Adventures in Noodle Making

Yesterday I made a slow cooker chicken soup, and instead of adding the usual dumplings on top, I decided to try my hand at making egg noodles. I've never made noodles or pasta before, so I had fun with this task.

Stir the flour and salt, then add the remaining ingredients and mix. You can use your stand mixer or food processor for this step.

I put latex gloves on and used my hands (my nails are long). Mine was still pretty gooey...

 

 ...so on to the floured surface! Our countertop is tiled (so silly) so I use an extra large textured cutting board. I actually prefer this to a smooth surface because the flour spreads out more evenly.

  

 When DH was hanging outside with the boys, he snuck a pic of me.

  

 Separate the dough into sections and roll. The rings on the rolling pin are nice for people like me who are horrible at estimating correct thickness and rolling evenly. I rolled the dough 1/8inches thick.

  

The Better Homes and Gardens cook book gives a few different cutting methods.

  

I didn't really like the roll and slice method. My dough was still sticky enough on the inside that the noodles stuck together. I'm also not the greatest at even slices.

  

Cutting with a pizza cutter gave much better results--except for the uneven noodles lol. Separate noodles and let air dry. Or you can cook right away if you're in a hurry...

  

I wasn't sure how the noodles would turn out if I added directly to the slow cooker, so I cooked them separately. They took about 2 minutes to cook.

 

This was a great change from the usual dumplings!

I chose this noodle recipe because it uses milk instead of water...

Egg Noodles
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter

Stir the flour and salt together. Add the egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough for about 5 minutes. Let rest in a covered bowl for 10 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired lengths and shapes.
Allow to air dry before cooking.
To cook fresh pasta, in a large pot with boiling salted water cook until al dente.

A few storage tips from Better Homes and Gardens:

"Spread on a wire cooling rack. Let noodles dry overnight to until completely dry; place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to three days. Or let the noodles dry for at least one hour and seal in a freezer bag or container; freeze up to eight months."