[surfcast]

I have been experimenting with Gnocchi. It is a family favorite we all love them. The store bought ones are horrid. I made a batch yesterday that every one liked. It consisted of baked Russet potatoes whole egg mixed cake flour and salt. The result was better than I have had in the past. They held together and were not dense. I think another TBS of flour would have made it perfect as to me, it was a little mushy. But the wife said it was good the finished every one of them!! So my question is what is the best flour for Gnocchi? I see some folks use potato starch and rice flour. Do you think that would be lighter than conventional flour?

 

[phatch]

I prefer the commercial ones. Hand made have always been mushy to my taste.

 

[phatch]

Now that I'm at my keyboard, I'll type a better answer.

I think that regular wheat flour is the better choice, and for the reasons both you and I noted about their being soft. If you want to give them more form/structure/toughness you need to develop some gluten in the added flour. Potato starch and rice flour won't have that.

 

[chefross]

I use high gluten bread flour, but I had to experiment with the amounts. Too much and you have marbles, too little and they're mushy.
I rice the baked potato in the food mill. To me, it enhances the texture

 

[surfcast]

I use high gluten bread flour, but I had to experiment with the amounts. Too much and you have marbles, too little and they're mushy.
I rice the baked potato in the food mill. To me, it enhances the texture

I have used all types of flour to no success. The only ones that came out good were the batch I made using cake flour. I used rice flour for rolling. I baked my potatoes in the oven, peeled them and riced them. I sifted approximately 80 Grams of flour over the top. Used my bench scraper to combine it. Then worked it by hand until incorporated. The mixture felt a little too wet, so the rice flour helped dry it. I think I should halve added perhaps another 20 grams of cake flour. I was so concerned they would be like stones. It was still the best ones I ever made! I used 500 Grams of potato and half an average size egg.

 

[cheflayne]

Without a doubt it is possible to make good gnocchi using plain and simple all purpose flour. For me the key is getting as much of the water out of the potato as possible. I use russet potatoes, pierced all over with a fork and baked on a wire rack (as opposed to sheet pan). Immediately upon coming out of oven I cut all of them in half lengthwise, laying cut side up, and then start removing the flesh while still hot, being sure to spread the flesh out rather than pile up, and then rice the flesh and once again spread out in a thin layer to allow steam to continue to escape. Let continue to cool and release steam for a few more minutes.

 

[surfcast]

Without a doubt it is possible to make good gnocchi using plain and simple all purpose flour. For me the key is getting as much of the water out of the potato as possible. I use russet potatoes, pierced all over with a fork and baked on a wire rack (as opposed to sheet pan). Immediately upon coming out of oven I cut all of them in half lengthwise, laying cut side up, and then start removing the flesh while still hot, being sure to spread the flesh out rather than pile up, and then rice the flesh and once again spread out in a thin layer to allow steam to continue to escape. Let continue to cool and release steam for a few more minutes.

Without a doubt it is possible to make good gnocchi using plain and simple all purpose flour. For me the key is getting as much of the water out of the potato as possible. I use russet potatoes, pierced all over with a fork and baked on a wire rack (as opposed to sheet pan). Immediately upon coming out of oven I cut all of them in half lengthwise, laying cut side up, and then start removing the flesh while still hot, being sure to spread the flesh out rather than pile up, and then rice the flesh and once again spread out in a thin layer to allow steam to continue to escape. Let continue to cool and release steam for a few more minutes.

Yes I do almost the same thing as far as cooking the potatoes. I am sure it works with APF and double ZERO flour.

 

[cheflayne]

Not a game changer by any stretch, but another tip is instead of using a bench scraper, use a pastry cutter. It speeds up the process and there is less chance of overworking the potatoes.