The first night on our recent trip to Shanghai we ate dinner in a modest western Chinese restaurant which mostly sold noodle dishes. I noticed that one of the cooks in the restaurant was making the noodles we were eating and that they were pulled. This means that a very extensible dough was stretched, doubled over, stretched again, etc. until it became many strands a bit thinner than an udon noodle. I decided I needed to try making the pulled noodles myself for Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken v2. I followed a YouTube video by Tim Chen of SeriousEats.
The result was a good first try. I managed to make tasty chewy noodles but I did not do it elegantly. I don’t think I kneaded them long enough which is why although they were quite extensible, they had a tendency to tear as I stretched them. With more practice, I am sure I can make them more easily.
A key to pulled noodles is an additive to make the dough more extensible. The additive used in China is not easily available in the US and Tim Chen discovered that nutritional yeast made a good substitute. Another key is kneading the dough in one direction in order to develop the gluten in that one direction. This is in contrast to how bread dough is usually kneaded in all directions in order to develop the gluten to support a three-dimensional loaf.
The quantities below make 3 servings of noodles.
141.7 g. bread flour
9.3 g. nutritional yeast
1.3 g,. salt
1 tsp. vegetable oil
95 g. water
Put into the bowl of a food processor the flour, yeast, and salt. Pulse to combine. Add the vegetable oil and pulse to combine. With the processor running, slowly add the water. Continue running the processor about 30 seconds until a dough forms.
Clear a large section of kitchen counter on which to work.
Form the dough into a log and roll it back and forth to lengthen it. After the dough has doubled in length, fold it to half the length and roll it out again. Repeat this process of stretching and folding until a strong elastic dough has been developed. I did this for about 5 minutes and probably should have continued for about 15 minutes.
Coat a half sheet pan with flour and have more available. Heat a pot of water to boil the noodles.
Stretch the dough as far as you can. Double it over holding the two strands separate and repeat. Keep repeating this process until thin strands are formed. One of the ways you can stretch the dough is to swing it. If the dough breaks, roll and stretch the individual pieces. Coat the finished strands with flour to keep them from sticking together, and cut them to a usable length.
When the noodles are all formed, drop them in the boiling water and cook them for 2-3 minutes until cooked. If using in a noodle salad, put the noodles in cold water to cool them off and then drain the cooled noodles.