Family FECS

Monday, 7 September 2026

Udon Noodles - Flour, Water & Salt (Round 103)

Round 103 based on 11% wheat flour of

Ingredients:

1. 400g Organic wheat flour (11% protein) from Føtex Supermarket

2. 180ml distilled water

3. 16g sea salt (4% of flour weight)

4. 1 litre of boiling water for cooking each 100g of noodles

Short Instructions:

1. Run the mixing cycle of 3 mins each for 3 times. Dough should look small lumpy and compact like rice grains. Not too hard, not too small.

2. Rest for 20 mins.

3. Mix 1 cycle and extrude straight with udon disc.

4. Bring to rolling boil a pot of water.

5. Cook for 3 - 6 mins, drain and serve as dry noodles or in soup. Cook 3 - 4 minutes if you like it more al dente and springy, 5 - 6 mins if you like it soft and chewy.

6. Drain and bath in cold water, rub away excess starch.

7. Drain away the cold water bath and serve :-)

Long Instructions:

1. Mix 3 times without extruding (Aftee mixing is done, pause the machine and unplug it before it proceeds to extrude. Then on it again to mix). Repeat this twice so that you mix a total of 3 times without extruding.

2. Let the dough rest in the pasta maker’s chamber for 20 mins.

3. Mix once and extrude.

Initially for a min or two, your noodles will fray a little. That’s alright, it will straighten out itself during cooking. After that the noodles will come out nicely. It will look a little “thread-like,” but it’s normal when you use a pasta maker. When you cook the udon, you won’t see it. It will be smooth like industrial udon.

4. Dust with corn starch as it will be elastic and a bit sticky.

5. Roll into a nest to portion it and store in an airtight container. It keeps in the fridge for 5 days and the freezer for 6 months

6. To cook the udon, bring to boil a generous pot of water.

7. Gently add in the udon, and don’t stir it. Otherwise it will beak as udon is made with quite an amount of salt.

8. After 30 seconds or so, gently stir it to separate any strand sticking together.

9. Cover and bring to boil again. Boil for a total of 3 - 6 mins from the moment you drop in your noodles into the pot, depending if you like it al dente or soft and chewy.

10. Storing as you go along after it starts boiling again. Get ready a glass of water on the side. If it looks like the water is boiling over, add some water to bring down the temperature.

11. Test for doneness after 3 mins. Pick up a strand of noodles with a pair of chopsticks, dip it in a glass of water so it won’t burn your lips before you taste it.

12. Once done, drain and wash it under a pot of cold tap water.

13. Rub gently under the water to remove any excess starch.

14. Serve immediately. If you need to wait a little before serving, coat it with some oil so that it doesn’t stick together after some time.

15. If you wish to re-warm it after the cold bath, dip a portion into the warm udon water that you use to cook the udon with.

16. You can also eat it cold with a soy sauce and sesame oil dressing dip

17. You can also add hot soup to your udon and it will give you a warm satisfying hearty bowl of noodles soup🙂

18. You can use the udon for a fried noodle dish (yakiudon)

Additional Information:

Make this today. Chewy perfect. Didn't turn soggy in soup. J Loved it :-)

Hurray, I have finally succeeded making udon as the Japanese do - without eggs and olive oil!!

Don't worry that this recipe contains so much salt. When you cook the udon, 90 - 99% of the salt will leach out into the boiling water and the udon won't taste salty at all. The salt leaves behind a perfectly cooked beautifully chewy and neutral-tasting noodle structure ready to absorb flavor from the broth.

Don't use flour higher than 11% protein, your udon noodles will turn out hard.

If the dough stick to the paddle and couldn't extrude, pause the machine, open the cover and sprinkle a bit of corn starch into the chamber.

The dough might be sticky because of the heat generated by the machine. Open the cover, wipe the "sweat" along the side of the wall and the inside of the cover. You can also fan the noodles as it comes out. This will reduce the stickiness. Of course, dust it with corn starch as it comes out.

This is the organic wheat flour I use from Føtex Supermarket.

In a large bowl, add 400g of wheat flour.

Add 16g of sea salt and mix well.

Mix all the dry ingredients (wheat flour, wholewheat flour and salt) together and add them into the pasta maker's chamber.

