dough/pastry/pasta board?

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
jacob
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by jacob »

@jp - Given my lack of stone masonry skills, we'll put it on the list ;-) Any chance a pizza stone would do a similar job? Normally, DW just uses the table. I don't even bother with that keeping my dough airborne/in a bowl.

The dowels come out, so they're easy to wash with the rest of the dishes. There's up to 10x11.5" of linear space.

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jennypenny
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by jennypenny »

Ha, here either. I'm glad DS2 has decided to study metallurgy and black smithing so we can add to the repertoire of skills in the house. (DS1 has the auto and electrical stuff down). I have to work to keep up my cooking skills lest I been seen as dead weight in my tribe and ice floed.

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Alphaville wrote:
Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:16 pm
and one ~70g egg per 100g of flour (33% semola) is easy to remember (i hope i didn’t get those numbers wrong). long live the metric system! :D
weighed some eggs this morning:

large ones clocked at an average of 55g
xl at ~62g

i need to get me some jumbo eggs (?) or look for a common multiple. ~1@xl per kilo

or easier, duh: scale flour weight to given egg weight
Last edited by Alphaville on Sun Sep 27, 2020 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

I just make a well of flour, crack eggs in the well, and then stir with a fork. Sometimes all the flour doesn’t get incorporated, big deal

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sun Sep 27, 2020 9:53 am
I just make a well of flour, crack eggs in the well, and then stir with a fork. Sometimes all the flour doesn’t get incorporated, big deal
oh hi i just saw you after editing: yeah, i’ll make the dough in a bowl next time, a small amount so it’s easy to knead without machine.

my uncoordinate thumbs are rich in typos

-

btw so far the fake stone counter has been great for kneading firm doughs. doesn’t spread the flour as evenly as wood but pretty decent otherwise with a nylon scraper.

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

the weekend’s results:

the lady and i made rolls, crackers, scottish shortbread, and pasta.

everything kneads fine on the fake stone counter. the shortbread was made in the food processor. the rolls, no problem.

nylon scraper is the key to a clean undamaged counter.

for the pasta, i weighed 4 eggs (with shell on, assuming it’s done that way when establishing “egg size”), multiplied by 10/7, which gave me 367g flour, divided 1/3 semola 2/3 all purpose (king arthur) on the scale (00 flour is a pricey import in ‘merica).

the dough mixed and kneaded *almost perfect*. absolutely nothing wasted. maybe a leeeeeeeetle on the dry side, but i live in a high desert, so this makes sense. i just used wet hands to knead at first, then everything hydrated homogeneously and perfect non-sticky. i might try weighing eggs post-shell weight next time & observe (should be slightly wetter, how much idk).

for cutting we had to resort to a plastic cutting board. due to my adhd, i have zero patience for slicing noodles one by one, so she did it all beautifully, but i noticed it took a long time to do a nice job (adhd hates repetitive tasks).if i were an italian grandma with a lifetime of pasta work under my belt maybe i’d have the patience. but i’m an impatient dude with clumsy hands instead, so...

the rolling and the cutting of both crackers and pasta seem to be the main time suck in this enterprise. crackers are a handy staple, and egg pasta is great, so i’m considering a pasta machine to roll out even sheets and get fast even cuts of both items.

i looked for @seppia’s pasta bikes online, but we get inferior and pricier versions in the usa, which might not be worth the cost. might as well save the $20-$30 towards the marcato machine ($70), which besides being a quality tool for cutting also primarily solves the even-sheet rolling problem quickly.

the pasta dried okay horizontally on the cooling racks. not perfect, but good enough, for now anyway, no big hurdle, mostly noise.

tldr: i don’t need a dough board, but a pasta machine should solve the production bottleneck for both noodles and crackers for the rest of our lives.

next weekend we might try graham crackers as i have a giant jar of molasses from my fermenting adventures plus fresh deliveries of whole wheat flour.

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Seppia
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Seppia »

Don’t agonize over the exact weight of the eggs.
Just use 4 eggs per lb, then see what kind of dough you get. If too dry add an egg.

@jacob an even simpler alternative is not to have a pasta rack, which is largely unnecessary in dry climates.
You can dry the spaghetti in nests on the table and that’s it.

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Seppia wrote:
Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:49 pm
Don’t agonize over the exact weight of the eggs.
on the contrary— basic arithmetic relieved me of all agony! it was a direct match. science! :D (the 2nd website you liked went on in great detail... so worth it)

and the marcato atlas 150 is now otw :lol:

“Se preferite il metodo tradizionale potete stendere la pasta fresca con un mattarello lungo! Ci vorrà molta pazienza e.. olio di gomito!”

