How to keep my homemade pasta from breaking

30006 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by cheppo, Jan 27, 2021

michele omalley

Discussion Starter · Aug 27, 2015 (Edited)

I have been making egg noodles and hang drying them for a few years now with great results. I bought a kitchenaid with pasta press and thought I would make shaped pasta to sell at the farmer's market as well as the egg noodles. The pasta comes out great but when it dries, it breaks in half lengthwise making it unsellable as macaroni or rigatoni. I live in a very dry climate. My house is cool and I have been laying out the pasta to dry on mesh sweater drying racks with a fan blowing on them. Before I waste any more time and ingredients I thought I would get your opinion on how I might get better results. My last batch dried and cracked (checked) completely. I use 2 1/2 cups of AP: 1 cup Semolina, 4 whole eggs, 1 tsp salt, about 1 1/2 tbsp water for dough. Any ideas? Slower drying w/o fan? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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panini

· #5 · Aug 27, 2015

Hi @Michele OMalley,

I see your extruder is working for you. You say you're in a dry climate. You should not need a fan at all. Do they crack when you're just drying without a rack? If so, start drying them on a cloth for 5-6 hrs. and then switch to the screen.

I usually use 1 cup total flour/semolina etc. to 1 egg. That tblsp of water your adding can be a little olive oil. Another thing, when you are extruding it's not really necessary to relax the gluten before extruding. I mix, knead by hand till I see little layers in the dough and go right into the extruder without a nap.

I'm not a big fan of the water because I think it creates more of an environment for bacteria.

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