Extruded Pasta

My boyfriend's parents were thoughtful and generous enough to buy us a pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid this Christmas. We took an extruded pasta class a couple of months ago and both enjoyed it, so I have been excited to practice my pasta-making skills.

First off, I want to say that making a pasta dough with eggs is easier, but it's not necessary. You can make a pasta with just semolina and water and olive oil and, if well rested, the texture will be fine. I say this because the chef who instructed me on pasta dough told me that you "can't do it," and I know lots of vegans who would disagree. That said, a pasta dough made with eggs will be more supple and will probably extrude easier.



I made my first batch in the food processor, because that's how I'd been taught. However, after some experimentation, I have found that it works really well if you do it all by hand, or if you start it by hand and then use a dough hook in a mixer. The food processor was really unnecessary--I would say it's a great thing for pie crust which is temperature and time sensitive, but for pasta dough it just gives you one more thing to wash.






I used the Kitchen Aid to knead it for about 5 minutes. After that, I smoothed it out a bit by hand and then put it in a plastic bag for thirty minutes.



The dough should not be crumbly and should be malleable and smooth. Always rest the dough; the resting time allows for better absorption of water and helps the gluten and starches to align. I then fed it into the extruder and waited...



Make sure you wait until the pasta is long enough before you cut it. This might mean having to stand over it like a feverish nursemaid and cradle it delicately in your hands, but do it. When you have enough for a recipe, let it dry on a pan with a little flour to prevent sticking.



Now you can take some time to work on the sauce. If it's a marinara, it was probably cooking already throughout this whole process. In this instance, I made a simple saute of butter with shallots, shrimp, spinach and grape tomatoes.



Then, I cooked the pasta. Bring the water to a boil with plenty of salt added. Do NOT add oil to the water. Pasta that's cooked in water with oil will become oily itself and will not absorb the sauce.

Baking with Beer!

This weekend, I made a chocolate cake with Guinness stout for my sister's birthday. I enjoy cooking with beer and I thought the malt and coffee flavors of the beer would mesh well with dark chocolate.



The result was a dense but still spongy cake with deep flavors and wonderful texture. It is also one of the easiest layer cakes I've ever worked with. The texture of the cake was firm and easy to ice, and because the layers baked perfectly level with no cracks or dips, I didn't have to use a cake leveler. Also, I couldn't find my cake leveler.

Here is the recipe:

4 sticks butter
1 and 1/3 cups cocoa (dutch processed, preferably high quality)
18 oz Guinness or some comparable stout or porter

4 large eggs (room temperature)
1 and 1/4 cups sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour
3 and 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbs baking soda
1 and 1/2 tsp salt

Simmer butter and stout, then beat in cocoa powder and allow it to cool. In a mixer, whip sour cream and eggs and pour in cocoa mixture. Fold in dry ingredients gently, finishing by hand. Bake in two 8-inch rounds at 350 for 55 minutes.

For the coffee buttercream:
1/2 tsp of espresso powder
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa
3 sticks of butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbs whipping cream

Beat the butter at room temperature until fluffy, then beat in half of the sugar. Dissolve the espresso powder in the vanilla and add it to the butter-sugar mixture. add the rest of the sugar and the cream and beat on high for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and icing is the desired texture.