Monday, January 11, 2010

Homemade whole wheat noodles- a real bargain!

I made whole wheat noodles today.
Whole wheat flour is quite expensive by me. Because of that, I don't use it on a regular basis, as it is twice the price of white flour. (I am looking into buying it in bulk because I can get it cheaper that way.)
Sometimes, however, it pays to make things from scratch out of whole wheat, as the whole wheat from scratch is cheaper or the same price as store bought white flour processed products.
I made 1.5 lbs of whole wheat noodles. When I buy white flour noodles, I pay 75 cents a pound. As I pay 95 cents per pound of whole wheat, I was able to make a pound and a half of whole wheat noodles for 75 cents, the same amount I pay for one pound of white flour noodles. In other words, when I make this myself, for the same cost I am able to make a larger quantity of a healthier product.
Money savings as well as healthier.
If I would buy whole wheat noodles in the store, it would cost me over 2 dollars a pound.
By making my own whole wheat noodles, I saved lots of money!

I got this recipe for whole wheat noodles from Under 1000 Per Month . My old noodle recipe involved eggs and oil and was harder to make than these simple simple tasty noodles.

Pinzon 5-9-Inch Pasta Maker
I really want a pasta maker like this. (My birthday is coming up in February, hint hint.) But if, like me, you don't have a state of the art pasta maker, this is what you'll need to make your own cheap delicious homemade whole wheat noodles.

Homemade Noodles

Required Equipment
Mixing Bowl
Rolling Pin
Flat surface
Pot of boiling water
Knife

Extra Equipment that would make life easier-
Pasta Maker (doh)
Measuring cups
Pizza cutter

Ingredients-
Whole wheat flour
Water
(Yea, seriously. Those are the only ingredients. Its that simple.)

1. In a large bowl, mix 3:1 ratio of flour to water. That means 3 cups flour and one cup water. Or 1.5 cups flour and half a cup water. Or 3 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon water. (I think I did enough math for you now.)
2. Mix the dough and knead it very well. You want it to be a ball that stays together easily, isn't crumbly and isn't sticky. Add more flour or water as needed to make the right consistency.
3. Let the dough sit for 15 minutes. This lets the gluten form bonds and makes the dough stretchier.
4. Tear off a tangerine size chunk from the dough.
5. Flour your rolling surface and roll out out the dough quite thin. (It expands when cooked, so keep that in mind when deciding how thin or thick to roll it.)
6. Use a knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough into noodles. Cut thin long strips for spaghetti/linguine; cut smaller but wider rectangles for noodles.


7. When they're cut, pick up the cut noodles and place them in a pile/bowl while you cut the rest of the noodles.
8. Boil in a pot of salted water (with a bit of oil, preferably). Cook them until they're soft- it should be five minutes or so.

9. Strain in a colander. Rinse with water.


These whole wheat noodles are very quick to make. They taste exactly like the store bought and are worth every penny!

3 comments:

  1. Hey, Sorry I'm late to the game, but these noodle do not taste exactly like the store bought. Fresh whole wheat noodle are infinitely better: I began making my own whole wheat noodle after trying to deal with that crap from the store. I'd cook the dried store bought and the core would never, ever, soften up, so you would end up with this awful almost crunchy texture. Not appealing to say the least. On the other hand, handmade are like velvet. And now that I know that you really do not need egg in the dough, I'm double psyched.
    What I love about pasta, but has made me a very infrequent restaurant patron, is how you can make a stellar meal with about one dollars worth of ingredients for the noodles. So that $22.00 plate of rigatoni at the restaurant has a $21.00 sauce? I know what I'm not ordering~~
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am even later :p
    Thanks for the super easy recipe. I want to know how long can we store these noodles?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent recipe. I tried it and delighted with the results. It is so healthy too.

    ReplyDelete

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