Simple egg noodles

These are perfect for using up egg yolks you might have left over, if you have made the French macarons you'll have the perfect amount!
I came across this recipe on an American website, I can't remember which, if I find it I will pop a link on.
Obviously it wouldn't be me if I didn't put my own addition in there somewhere!

I've found these make enough for two batches, which can be frozen for around a month no problem.
Also cutting them up can be tedious work, a useful tip is use scissors, or better still if you have one a mint roller, you know one of those things that's like a row of little discs for slicing up mint, I'll include a pic.

This is the recipe I followed:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 250g plain flour
• 1tsp salt
• 4 tbsp cold water
• stock cube of your choice
• parsley or similar herb

In a large bowl mix together the salt and flour. In a separate bowl or jug beat together the eggs and water.
Make a little dent in the middle of the flour and tip egg water mixture into it, mix together until it forms a dough, you might need a splash more water, once a dough has formed turn out onto a lightly floured surface and need gently till smooth and even, it doesn't take much.
At this point if your cooking straight away with them, you'll need to put a pan of water onto boil, put a stock cube and a good sprinkle of herbs in the pan too.
Take the dough and break into two pieces, one piece is usually enough for two people.
Roll out until the thickness you want your noodles to be is reached, go slightly thinner as they poof up a bit while cooking. Then cut into strips, depending how thick you want your noodles, anywhere between 1/2in to razor fine.
Then drop your raw noodles into the boiling water, cook until tender, usually about 10min. If your freezing the second portion I recommend you cut them up ready before freezing uncooked.
Once cooked, drain and then they can be eaten as they are, used in a stir fry, put into a ham and cheese sauce, anything you would usually use noodles or pasta for really. As they are plain they can sometimes seem a bit bland, a good dollop of sauce and some bits of left over chicken soon spruce it up.

French macarons.

These tasty little beasts have been bothering me for a while now. They are totally delicious, but reading up on them seem super hard to make.
So I decided to just suck it up and give them a bash, and it's really not that hard.
There seems to be several recipes and techniques out there, I've followed (ish) the one that seems to be repeated over and over in various locations, me being me tho, there's some minimal changes.

Strawberry and whipped cream macarons:

• 3 egg whites
• 125g ground almonds
• 175g icing sugar
• 75g granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp strawberry flavouring
• 2 tsp red liquid food colouring

• whipped cream
• 1-2 tbsp sugar

First off, an what I've found to be really useful is get a piping bag. A disposable one is fine.
So, to start with you need to separate the egg whites, do this straight from the fridge as they split easier. Week old eggs are ideal for this. Put the whites in a bowl and cover with cling film, make sure the cling film is touching the surface. Then leave for a couple of hours to get to room temperature, perfect amount of time to use up the left over yolks while you wait, I made egg noodles (see my next recipe)
When your whites are at room temperature, pop the icing sugar and ground almonds into a food processor, or if you don't have one, sieve them into a bowl and mix well.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the salt until at the foamy/soft peak stage, then add the granulated sugar, continue whisking until the sugar is blended, then add the strawberry and the colouring, it will be really really pink but don't worry it fades as it cooks. Then whisk to the stiff peak stage, I always struggle with knowing when this is, a tip I was given was keep going until nothing moves when you wobble the bowl, it usually takes ten minutes of whisking on high to get there.
Once the whites are whisked use a spatula to FOLD in the dry ingredients, keep folding it in while turning the bowl until really well combined, it should look smooth and silky, if you lift the spatula out it should flow back into itself and sit back smooth. Some people say you should do 50 folds to get there.
Next you need to grab a couple of baking sheets and line them with grease proof paper, if my paper is feeling curly I sometimes use a dab of mixture to glue the corners down.
Spoon your mix into a piping bag, make sure you tie a good knot in the end or it will end up oozing out the wrong way and all over your hands!
Now piping it seems is perhaps harder than you'll think it will be, I suggest if you have never done it before that you YouTube it, seriously. The few bits of advise I can offer is, hold the bag vertically, squeeze gently from the knot end and when you lift off release the grip and give your wrist a little twist.
Pipe into little one inch discs, leave a gap for expanding. Once you've filled your sheets with beautiful little pink blobs give each sheet a sharp bang on the work top, I tend to do two or three for good measure! You should notice the tops are doming over and smoothing out.
Now leave them out on the side for 20-30min to form a skin. At this point you need to switch the oven on to pre-heat while they set. My fan oven gets set to 140c.
After half hour of setting pop them into the oven. Check them after five min, rotate the sheet if necessary, then cook for a further five min, after five take them out and check them, if you can tap the top and it's hard they should be done.
Leave to cool for ten min, then gently lift the paper off the sheet and place on the cold work top, then leave to cool for an hour or so.
Once cool they should peel easily off the paper. At this point I try to set them in pairs of equal size and shape, ready for filling. Once all paired and off the paper, and perhaps you know you might have tried one or two ;-) its time to fill. You can use a multitude of fillings, I like whipped cream, jam, buttercream, nuttella, anything that tickles your fancy really.
When you've filled them all, pop them into a lunchbox and stick them in the fridge. They are supposed to be at there best after 24hrs, but to be honest, ours never stick around long enough to find out!

If you've been considering making them, just go for it! They really ain't that hard!