Lemon Cornmeal Crisps

I am so excited to finally share this recipe with you! A while ago (oh, geeze, can it really have been over two years ago!?!), I shared a recipe with you for lemon cornmeal cookies. In that post, I detailed how I had been fiddling with two different recipes. The recipe I previously posted makes a light, tender, lemony cookie that is sweet and - most definitely - a cookie. The other recipe, which I am sharing today, is a cookie-like crisp that is less sweet, more crispy, and has some resemblance to a thin, crispy cracker. Although the basic flavors of the two are the same, the end result is quite different, and I absolutely adore them both!

I am trying to come up with the best way to describe the texture of these lemon cornmeal crisps. If you look at the following picture, showing the top and bottom of the crisps, you can see they almost look like really thick tuile cookies. And in a way, they fit that bill. These crisps are snappy and delicious!

I mix the dough in a food processor. The procedure for making this dough is very similar to making pie crust. I love the wonderful texture and flavor that cornmeal adds!

After mixing the dry ingredients (including the sugar), add the cold butter (cut into cubes) and the lemon zest. Pulse just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together and then add to the processor, only working the dough until it just starts to pull together. A word of caution: this dough is quite a bit stickier than regular pie crust due to the high sugar content. If you dampen your hands before handling it, it helps a bit.

Dump the dough onto the counter and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours. Longer tends to be better in the case of this dough. Again, it's a bit sticky, but as it sits in the refrigerator, the cornmeal hydrates and results in a less sticky dough. When you are ready to cut the cookies, cut the dough into four sections so you can work with a small amount at a time. Keep the remaining parts refrigerated until you are ready for them.

Prepare sheet trays with parchment and preheat the oven to 375° F. The crisps don't spread too much, so you can place them fairly close together (closer even than I show in this picture).

The big thing is to roll them thin!! Again, this dough can be a little tricky to work with, but I promise the end result is worth it. Just roll them as thinly as you can while still having the dough maintain its integrity.

The last step, if you're so inclined, is to sprinkle the tops with sanding sugar. I really like the added crunch this adds to the crisp, but it is entirely optional. I also like how it adds a little sparkle to the crisps. In the photo below, the crisp on the left is naked while the one on the right was sprinkled with sanding sugar.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are nicely golden. The crisps will not brown evenly and they will burn on the edges before the centers become golden, so keep an eye on them. Like any cookie this thin, once they start to brown at all, keep a close eye on them; they can go from "not yet" to "oh no!" in a matter of moments. Let the cookies cool briefly on the sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. Strangely enough, I find I prefer these cookies after they have had a chance to sit a few days. This can be a wonderful thing as they make great gifts that can be made ahead of time.

Lemon Cornmeal Crisps

Yield: approx 60 - 2 1/2 inch rounds

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

zest of one lemon

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

sanding sugar (optional)

In a food processor, pulse together the first four ingredients. Add the butter and lemon zest and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix together the buttermilk and vanilla and add to the processor, mixing only until the dough starts to come together. Dump the dough out and shape it into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours. For easier dough handling, longer refrigeration is better.

When ready to bake, cut the dough disk into four pieces. Rolling one piece at a time, keep the remainder refrigerated until ready to use. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Roll the dough out as thinly as you can. This dough can be a bit tricky and you will want to use plenty of flour to keep it manageable. I cut mine into 2 1/2 inch rounds, but you can cut them in any shape you desire. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if you want a shiny, crispy top to the crisps. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until the crisps are nicely golden around the edges. They will not brown evenly; the edges will become too done before the center turns golden, so keep an eye on them. Cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container for up to ten days. These crisps actually taste best two or three days after they are baked.

Coffee Liqueur

Sometimes it makes me chuckle at how much I enjoy making homemade liqueurs considering I'm not a huge fan of drinking them. But they make wonderful gifts and I enjoy using them to make other homemade goodies taste even better.

Take this coffee liqueur, for instance. I don't drink coffee, but I do love a good dark chocolate, coffee truffle. You can make this coffee liqueur much more cheaply than you can buy a bottle of the good stuff. The other nice thing about this liqueur, unlike the blackberry I posted earlier, is that it can be made, start to finish, in less than a week. How's that for handy!?!

