Am trying to make these without much luck, Also the contradictory information online is not helping. Since im european the recipes for more american or chinese audiences don't help with me finding the right ingredients in the supermarket. I did read through some of this thread, but it's hard for me to replicate the stuff other people did here.
This seemed the most probable at the time, http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/art-of-hand-pulled-noodles-noodle/
But after a couple of tries no luck. I did add an alkaline despite the link saying that Beijing noodle's don't have that. I'm assuming the water is naturally more alkaline there then.
I did find out that the baked baking soda, sodium carbunate was washing soda. Good to see it confirmed here. The recipe didn't call for it but after a couple of tries with no luck I added it.
I use 167g (or close) of 12% protein wheat flour with a teaspoon of salt.
100g of water.
When I take a tea spoon sized clump of washing soda and dissolve it into the water. The flour does turn yellow when i add it.
I then keep kneading it, and keep applying flour onto the surface until it stops sticking to it.. Then I keep kneading it for a total of 20 minutes. I let it rest for at least 20 minutes.
Then the plan is for the second stage of kneeding where I stretch it, banging it on the table to then twirl it back together,. But even here the dough breaks when I stretch it. I can stretch it a little but then it breaks down. if i press on the dough it also springs back rather then reacting more like clay.
If I look at the videos, their dough is softer and more sticky. I wonder if I should add more flower, or accept the dough will be sticky to a certain ammount and not dust the kneading surface continually.
Another guess is that I may need warmer water or a longer rest. Would adding an egg help?
Any suggestions from people here would be appreciated. Maybe the taste is not really different from cut noodles. But the fact that you work the gluten for so long has to have a effect on their firmness and mouth feel. Plus it's cool you can make those good noodles using just your hands and some basic ingredients.
