Over hellish Saturday nights and Sunday mornings they would produce 3,000-6,000 dozen bagels, stirring the heavy dough, rolling, shaping (that expert twist of the fingers, slap on the table), boiling, baking.
Eating and cooking food are ways of connecting to other people and, with pasta, there's something reassuring about using the same techniques for kneading dough, rolling it into different shapes and boiling it in water that have been used for generations.
Instead of forking over eight dollars for a box of artisanal crackers, you can handcraft your own in about as much time as it would take you to go to the store, by mixing flour, water, olive oil, and salt into a dough, rolling it thin, cutting it into squares, and then baking them briefly, until they turn golden brown.
We had never made them before, and he was so fascinated by the technique -- kneading the dough, rolling it out and twisting it into three interlocking loops, then proofing, boiling, salting and, at last, baking them -- that he had no idea that the recipe's first step, when we mixed a cup of whole rye flour into the dough, was at all out of the ordinary.
For example, past devices include one that lets her turn her swing table to facilitate cake frosting, one that allows for easier dough rolling, and one that helps with opening the refrigerator in her bakery.
Ludolphy lost part of an index finger in his kneading machine, but it doesn't affect his dough rolling or folding of the mix into a sort of log.
Resting the dough before rolling it out is the secret to making them easier to roll.
Make small balls of the dough by rolling it between your hands and place on the sheet; alternately, you may drop the dough onto the sheet from a teaspoon.
Once your dough has rested, divide it into two portion-sized lumps and roll out each in turn, lightly flouring the work surface, dough and rolling pin whenever it looks like it might stick.
A baker makes croissants, flipping each triangle of dough and rolling it around in mid-air.
And there is something endearing in the image of the former first lady kneading the dough and rolling it into small balls.