Coffee Liqueur

Yield: approximately 4 cups

2 2/3 cup vodka

2 cups whole French vanilla coffee beans

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

Dump the coffee beans into a large glass jar with a tightly fitting lid. Pour the room-temperature vodka over the beans. Put the lid on the jar, swirl to mix and then set in a cool, dark place to steep for five days, swirling occasionally.

After the five days, the vodka should be quite dark. If it is not, give the mixture another day or two to sit. I wouldn't recommend letting the mixture sit over two weeks, at the maximum. Strain the vodka, first with a colander and then through a couple of coffee filters to ensure a nice, clear product.

Heat the sugar and water just until the sugar melts. Let this mixture cool to room temperature. Pour into the strained vodka and stir. Decant into pretty bottles and enjoy!

NOTE: Obviously, the quality of vodka you choose to use in this recipe will affect the outcome. It all depends on what you intend to do with the final result. If you are looking for a fine sipping liqueur, then buy the best quality vodka you can afford. If you are making this recipe to use as an ingredient in other products, you can get by with the cheap stuff.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

This has been quite a week. After driving two days with my horse from Florida to Virginia, and dropping her off to live with a good friend, I've been looking at potential rental homes in the Washington DC area. We're moving there later this summer and are trying to get our ducks in a row. Although there's been very little cooking, there has been a lot of good eating! It has inspired me and I am excited to get back home and start cooking and baking again.

This is a recipe I have made quite a bit. I often make it to give to friends as a thank you gift. It is beautiful and it has a wonderful soft, spongy texture with a fantastic lemon kick. I think I could eat this cake day in and day out and never get sick of it.

Making this cake is a little more involved than for most pound cakes, but it is very worth it... and it's not hard, it just entails a few extra steps.

The first step is to sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then beat the eggs and sugar together in a mixer until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is thick and light yellow, about 3-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, gently melt the butter and then add the cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. Make sure it is not too hot before moving on to the next step.

So, this recipe involves three separate mixtures that are then brought together: the egg/sugar mixture, the butter/lemon mixture, and then the flour/leavening mixture.

Fold the flour mixture into the eggs and sugar. Then spoon one quarter of this batter into the butter mixture to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining batter until just mixed.

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan. To ensure I have a clean release, I grease the pan and then line with a small piece of parchment. There is nothing more frustrating than to go to all the trouble to make a nice cake and then have a big chunk of it remain in the pan. This recipe will make one 9x5 cake or one 8x4 and one mini loaf. I often like to go the later route because then I can partake of the bounty without having to eat some of the main cake.

Bake the cake in a preheated 325° F oven for 60-70 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden and a tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a rack in the pan for 20-30 minutes before removing to finish cooling. Once the cake is completely cooled, mix the icing and pour over the top of the cake. I keep the cake on the cooling rack, but place the rack over a pan to catch the excess icing. Let the cake sit out to let the icing dry completely before serving or storing in an air tight container. While the cake will keep for a week, it is best within the first two days.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Yield: one 9x5 cake or one 8x4 and one mini loaf

Adapted from Joanne Chang's Flour Cookbook

2 cups cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp table salt

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup + 3 TBS butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 TBS lemon zest

1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1 TBS poppy seeds

For the icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 TBS lemon juice

1-2 TBS low-fat milk

Preheat the oven to 325° F and prepare the pan by greasing it and lining with a piece of parchment. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar together until thick and pale yellow, about 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small pan, gently melt the butter and then, off the heat, add the cream, zest, lemon juice, and poppy seeds. Let the mixture cool, if necessary, until lukewarm before proceeding.

Fold the flour mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. Spoon about a quarter of the batter into the butter mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remaining batter, just until mixed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 325° F for 60-70 minutes, until the top is golden and a tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 20-30 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and set back on the rack to finish cooling. When the cake is completely cool, mix the icing and pour over the top of the cake. Let the cake sit out until the icing has completely dried. Store in an air tight container. Cake is best if served within two days.

