soup (homemade) and poached eggs when I was sick. I am not sick very often but when I am I want my mom, chicken noodle soup, and poached eggs. Ok, I can live without the poached eggs and my mom shouldn't have to drop everything and come make me chicken noodle soup (I wish she would); so I make my own chicken noodle soup. (Grumble....) I also make it for my family when they are sick (Grumble....) But it always makes my feel better and transports me to my childhood watching my mom make me chicken noodle soup. The catch is the noodle have to be homemade. It is not as hard as you think. I can make them while I am deathly ill (a bit of an exaggeration) you can too. I will warn you, once you make them you will always want homemade egg noodles in your soup. If someone besides me is sick, I will add dried herbs to the noodles or cracked pepper (if I am sick I am working on autopilot). Oh! This is important, try not to overwork the dough. Just do the bare minimum of mixing.

Egg Noodles

1 1/2 Cups (190 g) of Unbleached Flour
1 Tbsp of Butter
1 Tsp of Salt (Omit if you are using salted butter)
1 Tsp of Dried Herbs (Optional, Your Choice)
2 Eggs, Slightly Beaten
0-2 Tbsp of Milk

Combine flour, salt, and butter with a pastry cutter or your fingers until well combined.
Cutting the butter into the flour
At this point add the dried herbs, if you are using them. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the eggs.
Beaten eggs in the well.

With a fork, gently mix in part of the eggs with part of the flour until combined.
Slowly mixing the egg with the flour

Once all of the egg is mixed in with the flour, test the dough. If it is not forming a ball, add a bit of milk until a ball forms. You may not need any milk at all.

Cut the ball into four pieces and roll one piece out on a lightly floured board. (I usually place a piece of wax paper on the board and then flour it and roll out the dough on the wax paper). The dough will be sticky so you may have to add a little more flour. Roll out the dough paper thin. Set aside and work on the next piece of dough.
Roll out the dough so that it is paper thin
Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes, but do not let the dough dry out too much. Cut the dough into thin strips (I use a pizza cutter for this. It works magic). I don't worry about uniformity. I like my noodles to be different sizes. If you want perfect noodles use a rule to measure your cuts.
All different sizes of noodles
Roll some pieces of dough into small balls (for dumplings).
Dumplings are my favorite
Drop the noodles into boiling water, broth, or soup and boil for about 5 minutes. (Test at minute increments just to be sure). You also want to gently stir the noodles so they separate.
Egg noodles topped with buttered and toasted bread crumbs
Looking for an incredible way to serve them? Boil them in water, drain, and serve topped with buttered bread crumbs (I wish I could take credit for this gem but it is my mom's recipe).  So so good!
The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes, I even make these when everyone is healthy.
Use a ravioli cutter to create elegant noodles

1 comment:

  1. Homemade egg noodles are a childhood favorite that I now make for my family for holiday dinners. There's nothing like them, really.

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