That chewy bouncy texture when you take a bite is indescribable!
The challenge of making the perfect ramen noodle from scratch! Or at least close to it! Recipe tested on my children and husband. They had to eat lots of trial recipes! We want that beautiful bouncy chewy noodle with the perfect thickness to absorb the delicious bone broth! I hope you enjoy my original recipe!
The key to creating the right flavor and chewiness or bounciness of Asian noodles requires the use of “lye water” or “alkaline salt”. The chemical reaction raises the pH of dough to change the consistency and texture of the noodle and preserved meatballs. That “chewiness” is created through this process! You can find lye water in your local Asian markets or online. Or you can make it at home! You can turn your “baking soda” into “alkaline salt” and mix with hot water before making the dough. An important note, DO NOT touch the lye water or alkaline salt with your bare hands. It is acidic and kills bacteria and can cause a chemical burn on your skin!
My recipe calls for “tapioca” starch to add an “extra chewiness” to the ramen noodles. If you don’t have tapioca starch available, this recipe will still give you a pretty good ramen! Just replace it with the same amount of flour. All-purpose flour works well too. DO NOT use “self-rising” flour. It has baking powder and salt in it and will create a completely different texture.
Equipment (Noodle Making/Cutting Options)
Hand Cranked Pasta Machine (You can find it at Target.com for about $27 or Amazon for $45) or
Kitchen knife, roller and cutting board to truly make this by hand or
Automotive pasta machine
Lye Water or Alkaline Recipe
1 cup of baking soda
Aluminum foil
Baking tray
Sterilized airtight storage jar
Method
Preheat the oven to 250°.
Cover the baking tray with aluminum foil.
Spread baking soda evenly and thinly onto the foil.
Bake the baking soda for 1-hour. Allow to cool down in the oven completely.
Remove foil carefully and pour your “sodium carbonate/alkaline salt” into the storage jar. Make sure to avoid getting it on your skin. Label jar and reminder to not touch the alkaline salt with bare hands. Store in cool dry place.
Ramen noodle: You’ll need to mix 3 teaspoons of alkaline salt with 4 tablespoons HOT water.
The RAMEN Noodles…
The ramen dough we’re working with will be on the drier side of dough per say. We want that because if it’s too moist, it’ll get stuck in the pasta cutter or just stick together after our hard work of rolling and cutting. The crumbly dough will mesh together through the “rolling process”. Gluten will form and strongly bind the sheets of dough together. It takes a few rounds of folding and rolling before the dough forms a smooth sheet with vertical streaks indicating that gluten has formed! For this to happen, you’ll need to roll the dough in “ONE DIRECTION ONLY”.
Ramen Noodle Recipe
(8 Servings, 1 cup cooked per potion)
3 tsp Alkaline salt or 4 tbsp lye water
4 tbsp HOT water
2 cups bread flour/high gluten flour
1 cup of tapioca starch
2 beaten eggs
4 tbsp cold water, plus 1 tsp
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Extra flour for dusting
Method
In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine bread flour, tapioca, salt and sugar.
In a small bowl, combine eggs and cold water.
In a second small bowl, add alkaline salt (if making your own lye water) and hot water. If you’ve bought lye water, add 4 tablespoons to the dry mixture and begin mixing.
Add egg mixture to the mixing bowl.
The dough will be on the “DRIER” side. That is what you want. Refer to the photo provided.
It should stick together when squeezed. Knead by hand and form a ball. It will resemble a cauliflower head! Cover with plastic wrap and rest dough for 45-minutes or when ready to use. The dough will become more moist and pliable when the gluten relaxes. Give yourself 20-minutes to hand roll these out and cut. If using an automotive pasta maker, you just add ingredients in the order I’ve stated and the machine will do the rest! I don’t have one of those, so I use the old fashion Italian style hand cranked machine.
Rolling time! Take your resting dough and knead together again. The dough should be more moist now. Now flatten the ball so that you have a disk with a diameter of 5-6 inches. Cut like a pizza into 8 pieces.
Shape each piece into circular disks. Cover pieces not in use.
Notes: At any point that the dough seems dry, wet finger tips and knead dough. This will give you the perfect amount of liquid to dough. Noodles can be eaten right away or frozen up to 3-6 months. Thaw in the fridge the night before.
Making noodles with a knife and rolling pin… MASTER CHEF...
Roll dough in one direction. Fold sides to center and then in half. Roll in the same direction again. It will look ugly and not smooth at first. Repeat folds inwards and then in half. Roll, roll roll and try to keep dough even. You’ll want a nice thin lasagna like sheet. Flour the sheet and gently fold it together in one direction and cut thin strips with a sharp knife. Sprinkle flour through noodles so they don’t stick together. Bundle noodles into its own serving. Continue and finish all 8 pieces.
Making noodles with hand cranked Italian pasta rollers and cutters… ITALIAN ARTISAN...
There are 9 settings on this machine. Set dial to number 1 and roll your disk through it. It will tear and break apart and look completely destroyed! That’s okay. Just place pieces on top of each other but in the SAME DIRECTION. Trust the process. Keep rolling. Fold sides to center and then in half. Roll in the same direction again. It will look ugly and not smooth at first. Repeat folds inwards and then in half. Roll, roll roll and try to keep dough even. After you begin rolling on setting 2, roll run dough through each number 3 times up to number 6 or 7. We want to keep noodles a bit thicker than angel hair strands. You’ll want a nice thin lasagna like sheet. Smooth with one direction streaks of gluten visible like the photo to your right. Lay sheets flat while forming other sheets. Once you have four done, take the dryer sheet and begin cutting into noodle strands on the cutting side. Sprinkle flour through noodles so they don’t stick together. Bundle noodles into its own serving. Continue and finish all 8 pieces.
Making noodles with your fully automatic machine… OH YOU FANCY…
I don't own one because the price is a bit out of my comfort zone at the moment. But my brother has one and I’ve researched how one would operate this lovely creation. Add your ingredients in order. Dry materials first and turn on the machine. Then add the lye water or alkaline solution you created. Then add the egg and water mixture. When the machine starts to form or extrude noodles, cut into desired lengths, sprinkle with flour and form portion bundles.
Cooking the noodles…. Bring water to a boil and cook noodles for 2-3 minutes. Be sure to loosen noodles so they don’t bind together during the cooking. Rinse under cool water to remove excess starch from dusting.
Products: Italian Pasta Machine - Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HB2KL4C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lifestyles02f-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07HB2KL4C&linkId=da053121157779e9e2dc99ba645005bd
Lye Water: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NVZKYNF/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lifestyles02f-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07NVZKYNF&linkId=313ec306141223388c551ae0d0e9572a