Raspberry Mousse

After preparing my menu for that party I catered a couple weeks ago, I came across some pre-made phyllo cups and pre-made chocolate cups in my pantry. I figured this event would be a great opportunity to use them up before our big move... but what to put in them? I thought about making a rich chocolate pudding. I thought about making a tart and sassy lemon curd. I finally settled on trying a gloriously pink and fresh tasting raspberry mousse. Not only was the color absolutely fantastic, but the flavor tasted so strongly of freshly picked raspberries and the mousse had a perfect balance of sweet and tart.

Now, I'm going to tell you a wonderful secret: I made it using frozen raspberries from the grocery store! I'm not sure it would have tasted any better or different if I had used fresh. What a wonderful thing!

The first step, after letting the raspberries thaw, is to puree them with some of the sugar. Once they are pureed, run them through a sieve to remove the vast majority of the seeds. Nothing ruins the great mouth feel of this mousse faster than getting a mouth full of raspberries seeds.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the cool water so that it can soften. After about 5 minutes, place the bowl of softened gelatin in the microwave and gently heat on low until the gelatin becomes a clear liquid. Pour it into the strained raspberries and whisk to mix.

In a bowl over gently simmering water, whisk the egg whites with 1/4 cup of sugar until they reach about 140° F. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the raspberries.

Using the same bowl you used for the egg whites, whip the cream until it also forms firm peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the raspberries as well. The last step is to test for sweetness. Obviously, the amount of sugar required will vary depending on the tartness of the raspberries and personal preference. If the mixture needs a little more sugar, stir in powdered sugar until it tastes right to you.

If you are serving the mousse in bowls, divide the mousse between them and refrigerate up to two days before serving. If you are planning on putting the mousse into small tart shells, phyllo cups, or chocolate cups, you can pipe immediately into the vessels and refrigerate until serving or you can place the mousse, covered, into the refrigerator until you are ready to pipe. If you are using phyllo cups, I strongly recommend waiting to fill them until the last minute, lest the phyllo lose its snap.

Raspberry Mousse

Yield: approximately 6-8 cups

Adapted from Food & Wine

2 tsp unflavored gelatin

2 TBS cool water

2 10-ounce bags of frozen raspberries, thawed

3/4 cups of granulated sugar, divided

2 large, room temperature egg whites

1 cup heavy whipping cream

powdered sugar (optional)

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cool water to soften for five minutes. Puree the thawed berries with 1/2 cup of the sugar and run through a sieve to remove the seeds. Heat the softened gelatin in the microwave on low heat until the gelatin has melted and the mixture is clear. Stir the gelatin into the raspberries.

Over a pan of gently simmering water, whisk the egg whites with 1/4 cup of sugar until they reach about 140° F. Remove the bowl from the heat and use a mixer to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the raspberry mixture.

In the same bowl used for the egg whites, whip the heavy cream until it makes stiff peaks as well. Fold the whipped cream into the raspberry mixture. Taste the mousse and add a little powdered sugar, if necessary, to balance the tartness of the berries.

Divide into bowls and chill, pipe immediately into small tart shells (or other shells) and chill, or place all of the mousse in an air tight container to chill until ready to pipe into tart shells. The mousse holds well in the refrigerator for up to two days.

Oh, I almost forgot... garnishing this mousse with curls of white chocolate is the perfect complement! What a delightful combination.

Herbed Tenderloin Toasts

This gem of an appetizer is great because it is pretty darn easy to make. Not cheap... but easy. I suppose you could always substitute a different cut of beef for the tenderloin, but it's the butter-like consistency of the beef slice that makes it so memorable. The only real cooking involved in this appetizer is with the tenderloin, which is super easy.

To really make your life simple, purchase a two pound, trimmed center-cut tenderloin. The only tenderloin I could find without going to a specialty market was a whole "peeled" tenderloin (meaning the fat has been cut away but it still has the silver skin... which is a pain to remove). Preheat your oven to 425° F. Rub the tenderloin down with some vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, pepper, and ground thyme. Place on a foil lined roasting pan and roast until a thermometer in the center of the cut reads 140-145° F. Depending on the size of your tenderloin, it can happen fairly quickly... as in less than a half hour. Let the roasted tenderloin cool to room temperature, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and then refrigerate until well chilled. Chilling the meat prior to slicing makes life much easier. You want thin slices! Once chilled, slice the tenderloin into approximately 1/8 inch thick slices. The roasting and slicing of the meat can be done up to 3 days ahead of time.

