3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
Extra flour, just in case
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Make a well in your flour, add eggs. With fork at the ready, add 1/2 cup milk at a time, stirring quickly with fork to mix. Start stirring in the center, pulling more flour from the outside of well as the milk gets mixed in. When it gets stiff, add another 1/2 cup milk, repeating the stirring until all flour is pulled into dough.
At this point, decide whether you want dumplings or noodles. Dumplings need a dough that is still pourable, stiff, but pourable. Not runny. Check the pictures. If you want noodles, dump the dough into a nice pile of flour on the counter and knead the dough until it picks up enough flour to be play-doh-ish. Soft, flexible and yet dry enough that it doesn't stick to your hands and can be rolled out with a rolling pin.
Measure out flour into bowl.
Make a well and break eggs into the center.
Stir eggs and milk in the well, not stiring out to the edges of flour. Allow the flour to come into the mix as it sticks to the wet mixture.
Stir till it gets thick, then add more milk.
Still have flour on the outside, needs more milk.
It's looking dry, add more milk. You'll use the whole 1.5 cups of milk.
Okay, all the milk has been added. Can you see that it's stretchy and flexible, pourable still. Not dry, not runny. It's quite sticky at this point. Good for dumplings, but not noodles.
To make cut noodles, I've taken about 1/3 of the mixture and plopped it onto the counter on a pile of flour, maybe 1/2 cup of flour.
Put flour on top so it doesn't stick to your hands.
OK, explaining how to knead without movement is tough. I'll try to make it clear. Pat it flat and grab one side, folding over onto itself. Repeat over and over. As you go, it'll incorporate the flour you've got on the counter and on top. Add flour as needed so it doesn't stick all over your hands.
Pat flat, fold over.
Can you see how it's getting larger as it picks up the flour? It's also getting stiffer, can you tell the difference?
I've done this about a dozen times now. It's getting to be a nice soft dough, totally workable.
Ready to roll. It's a beautiful soft dough. Not sticky. But keep the flour handy.
Once it's not sticky anymore, you can roll it out on a well floured counter. The thickness is up to you. They will expand as they cook, so roll out to about 1/2 the thickness you want your finished noodles to be.
Turn the dough over now and then, unsticking it from the counter. Spread flour underneath every time you flip it over.
And again...
Keep going.
The entire recipe would be unwieldy. Remember, this is only about 1/3 of the bowl full of dough.Don't take out more than you can manage at once.
A trick I remember my mother using to make noodles. In order to cut fairly even noodles, roll up the dough, like a jellyroll.
Slice pinwheels of the roll.
Unroll the pinwheels into noodles. If you feel like you over-floured the dough, thinking that it was going to stick to itself as you rolled it, just shake them around a bit, the flour will fall off.
Scoop them up on your knife and deliver them to boiling water. This is also how I carry them to a drying rack, if that's what I want to do. You can make your noodles earlier in the day, lay them over a drying rack, or just shake them up around on the kitchen counter and let them dry there, OR you can gently lay them out on a plate and store them in the fridge till cooking time. They can also be frozen for another day. Loosely roll them into a bird's nest and into the freezer they go.
OK, if you don't want to go through the effort to roll out noodles... Pour the dough into boiling water for almost instant dumplings. This is actually the way my kids prefer. More chewable... Not as delicate as the noodle.
I tilt the bowl to allow the dough to pour over the edge oh-so-slightly. Then I cut it off with a butter knife that has been heated quickly in the boiling water. That way the dough won't stick to the knife so much.
Slice off sliding dough. When you get practiced at this, you can actually carry the sliced off dough to the water rather than allowing it to belly-flop into the boiling water. Do be careful not to splash yourself. Keep as close to the water as you can so you don't splash too much.
See how I direct where it enters the water? I watch to not land every slice onto the last one. Disperse the dough around the pot. Every once in a while, stir it up a bit. The half cooked ones will rise to the top and make room on the bottom for the new arrivals. That way they don't all stick together in the pot.
Keep going until all the dough is in the pot. Watch so you don't overfill the pot. I'd rather you used a ridiculously large pot than have it boil over mid-cook. Remember, they do expand. By double!
Delivering dough to the top of the water. If your knife is hot from dipping into the water, which I do in between every slice, the dough won't stick. It slides right off into the water.
Noodles only. If you are cooking noodles, they cook in only a few minutes.
Noodles and dumplings. Dumplings take a few extra minutes to cook, they are thicker. If you are wondering if they are done, grab the thickest one you can find and cut it open and look inside. You should not see anything wet and doughy.
Dumplings and Brats for dinner.
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