Having Fun Thursday Making Homemade Egg Noodles & Recipe

Sorry for the late post, but I wanted to make sure my little endeavor turned out successful before posting.  

So the story began a long long time ago ;), I had told my Mom that I was looking for a pasta machine.  Originally, my thoughts were to use it to work with fimo clay to make carrot noses for my gourds.  That idea changed as I found out that paper clay suited my needs better.  Over a year later, I received a call from my Mother.  She and her sister Barb were talking, and my Aunt had a pasta machine that she wanted to get rid of.  My Mom, who forgets nothing, told her that I was in search of one.  She called me to tell me the news.  Pasta machine?  Hmmmm.  I had just been complaining to my hubby, aka noodle fanatic, that the prices of egg noodles were ridiculous, and the fact that he eats them with almost every meal would put us in the poor house. LOL  Was this a sign?  Should I try to tackle making my own egg noodles?  The church ladies in town quit selling them in the fall.  Maybe, I thought, it was because they were too much of a pain to make.  And lets face it,  I was coming in as a complete newbie, but I now was the proud owner of my own pasta machine.  Heck, my Aunt even threw in the lasagna attachment!  I was determined to give it a try... anything to save some money and have it made from scratch. :)  

 

The most shocking thing that I have learned in this process is that there is not many ingredients in the making of egg noodles.  Eggs, flour, salt, olive oil, and water.  There are other recipes that involve milk and butter, but I decided to go with the earlier ingredients for my first try.

Recipe for Egg Noodles:

2          beaten eggs

1t         salt

2c         all purpose flour

1T        olive oil

4T        water

Mix dry ingredients.  Add beaten eggs and mix well.  Add olive oil and enough of the water to make the dough take shape.  (I used all 4T, but my eggs were straight from the coop and might have been of a smaller size.)  Knead the dough for 3 to 4 minutes. ( I used my Kitchenaid on the 2 setting with dough hook for this step.)  Let the dough rest covered in its bowl  for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to handle.  Now it is ready for hand rolling and cutting or the pasta machine.

I can honestly say this was the most exciting adventure that I have had in a while.  I cut my pasta dough into fourths, set my roller on 1 and began to run my dough through.  It was so fun.  Then, I changed the setting to number 3 for the next pass for the dough and the final at 5.  I was ready to change my handle to the noodle cutter.  You can see by the picture how that step went.  This was way COOLER than play dough!!  As my noodles gathered at the bottom, they wanted to stick together a little.  So my next batches were lightly dusted with flour before running through the cutter.

Some wooden spoons balanced between 2 qt. Mason jars were perfect for hanging the noodles to dry.  This is probably my favorite picture.  I could have kept making them all day!  It was an absolute blast!  I have an ornament hanging tree downstairs that my hubby made for me.  It is a thick dowel rod with alternating smaller rods for branches.  I could get a lot of noodles on that baby!  Hmmmmm....

Today was the big test day.  I imagined throwing my noodles in the boiling water and watching them disintegrate.  But guess what?  It didn't happen.  Yay!!  Can you believe that?  SUCCESS.  Even better, my husband came in, tried them, and said they tasted just like his Grandma's.  Now,  I will not make you crazy with my calculations of the money that I can save weekly by making my own noodles.  (I am a soup fanatic, hubby likes them as a side dish, and we both love beef and noodles.)   But, it will definitely be far less than the Amish ones that I am currently buying.   

Here is my lunch today.  How great is that?  Homemade turkey soup and homemade bread.  It makes me feel good to take one more prepackaged item out of my families meals.  Plus, it is actually a process that I find fun!  It is the best of both worlds.  My hubby and I were discussing trying a recipe for wheat noodles.  I am a wheat bread fanatic and have not tried wheat noodles in my life.  This opens a whole new world to explore.  I love learning new things!  A huge debt of gratitude goes to my Mom for never forgetting any of my ramblings ;)  and to my Aunt Barb for a super-fantastic pasta machine!  :)