On the day you plan to serve this dish, slice a fresh baguette into 1/4 inch thick slices at a slight angle, so that they slice into longish ovals. Turn on your broiler. Brush or spray (I recommend spraying) both sides of each slice. Lay them out one layer thick on a sheet tray and toast until lightly golden, flip, and toast again on the other side.

Meanwhile, let a package of Boursin cheese (if you have never tried this spreadable cheese, you are missing out!) come to room temperature. Then open a jar of roasted red peppers and slice a bunch of thin strips, about an inch and a half long and 3/8 of an inch thick.

To assemble, spread a small bit of Boursin on the toast. Lay a small piece of sliced tenderloin on the cheese. Add another little spread of cheese on top of the meat and lay two slices of roasted red pepper in an X pattern. That'ts it! These are so yummy! They were one of the more popular dishes I served.

I made 75 of these with about two pounds of tenderloin, 2 baguettes, one decent sized jar (maybe 12 ounce range?) of roasted red peppers, and roughly 8 oz of Boursin cheese.

Smoked Salmon on Cucumber

Being a proud native Pacific Northwesterner, who grew up on smoked salmon, I just can't pass up any opportunity to introduce it to the masses. For the party I catered last week, I smoked a small filet and then mashed it together with a little cream cheese. I probably smoked about one and a half pounds of salmon (pre-cooking weight) and then once it had chilled in the refrigerator, I mixed it with approximately one 8 oz package of room temperature cream cheese. I crumbled all the fish first and added the cream cheese a bit at a time until I reached the consistency and taste I wanted. Add a little salt and pepper, if necessary.

Prepare these appetizers within an hour of serving. The salmon spread can be prepared a few days in advance, but the cucumbers get weepy and floppy if they are cut too early. If you do cut them ahead of time, be sure they are kept refrigerated until the last minute. Be sure to use the hothouse cucumbers for this dish and do not slice them too thickly. Aim for about 3/8 of an inch. If you use too much cucumber or the standard market cucumbers, the cucumber flavor can start to overwhelm the delicate nature of the smoked fish.

Use two spoons or your fingers to mound about a teaspoon or two of the salmon mixture onto the cucumber slice. Add a small bit of green herb to the top. I used curly parsley as it does not have an overwhelming flavor of its own in such a small piece. Lastly, and this part is optional, I ground a little Salish Smoked Salt to finish it off. Looks good and adds a small burst of smokey salt when you first put the round in your mouth.

These little appetizers are so gorgeous and the contrast of the fresh, crisp cucumber with the smooth, smokey taste of the salmon makes for a dish sure to wow your guests. I highly recommend them!

Party for Sixty

A good friend of ours recently retired from the Air Force after 24 years of active duty service. When his wife told me how much they were quoted by a local caterer to provide food for the party they were hosting in honor of the event, I liked to have choked. The price was obscene! As I've been toying with the idea of pursuing some kind of personal chef service when we move the D.C. area this summer, I thought it would be a great trial run to see if I would enjoy that type of work... and I did!

They wanted to provide heavy appetizers for up to sixty guests this past Friday evening. The picture above shows just one of the tables of goodies. Based on estimates that I found online, I prepared over 1000 pieces/servings. As I was also a guest at the party, I had the opportunity to see the reactions to my food. The feedback was great! While I developed some new menu items, which I will be posting in the near future, I also served a lot of items I have already shared with you.

I made my prosciutto and cheese calzone. I made the crust from scratch as well. I just love the salty punch the prosciutto gives to this calzone. For such a simple list of ingredients inside, the flavor is amazing!

Because no party is complete without chips and dip, I decided to serve my black bean dip.

And because my husband would have disowned me if I hadn't included deviled eggs on the menu, I managed to shell four dozen very tricky eggs. You know, it's bad enough when you are trying to peel a couple of eggs that won't peel easily, but with this amount, I am amazed I didn't end up with eggs being thrown all over the house! Fortunately, the ugly side goes down and they still ended up looking pretty decent.

I made a monstrous bowl of my chicken salad. Instead of serving it on french type bread, I baked a loaf of soft sandwich bread and made little finger sandwiches.