Add distilled water to 180ml mark (distilled water is basically boiled water that is cooled down)

Start the mixing and slowly pour in the water and run the machine for 3 cycles of mixing (each cycle is 3 minutes).

You will need to pause, off the machine, unplug and plug in the machine after each mixing cycle to prevent it from proceeding to the extrusion stage.

After one cycle of mixing, the dough should look like the above.

After the second cycle of mixing, the dough should look like the above.

After the third cycle of mixing, the mixture should look lumpy like the above. Do not be tempted to add more liquid. It will be compact and hold its shape when pressed, but it doesn't stick to your hand.

Close-up

Let it rest for 20 minutes in the chamber.

After resting for 20 minutes, the dough looked like the above.

Run another mixing cycle (4th cycle of mixing) and extrude straight away using the udon disc. The dough looked like the above after the 4th cycle of mixing.

In the beginning of the extrusion, the noodles might fray a little, but it won't affect the taste or look after they are cooked. And very soon, it will come out straight.

Here they come :-)

Close-up

It is no longer fraying :-) The noodles looked a bit thread-like, but this is normal using the Philips pasta maker. It won't look like that after cooking, but it will look just like udon noodles.

Place them in a plastic container dust with some corn starch, especially if you wish to store it for a few days.

Bring to a rolling boil a pot of water (1 litre for every 100g of noodles), gently add in the udon noodles.

After about 30 seconds, gently stir to prevent them from sticking together.

Cover so that it will come to boil again faster.

Stir as you go along after it starts boiling again. Watch that it doesn't boil over. Get ready a glass of cold water ready on the side. If it looks like the water is boiling over, add some water to bring down the temperature and let it come to boil again. Let them cook for 3 - 6 minutes from the moment you added in the noodles into the boiling pot of water, the duration depends on whether you like them al dente or soft and chewy. Test for doneness after 3 minutes.

Pick up a strand of noodles with a pair of chopsticks, dip it in a glass of water so it won’t burn your lips before you taste it.

Once done, drain and

and wash it under a pot of cold tap water.

Rub gently under the water to remove any excess starch.

Drain off the cold tap water.

Serve it immediately. If you need to wait a little before serving, coat it with some sesame oil or olive oil so that it doesn’t stick together after some time.

You can also drain and serve directly, but the udon noodles will firm up after taking a cold bath and taste chewier. If you wish to re-warm the udon noodles after the cold bath, dip a portion into the warm udon water that you use to cook the udon with for 10 seconds or so.

You can eat them cold or warm on its own with a bit of soy sauce.

You can also add soup and eat them as noodle soup :-)

You can sprinkle some shredded nori (roasted seaweed) on top of your udon noodle soup :-)

You can use them for fried noodles (yakiudon).

7 September 2026: Today, our Little FECS, who is now 17 years old and starting high school this year, enjoyed a bowl of udon noodle soup as his after school snack. He loved the homemade udon noodles, and that made me very happy :-)

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Easy Chewy No-knead Overnight Rising Artisan Bread

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Recipes

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

1. 500g flour (11-12.5% protein content)

2. 415ml cooled or cold water (77 - 84% of flour's weight)

3. 10g salt (2 tsp) (2% of flour weight)

4. 10 fresh yeast (12% of flour weight)

5. A handful of rolled oats for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, add 415g water and the 10g fresh yeast and mix well.

2. In another bowl, add 500g flour and 10g salt and mix well.

3. Add the flour mixture bit by bit to the water. Don't worry if it looks wet and sticky, but it should be a little firm, and not looking like liquid.

4. Cover and let it rest for 1 - 2 hours (first rise) (2 hrs is best)

5. Lay two loaf tin with parchment paper and sprinkle with rolled oats (the latter is optional). You can buy the metal bread form quite economically from IKEA.

6. Divide into two portions and transfer to a glass container each.

7. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and rest them in the fridge overnight (second rise). The longer you rest it in the fridge, the more flavorful it will be. You can rest it up to 3 days.

8. The following morning, pre-heat oven to 250 deg C.

9. Remove dough from fridge and score it with a sharp knife with a few cuts on the surface (optional, for aesthetics).

10. Sprinkle some rolled oats on top (optional, for aesthetics).

11. Place bread in the oven middle top tray of the oven.

12. To get a golden crisp, pour a glass of cold water into the oven bottom tray and close the oven's door.

13. After 15 minute, open the oven door for 5 seconds to vent all remaining steam and remove any water left on the bottom tray.