(i lack pazienza and my gomito is... dry)

-

we ate some of the pasta tonight (alla fiorentina? not sure of the name). butter+olive oil, garlic, spinach, tossed the cooked pasta, a bit of pasta water on the skillet, parmesan—so goooooooood!

you’re right that thicker stays al dente longer. oh it was good...

for dessert we had a piece of cambozola (a great invention), and then an apple.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Seppia »

Cambozola... I’ll have to try that, it’s probably the only blue cheese I haven’t tasted.
In my opinion, the best type of blue cheese on the planet is Stilton.
It’s really a phenomenal cheese (better than both Gorgonzola and any of the French ones), plus it comes from the UK, a country that produces almost nothing that’s actually edible, which makes the excellence of Stilton even more prodigious.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

yeah, a good stilton is a glorious beast, and with some nice port, i could eat perpetually. the price however is not always the most wallet friendly.

cambozola is a kind of best of both worlds (or their mutual ruin?) in that it’s soft with a white rind like a classic triple crème but with a nice distribution of blue mold, and as a result (am i inventing the causality here?) it has the good funk of blue, but with less bite than you’d expect, and the creamy texture plus the rind, so— great mouthfeel, flavorful but not overpowering, and not as costly as something more artisanal: i’ll take it (often).

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

the marcato pasta machine rolls excellent crackers at #5 thickness. these bake to perfection for 11’ at 450f in my oven. cutting across a long even strip is easier than trying to extract a grid from a circle, too. precision is a good thing in baking—and sardines are even better than usual with well-made crackers.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

Never thought of making crackers with pasta roller. I have the pasta roller attachment for the kitchen aid. I think the number system is the same.

Any chance you could share a recipe?

@Seppia
I have no success with nests and DH hates the mess of noodles on racks. I usually put in freezer bags and freeze

Everyone be careful with homemade noodles sticking together. I bit into an undercooked one and broke a molar. Ended up with an extraction, implant, and crown. Store bought noodles would be more ERE compliant.

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:16 pm
Any chance you could share a recipe?
yup. i sent my wife this article a couple of months ago:

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-c ... chn-186144

after some experimentation (she’s the hands, i’m the chemist) we’re now using salt by weight (12g for that recipe, or 6g per tsp) rather than by measure, and refined coconut oil instead of olive, which operates more as a shortening, and gives better texture once cooled. refined coconut has no flavor, unlike the virgin stuff, and it has no trans fats, and doesn’t go rancid for a very long time

the pasta machine allows for consistent thickness, which yields an even bake.

we do no toppings because for me the whole point of a water cracker is to be neutral. but pepper is good, sesame is good, parmesan is good, etc.

eta: i corrected the salt from earlier
Last edited by Alphaville on Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

Thanks

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Alphaville
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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:32 pm
Thanks
hey wait i made a huge mistake, like gob bluth... it’s 12g salt for that recipe (2tsp, or 6g per tsp). reason we use weight is i might have sea salt or kosher salt or table salt, so i go by weight due to varying volumes.


error was due to confusion with pancakes i made for breakfast, which ask for.... 1/2 tsp (i had just weighed 3g moments earlier).

ok break a leg! i’ll go edit the original.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

I made the crackers per the original recipe using 1/3 whole wheat 2/3 AP flour. My pasta roller on 3 seemed the right thickness. They were puffier than I expected and I docked the later batches.

Quite delicious with a can of sardines and some stoneground mustard ;)

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:26 pm
Quite delicious with a can of sardines and some stoneground mustard ;)
haha— that’s great news! 🍻

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by white belt »

@Alphaville

How’s the Marcato holding up? I may spring for one to make homemade ramen and pasta at will.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by Alphaville »

white belt wrote:
Sun May 30, 2021 5:13 pm
@Alphaville

How’s the Marcato holding up? I may spring for one to make homemade ramen and pasta at will.
it's really nice, and the most we've used it for is making crackers (rye+whole wheat mix) and flatbreads (the thickness of a pita with the shape of a ciabatta). i mean you could make flour tortillas or chapatis too if rolling instead of pressing, provided you don't require official circle shapes.

the machine is right now resting for the season, but it's built in such a way that i can see it lasting for decades. not sure i can identify a part that would be prone to failing.

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Re: dough/pastry/pasta board?

Post by white belt »

I scored a Marcato Atlas 150 on Facebook Marketplace for $25 so I’m looking forward to using it for homemade ramen in the coming weeks. Homemade is the only way I know of to make 3 ingredient ramen noodles since commercially produced ramen packets are loaded with additives.

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