Of course, there had to be dessert! I made my favorite lemon biscotti, but instead of making two logs out of the dough, I made three to make cute little biscotti. I learned a good lesson in that if you cover the biscotti before the icing is 100% completely dry, the biscotti lose their snap. Fortunately, a short trip in my food dehydrator on the lowest setting cured what ailed them.

I made two pans of my devilishly good brownies!

I couldn't resist making a batch of my delicious little gingersnaps. They're the perfect finger food. So snappy and gingery!

And, lastly (of the things I've already posted, anyway), I served up a dish of crack... aka toffee butter crunch. I think I've gotten a few more people addicted to it deliciousness. Sorry!

There were a bunch of other dishes I prepared, including sausage stuffed mushrooms, some toasted french bread slices with herbed cheese and tenderloin, a smoked salmon spread on cumber slices, chicken satay, mini twice baked potatoes, and spinach and feta triangles. I'll be sharing these recipes with you over the next week or so!

Cutest Little Caprese Ever!

The last week was a whirlwind of cooking for me. It culminated in my providing the food for a not insignificant party last night. I'll post the details of what I served and add the recipes for those items I made that I haven't shared with you yet over the next week or so. But, I was so excited to share these little gems with you, that I just couldn't wait.

I love a good caprese salad, but it's not always user friendly for a buffet of appetizers. I came up with these cute little skewers to keep things contained. Are they not the cutest things ever??? They were a huge hit. It's the perfect bite with the perfect mixture of cheese, tomato, and basil.

Each toothpick has a grape tomato cut in half. I purchased a container or small, fresh mozzarella balls. The ones available in my grocery were in a herbed oil, but you can use plain mozzarella balls as well. I cut the cheese balls in half as well so that everything fit on my toothpicks. I then picked some basil and cut the large leaves into strips. The smaller leaves I used whole.

The only drawback to these guys is that they need to be prepared the same day as they are to be eaten. Keep refrigerated until serving.

Brown Rice Pudding

Phew! Apparently, I wasn't the only one getting sick of looking at whole wheat pasta! This post is gonna be a quickie, but keeps in the whole grain theme. I'm a huge fan of my rice pudding recipe. I make it as often as I dare. Not too long ago, while browsing through the selection of rice for sale in our commissary, I saw short grain brown rice. The grains are exactly the same shape as those Arborio/pearl type that I use for rice pudding, only whole grain! I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to see whether it made as good of rice pudding as the white grains.

Good news! It does! As you might imagine, the whole grain version has a bit more chewiness, which is actually quite pleasing in this dish. There's a slightly "fuller" flavor, and - overall - I was just as happy eating the whole grain version as I am the regular.

You make it virtually the same way, I just switched a little bit of the water and milk around and added a little more time to the first step. I simmered the brown rice in 3 cups of water for 40 minutes (instead of 2 cups for 20 minutes) and then only added 2 cups of milk to finish it off (versus the 3 cups in the original recipe). Otherwise, do everything else the same. Delicious!

Whole Wheat Pasta

There's just something about homemade pasta. In particular, there's really something special about homemade whole wheat pasta. In my opinion, most store bought whole wheat pasta just isn't worth a darn. Now, I won't lie to you... making pasta is definitely more labor intensive than opening a box, but I'd say it's worth it - at least some of the time. What does that mean? It means that depending on what I've got going on, either I will open a box or I will prepare a batch of noodles from scratch. The nice thing, is that you can make extra when you do make homemade noodles and freeze or dry them for future convenience.

Making whole wheat pasta surprisingly provides you with a plethora of options. Not only can you decide how much whole wheat flour you want to use... go with 100% or 25%, whatever you fancy, but you can decide which type of whole wheat flour to use. Five years ago, when I first came across white whole wheat flour, it was a bit tricky to find. Now days, however, it seems to be everywhere. White whole wheat is only different from your typical whole wheat in the type of wheat berry that is ground up. Your regular wheat flour is usually a hard red wheat. White whole wheat is hard white wheat, which is lighter in color and more delicate in taste. In the picture below, you can see the differences (from left to right) between white whole wheat, regular whole wheat, and all purpose flours. I chose to use white whole wheat for this pasta because it would have a softer, milder flavor that I think is better in a pasta. After all, for the most part, pasta is a vehicle for other flavors; it shouldn't overpower them.