14. If you are using oven proof glass loaf tin, take the bread out of the tin and put it back to the oven only with the parchment paper. If you are using metal loaf tin, you can skip this step.

15. Lower the oven temperature to 200 deg C (Venting the steam is critical to letting the crust get crispy) for 30 mins or until the bread turns golden. For best result, half way through, you can remove parchment paper from the loaf tin once bread has firmed up.

16. If you have a digital thermometer, place it into the middle of the dough now and bake for another 20 - 30 mins. When the core temperature reaches 90 - 98 deg C, or when the crust turns golden, your bread is done. It will likely take 35 - 45 mins in total. You can test by taking the bread out and tapping on its bottom. If it sounds hollow, it is done.

17. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely for at least an hour before slicing it. If you slice it hot, the steam will escape and the inside will turn gummy.

Tips:

You can add 100-200g sunflowers seeds into the dough if you wish. You can also add cooked what or rye kernels. You can sprinkle with rolled oats with flaxseeds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of rolled oats too, or you can do without.

Additional Information:

C and J love this bread.

I organic flour from Salling with a protein content of 11%.

Since the water in Denmark is hard, I prefer to use boiled and cooled water as distilled water. This softens the water and helps to give the bread the chewy texture.

I prefer to use fresh yeast for its gentle, steady rise and complex, slightly sweet flavor profile.

Keep the salt away from direct yeast and don't add it to the water with the yeast. The concentrated salt can dehydrate and kill yeast cells. Instead mix the salt into the flour and dissolve your yeast in the water first before adding the flour and salt mixture.

First rest: Cover and let the dough rest for 2 hours on the kitchen counter until it doubles its size.

Second rest: Half fill a loaf bread tin and cover it so that the cold fridge air doesn't dry out the top skin of your dough. Then let the dough rest in the fridge for a longer fermentation time, which helps the yeast to develop deeper taste profiles for 12 to 24 hours. The low temperature (2-5 deg C) dramatically slows down the yeast, but the enzymes in the flour keep working. This breaks starches down into simple sugars, giving the bread a deeply aromatic flavor, a highly extensible structure and a beautifully blistered crust.

Bake cold: If it is puffy and full of air the next morning, do not deflate it. Take it straight from the fridge score the top and put it directly into the pre-heated 250 degree C oven. Placing it in a loaf pan or a glass container in the fridge means that you can bake it as in as it is shaped. Avoid touching or poking it too hard as it can easily deflate and collapse.

Baking straight from the fridge has an added advantage as it maximizes your oven spring. The cold moisture inside the dough will turn to steam the moment it hits the heat, causing the bread to puff dramatically and creating a lighter bread and a beautifully crisp, blistered crust.

Glass loaf container trap steam around the sides. For a perfectly even, crispy crust all around, carefully tip the bread out of the glass loaf container for the last 5 minutes of baking and place the naked loaf directly on the oven rack.

Score immediately: Cold dough is firm, making it easier to cut clean slashes with a razor right before baking. Do this right before it goes into the oven.

Place them in the oven at 250 deg C, and splash a glass of water into the lower tray to generate steam that gives it a golden crust. Close the oven door and reduce the temperature to 230 deg C and let it bake for 15 mins. If you have a digital thermometer, insert it into the middle of the loaf after 15 mins. Then lower the temperature to 200 deg C and bake for another 30 mins or until golden or until the temperature of the bread reaches 90 - 98 deg C. Half way though, once the bread has firmed up, you can remove the parchment paper, and put it back into the bread tin and back into the oven.

Aim for 90 - 98 degree C. If it is under 90 degree C, the center will be sticky and wet, although it will still tastes yummy.

If your dough hasn't double its size in the fridge the next morning, leave it on the kitchen counter (still covered) at room temperature for 30 - 60 mins. Once the warmth kickstarts the yeast and it has fully risen, score it and bake it immediately.

If you wish to bake right away, let it rest for two hours in a glass container instead of 20-30 mins. You also need to increase the fresh yeast to 20g.

If you are using wholewheat flour, you will need to increase the total liquid by 5-10% of the total flour weight, in this case 50g of water.

