Easy Handmade Noodle (With or Without Pasta Maker)

5 from 3 votes

Fresh, tender and chewy handmade noodles elevate any noodle dish, and this post makes the process clear and easy, even without a pasta maker!

Prep Time15

Cook Time2

Resting time50

Total Time1 7

Course: Main

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Servings: servings

Calories: 363kcal

Author: Edwina

In a mixing bowl, stir flour, salt and cold water together and knead until a stiff and rough ball is formed. Place it in a ziploc bag or an airtight container to rest for 10 minutes.
Transfer the dough onto a working surface, knead for 1 minute until a smooth surface is formed. Place it back into the ziploc bag/container and let it rest for 40 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Divide the dough in half, use a rolling pin to flatten it a bit so it can fit into the pasta maker.
Set the pasta maker to a thickness setting of 1 and roll the dough through it. Fold the dough into half, roll it through the pasta maker again and repeat this step 2-3 more times. This will make the noodle chewier.
Switch the thickness setting to 2 before rolling the dough through. Continue to roll the dough with subsequent thickness settings until reaching your desired thickness. I usually roll it until 4, but this is totally a matter of preference.
Coat both sides of the dough sheet with generous amounts of flour before cutting it into noodles with your pasta maker. Toss the noodles with more flour to prevent them from sticking.

On a surface dusted with flour, roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it reaches the desired thickness (remember it will expand after cooking)
Coat both sides with a generous amount of flour before folding the top third of the dough down and bottom third up.
Cut the dough into the desire width and you have your handmade noodles!

Bring a big pot of water to boil and cook the noodles until they float, about 1 minute. Drain, season and enjoy!

Using half bread flour and half all purpose flour makes the noodle chewier than only using all purpose flour. After making it once, you can adjust the proportion of the flour based on your preferred texture.
A scale is highly recommended in order to get the right consistency for the dough.
When forming the dough, it will seem very dry at first, almost like it's impossible to incorporate all the dry flour. An easier way to incorporate all the flour is to fold the dry flour into the dough before flipping the center part of the dough out to stick more flour onto it.
The dough will get softer and more moist as you roll it through the pasta maker, don't hesitate to coat with more flour whenever it's needed.
Repeating the process of "folding and rolling" through the pasta maker can help develop more gluten, which will result in chewier noodles.
Before cutting the noodles, check the length of the dough sheet to make sure it's the length that you want.
Cook the noodles right after they're cut. I usually start boiling the water when I'm rolling the dough through the pasta maker. You can store the noodles in the freezer if you decide to cook it later.