I strongly advise using a stand mixer to make this pasta. While you can mix the dough by hand and roll it through a hand-crank pasta mill... phew! I've done it. it's hard work! The KitchenAid will do most of the heavy lifting for you. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl of the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Turn the mixer to speed 2 and process until the mixture is completely wetted. Notice that it will never completely come together on its own, but will continue to look like crumbles. Once it is completely mixed, continue processing for another 2 minutes.

Because ambient humidity can lead to significant differences in the moisture of the dough, you will need to test the moisture level of the dough. To do this, turn the mixer off and grab a small handful. Squeeze it together. If it forms a cohesive mass, then you are good to go. If it falls back apart, crumble the handful back into the mixer bowl and add another tablespoon of water. Mix for 1-2 minutes before testing again. Continue until the moisture level is right.

Grab handfuls of crumbles and press them together to form balls. Shoot for 8-9 balls. Place them in a plastic bag to keep them from drying out. Let them rest for 20-30 minutes. You will be amazed what that short amount of time will do to the texture of this dough. When you first shape them, the dough will be fairly rigid and slightly crumbly. Afterwards, it will be more tender and malleable. It's still a stiff dough, but you will definitely be able to tell the difference.

After the dough has rested, pull one dough ball out at a time. Press the ball flat on the counter.

Feed the dough through the flat roller fitted to your stand mixer. Start with the widest setting. The first couple of feeds, all on setting one, are a continuation of the kneading process, so don't skip them. I run it through the first time just as the flattened disk. Then I fold the result over and feed it folded seam first back through the roller, still on setting one.

After doing that a few times, the shape is often a bit funky, so I fold it up like a tri-fold brochure.

I then feed the tri-fold brochure through the roller open end first. This leaves you with a nicely shaped piece of dough. It takes a little practice to get it perfect, but remember, even if it doesn't look perfect, it will still taste good!

Now you can start reducing the width of the rollers. Once I get off setting one, I only roll it once each through the remaining settings. In this case, I went up to setting seven; I wanted my pasta fairly thin.

The dough gets really dang long, so I cut it into manageable lengths with a pizza cutter. In this case, I cut them into 6-8 inch lengths. The dough is dry enough that it can be stacked without the layers sticking together.

The next step is to cut the pasta. I made fettuccine. I placed a large bowl underneath the cutter to catch the pieces. What is that in the bottom of the bowl, you might ask? Semolina flour, which is a coarsely ground flour works really well to keep pasta from sticking together. What is great about using the semolina in this function, is that it falls off the dough when you cook the pasta. If you use all purpose of whole wheat flour to keep the dough from sticking, it gets goopy and sticky when the pasta cooks and makes a bit of a mess of it.

Periodically, toss the pasta around to get it well coated so that it doesn't stick together.

Lay it out on sheet pans while you cut the rest of the pasta. You now have a couple of options: you can cook the pasta immediately, you can let the pasta sit on the counter until you are ready to cook the pasta, you can spread the pasta out a single layer thick for a few days until it is brittle dry, or you can gently place it into bags and freeze it.

If prepared fresh, this pasta takes almost no time to cook... 2-3 minutes at most, so be prepared!

Whole Wheat Pasta

Yield: 1 - 1 1/2 pounds of dough

3 1/2 cups flour (for proper hydration, use at least 50% whole wheat)

1/2 tsp salt

4 large eggs

water

semolina flour, for dusting

In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt. In a liquid cup measure, break four whole eggs. Gently beat and then add enough water to make one cup of liquid. Add the liquid to the flour mixture. Process on speed 2 until it is completely wetted. Check for proper hydration by taking a small handful of the mixture and squeezing it into a ball. If the ball falls apart, add another tablespoon of water and process again. Continue in this manner until the dough forms a nice clump, then mix another 2 minutes. Press the crumbles into 8-9 balls of dough. Place in a plastic bag to rest for 20-30 minutes. The dough is then ready to be processed in a pasta mill. For details of this processes, see the above post.