You can also add wheat or rye kernels into the bread. Here is how to prepare the kernels:

1. Bring to boil 1 part whole wheat kernels/ whole rye kernels with 2 parts water. I usually use 200 ml whole wheat kernels and 400 ml water.

2. If you are using whole wheat kernels or rye kernels, once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer boils for 30 minutes. Then let it soak the liquid for another 30 minutes.

3. If you are using cracked wheat kernels or cracked rye kernels, once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer boils for 5 minutes. Then off the heat and let it soak the liquid for another 15 minutes.

4. Then drain and let it cool down. When they are cooled down, you can use them for the bread, and refrigerate or freeze the left-overs. (I like to spread it on a large plate in a single layer so that it cools down faster).

5. You should add the cooked, drained and cooled wheat kernels near the very end after the first rise. In our case, adding them after the first rise and before popping it into the fridge for the night. Adding them too early will ruin your bread because the sharp edges of the cracked kernels act like tiny knives, cutting the gluten strands as they try to form. Waiting until the end ensures a strong dough structure that can support heavy grains.

References:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-artisan-bread/

https://thebakingnetwork.com/protecting-gluten-in-a-weak-dough/

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/the-easiest-loaf-of-bread-youll-ever-bake-recipe

https://breadtopia.com/gluten-development-for-artisan-bread/

https://gourministeriet.dk/koldhaevede-musliboller/

https://marialottes.dk/musliboller-med-surdej/

https://madenimitliv.dk/2020/05/koldhaevet-muslibroed/#startOfRecipe

https://www.valdemarsro.dk/musliboller/

https://stinna.dk/bagvaerk/musliboller.html

https://nogetiovnen.dk/musliboller-opskrift-paa-sunde-grove-boller/

https://madenimitliv.dk/2015/03/nemme-musliboller/#startOfRecipe

https://www.alt.dk/mad/opskrift/musliboller-

https://mambeno.dk/opskrifter/musliboller-med-banan/

https://thebakingnetwork.com/protecting-gluten-in-a-weak-dough/

https://www.seriouseats.com/what-is-gluten-free-bread-dough-pasta

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-scientific-secret-of-stretchy-dough/

https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/can-you-over-knead-bread/

https://www.cameocafe.com/why-let-dough-rest/

https://bakerpedia.com/processes/damaged-starch/

Organic wheat flour from Føtex Supermarket

Add 10g salt (2% of flour weight)

Add 20g yeast (10g if you are resting the dough in the fridge overnight)

Add 415g water.

Mix well, cover and let it rest for 2 hours. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and rest them in the fridge overnight (second rise) for 12 to 24 hours. The longer you rest it in the fridge, the more flavorful it will be. You can rest it up to 3 days.

Remove dough from fridge the following day. You will see that it is puffy and full of air bubbles. Score immediately. Sprinkle with some rolled oats (optional).

Place them in the oven at 250 deg C, and splash a glass of water into the lower tray to generate steam that gives it a golden crust. Close the oven door.

Saturday, 21 February 2026

Homemade 100% Wholewheat Pizza Dough

Makes 4 small pizzas for kids or 3 large pizzas for adults

Ingredients:

1. 10g fresh yeast
2. 300g water or best distilled water (Cooled boiled water)
3. 500g white wholewheat flour

4. 10g salt (2% of flour weight)
5. Olive oil to brush the dough

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, add yeast and water, mix until the yeast is dissolved.

2. Add wheat flour, wholewheat flour and salt and mix until the dough is combined and separate easily from the bowl.

3. Knead on the counter top or electric mixer for about 8 minutes.

4. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour until double its size.

5. Portion the dough into two and shape them into a ball each.

6. Brush them with cooking oil and place the pizza dough in a oven-proof dish. Cover with plastic and let them rest for 45 minutes until it double its size.

7. If you are not using them immediately, you can store them in the fridge for 2-3 days. After 1-2 days, it will be even more flavorful.

Storage:

You can store the pizza dough in the freezer for 30 days. Wrap each dough ball individually with plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag or container with lid. When you are about to use your pizza dough, thaw it overnight for 24 hours in the fridge, then 2 - 3 hours before you are ready to bake, take it out of the fridge for it to reach room temperature.

Video Demo: