Easy Hand-Pulled Noodles Recipe.

Easy Hand-Pulled Noodles Recipe.

By Maggie Zhu.

Ingredients.
400 g (2 2/3 cup) all-purpose flour (*Footnote 1).
2 g (1/2 teaspoon) salt.
220 ml (1 cup minus 1 tablespoon) water , room temperature.
Vegetable oil to coat the dough.

Instructions.
Make the dough by hand.
Combine the water and salt in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the salt.
Add the flour into a large bowl. Bit by bit, pour the water into the flour, mixing with a pair of chopsticks or a spatula as you go.
Once all the water is added, the dough should be in shaggy threads with little/no dry flour in the bowl. Begin pressing the dough together. If you find the dough is too dry and there’s still dry flour that’s hard to incorporate into the dough, drizzle more water onto the dry flour and mix it again, until there’s no dry flour left. Knead the dough until a rough, firm ball is formed, about 2 minutes.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Once the dough is rested, knead it again until it becomes smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Make the dough using KitchenAid
Mix the flour and salt in the bowl of the KitchenAid mixer and add the dough hook. Turn it to the mix setting. Slowly drizzle the water down the side, all along the bowl. This should take about 1 minute. Once the water is incorporated, turn to setting 2 and knead until a rough dough ball is formed, another 2-3 minutes.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Either knead in the machine on setting 4 for 30 seconds or by hand for 1-2 minutes.
If you plan to store/freeze the dough, coat the dough with oil and store it in a sealed plastic bag. Refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Shape the dough.
FOR THIN NOODLES: Divide the dough to halves and roll each dough into a 1/2” (1 cm) thick oval.
FOR FLAT NOODLES: Divide the dough to halves and roll each and roll each dough into a 1/4” (1/2 cm) thick oval.
FOR WIDE NOODLES: Cut the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into approximately 3”x5” (8×13 cm) ovals, 1/4” (1/2 cm) high.
Coat the dough(s) generously with oil and cover with plastic. Let rest for 2 hours.

Pull and cook the noodles.
Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil.
FOR THIN NOODLES: Cut long the longer side of the oval, slicing the dough into 1/2” (1 cm) wide strips and rolling each piece slightly to the side with each cut to prevent them from sticking together. Cover the cut pieces with the plastic again to prevent them from drying out. Starting with the first strip you cut off, pick it up on both ends. (*Footnote 2) In one swift motion, tug the noodle about an arm’s length and gently bounce it on the working surface once or twice until it forms a long, thin noodle. Rest the noodle on your working surface as you fold it over, so that both ends are in one hand. Hook the other side with your thumb. Give it a couple light tugs and bounces until the noodles get longer and reach the desired thin shape. Then pull off the thick ends collected in one hand and lay the noodle out on the working surface. Repeat with the rest of your noodles.
FOR FLAT NOODLES: Cut along the longer side of the oval, slicing the dough into 1 1/2” (3 cm) wide strips. Cover the cut pieces with the plastic again to prevent from drying out. Starting with the first strip you cut off, pick it up on both ends. (*Footnote 2) In one swift motion, tug the noodle to about an arm’s length and gently bounce it on the working surface once or twice. Rest the noodle on your working surface for 10-20 seconds, then give it a couple extra-light tugs and bounces until it forms a flat long noodle. Then pull off the thick ends and lay the noodle out. Repeat with the rest of your noodles. Drop the noodles into the boiling water, a few at a time, and cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes.
FOR WIDE NOODLES: One at a time, grip the short ends of a strip (*Footnote 2) and pull it apart in one swift motion until the dough feels taut. It should be between 1 to 2 feet. Bounce it on the table a couple times. Pull off the thick ends and lay the noodle out, covering it with plastic to prevent drying out.

Cook the noodles.
Drop the noodles, a few pieces at a time, into the boiling water and cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes, until tender but still with a chewy texture. Do not cook too many noodles at a time! It’s hard to control the texture that way and the noodles might stick together.

