These alkaline ramen noodles have the perfect springy bounce you’re looking for in a ramen noodle. A worthy addition to my duck ramen.
Notes
If you don’t have sodium carbonate we can make this ourselves by using bicarbonate of soda. Be careful as this is mildly corrosive so can irritate your skin.
These ramen noodles have a high gluten content from the bread flour and additional gluten. This gives them their signature bite.
The sodium carbonate contributes to their flavour and elasticity.
The noodles are quite salty so they do not need to be cooked in salted water.
You will need a pasta machine for this as the dough is a low hydration making it hard to roll by hand.
If you need any help, or have any questions, you can message me on my Instagram @bonniedoesfood.
Please refer to my Instagram highlights to watch me make this.
Ingredients:
Noodles:
400g bread flour
4g vital wheat gluten
6g salt
6g sodium carbonate
170g water
Cornflour for dusting
Sodium Carbonate:
900g bicarbonate soda
Directions:
FOR SODIUM CARBONATE:
If you already have a batch of sodium carbonate please skip this step. This will yield a large batch of sodium carbonate so you won’t have to do this often when making noodles.
Preheat your oven to 180c standard / 160c fan.
Take a large baking sheet and heavily line with foil. Weigh this foil lined baking sheet and make a note of its weight.
Spread the bicarbonate of soda in an even layer over the sheet. Transfer to the oven.
Bake the bicarbonate of soda for 2-5 hours. Every 30 minutes, weigh the sheet (deduct the original weight of the baking sheet you made a note of) to record how much the bicarbonate of soda weighs.
When the bicarbonate of soda has reduced to about 2/3rds of its weight, 600g, you will have sodium carbonate.
Carefully transfer to a jar or container, be careful not to get this on your skin as it is an irritant.
FOR THE DOUGH:
Add the sodium carbonate to the water and stir until totally dissolved. Add the salt and stir again until dissolved.
Combine the vital wheat gluten and bread flour in a food processor, pulsing for about 30 seconds or so until totally combined.
Add the liquid about 1/3rd at a time whilst the food processor runs on a medium low speed. You want to make sure the liquid has totally absorbed in-between additions. If the water is mostly hydrating the bottom half of the dough, pause the processor and stir to fully incorporate.
When all the liquid has been added, the dough won’t properly hold together, it should be pebbly In consistency. This should take a further minute of processing.
Press the dough together into a ball and knead to combine if needed. Wrap with clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes to relax the gluten.
Cut the dough in half and wrap the half in clingfilm you’re not working with to prevent it drying out.
Flatten the portion you’re working with using a rolling pin. You’re not necessarily rolling this out, just making it easier to pass through a pasta machine
Run the dough through the pasta machine, starting with the widest setting (1), working through each setting finishing with the fourth widest setting. A standard pasta machine should have 1-8 width settings.
When the dough has been rolled, take the two ends and fold into the middle, like closing a book, so you have a rectangular piece of dough. Fold the dough in half again. This process of folding dough is called lamination.
Pass through the pasta machine again through settings 1-4. We will be repeating this process of rolling and folding 3 times in total. It will be coming harder to roll as you go along as we strengthen the gluten during this process.
Repeat with the other half of dough and cover the completed sheet whilst you work through the 2nd half.
Cover both sheets and rest for 30 minutes before cutting.
Using the spaghetti cutting attachment of the pasta machine, run the sheets of pasta through the machine.
Dust the noodles with cornflour to prevent sticking.
Weigh the noodles and divide by 4 and separate 4 equal portions. Wrap the portions around your fingers to form nests.
Place the portions in separate zip lock bags and seal. Rest in the fridge for 24hrs to improve flavour and texture.
TO COOK:
Cook for 1-2 minutes in boiling water depending on your preference for bite. I cook the noodles one portion at a time to prevent sticking. You can use chopsticks to stir as they boil to further prevent sticking.