How to Make Simple Multi-Purpose Dough

Since so many of you were interested in how I was making the dough for pasta and wonton wrappers, here it is

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

3 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

A dish or cup of water (don’t add this immediately, I will explain what this is for)

You only need these simple ingredients for the dough. I like to measure them out in advance so they are ready.

A mixer with a paddle and bread hook attachments makes this easier, but you can totally do it by hand. It will just take a little longer. Personally, I like to do the first step by hand. It helps me judge the consistency better.

Kitchen Aid Mixer Paddle and Bread Hook Attachments

Mix the flour, eggs, olive oil and salt on the low setting with the paddle attachment or by hand until everything is well mixed and your dough looks about like this:

This is how it should look when you start using the bread hook, except it’s a little dry. I typically wet my hands to work in a little water to help it bind together if it is too dry.

What you might find, depending on where you live, is that your dough is a little dry. I typically wet my fingers and work the water in that way. this keeps me from adding too much.

When everything is well mixed, I switch to using the bread hook. I let it knead the dough until it makes a nice ball that pulls away from the sides cleanly.

I’ve got a nice elastic ball of dough with nothing sticking to the sides.

Once you have your ball of dough, wrap it in plastic and let it rest for at least 30-60 minutes. Though you haven’t added yeast, this will allow the natural yeast in the flour to settle and make it easier to work.

Safety Note: A lot of recipes will tell you that you can make this up to a day in advance. I wouldn’t recommend going much longer. Keep in mind you are using raw eggs that can turn on you fast. It’s a recipe for food poisoning. Besides, what’s the point in making fresh, homemade dough if you’re then going to let it sit? Might as well just use the store-bought stuff at that point.

I use this dough for pasta, dumplings, raviolis, wontons. Egg rolls are a little tougher because of how thin you have to roll the dough. For lumpia-style wraps, it is probably easier to just buy the wrappers since they are so thin, or get a professional press to roll them out.

Finished Product: made some thick Fettucine from this batch.

The noodles cook much faster than dry, store-bought noodles. The fettucine above take about 3 minutes in boiling water.

Thanks for reading. I’ll post my improvised filling for the wontons and eggrolls next week.