Storage.
Store the cooked noodles: If you plan on reheating, you can slightly undercook the noodles (to al dente) to create a better texture once reheated. Store the noodles in an airtight container or a ziplock bag in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
For frozen/refrigerated dough; let the frozen dough thaw in the fridge overnight. Transfer the refrigerated dough to room temperature. Rest for 2 hours. The dough will become super soft and can be gently shaped, rested for another 10 minutes or so, and pulled. Cook according to the instructions above.
Reheating cooked noodles.
To reheat, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the cooked noodles. Separate with a pair of chopsticks and cook until the noodles are just heated through.
For a quicker and lazier reheating method (for leftovers), reheat the refrigerated noodles in the microwave until heated, then quickly rinse the noodles with tap water in a colander. Drain the water thoroughly before serving.
If you plan to use the thin noodles for fried noodles, you don’t need to reheat them before using. Thaw them if frozen. Then run the noodles with tap water in a colander and separate gently with chopsticks. Drain thoroughly before using for stir fried noodles.

Notes.
If you do not have all-purpose flour, you can use 370 g (3 cups) cake flour + 30 g (3 tablespoons) bread flour instead.
If you do not have a lot of space for the pulled noodles or if you’d like to try pulling a few noodles at a time (it takes practice but it’s possible!), you should dust the noodle dough with extra flour to prevent them from sticking together.

Nutrition.
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 187kcal | Carbohydrates: 38.2g | Protein: 5.2g | Fat: 1.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Sodium: 99mg | Potassium: 54mg | Fiber: 1.4g | Sugar: 0.1g | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 2mg

The old recipe (before update).

Ingredients.
420 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour and extra to dust the working surface.
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1 cup and 3 tablespoons (285-ml) water (room temperature).

Instructions.
To prepare the dough.
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Slowly blend in water and mix with a pair of chopsticks, until water is integrated with the flour and there is no dry flour left. Dust both hands with dry flour, then start to knead by hand until dough forms. The dough should be quite soft and sticky.
Dust a working surface with dry flour. Transfer the dough onto it and continue to knead until the surface turns smooth and the texture springy, 10 to 15 minutes. Dust hands and the working surface with extra flour whenever the dough starts to feel sticky during the process.
Dust a large bowl with dry flour. Transfer the dough to that bowl and cover the dough with a damp dish towel. Cover the bowl with a lid (or plastic wrap). Let the dough rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours (or store the dough in the fridge if you’re planning to use it the next day, after resting at room temperature).
Dust the working surface and both hands with flour. Transfer the dough onto the working surface and knead it a few times. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, then again to make 4 pieces total. Knead each piece of dough by hand to shape a ball.
Dust the working surface again. Take one piece of dough and press it into a round disc. Roll it with a rolling pin into a long and round sheet, about 5 to 6 millimeters (0.2 inches) thick. Roll out the rest of the dough pieces the same way. Use large bowls or plastic wrap to cover and seal the dough sheets, to keep them from drying out. Let rest for another 30 minutes to 1 hour.

To pull and cook the noodles.
Right before making noodles, bring a medium sized pot of water to a roaring boil (very important).
Work on the dough sheets one by one. You should cover the rest of the dough with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap.
Slice the dough sheet into several strips, about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) wide (or narrower if you want thinner noodles).
Pick up a strip of dough and start to pull it from one end to shape an evenly thick, long noodle, until it becomes quite thin and almost breaks apart. It’s OK if the noodle breaks into 2 to 3 shorter segments. Drop the noodles immediately into the boiling water. (To get the idea of the process, please refer to this short video.)
Pull another 2 to 3 strips of dough and drop them into the boiling water. Cover the rest of the dough with a damp dish towel (see footnote). Boil the noodles until cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Work on the rest of the dough in the same manner.

To serve and store.

You can use the noodles in any noodle soup or mix them with sauce. If you aren’t going to serve the noodles immediately, add a few drops of sesame oil onto them and mix by hand. You should always eat the noodles while they’re warm and fresh, because they will become sticky and turn into a solid mass once they cool off.
Store leftover noodles in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 to 2 days.
To serve leftover noodles, place them in a colander so that you can easily dip them into a pot of boiling water. When you do this, use a pair of chopsticks to gently separate the noodles, and leave them in the water until warm. Heating them this way shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds.
NOTES.
The noodles are very easy to cook through, so I suggest you cook them in small batches, until you’re familiar with the process. You should always cover the unused dough with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap, because it will dry out very fast.

(source : https://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/hand-pulled-noodles/)