Hi Bold Bakers.
A few weeks ago we welcomed you into our kitchen on a Saturday morning where Kevin and I made
pancakes.
Kevin had the great idea to let’s do it again, and now we’re going to make dinner,
we’re going to make potato gnocchi.
And the best thing about it is, there’s no special equipment, it’s only a few ingredients
and it’s much simpler than you’d actually think.
So we’re here, we’re excited, Kevin how are you doing?
I’m ready to go!
Baby George is in the corner, he’s awake right now but he’s gonna go to sleep in
a few minutes, yes he is!
He’s ready to go.
So let’s talk potatoes, a few ingredients like I said, one of the main ingredients,
obviously potatoes.
So in America where I live now, we would use a Russet, a Russet potato.
In Ireland we use potatoes for mashing called Rooster potatoes.
In England you could use, I think, Maris Piper.
Whatever you use that is mash-able, that’s the potato that you want.
You want a floury, kind of dry, fluffy potato.
So anything that you use for baking would be perfect for gnocchi.
So what you want to do is, let me get a little fork here.
What you need is 200 grams of potatoes, with the skin on like this, 200 grams.
So roughly that varies, but if you have 4 of these kinds of potatoes that’s 200 grams
and I have all of this information on BiggerBolderBaking.com that’s where the recipe is.
So we’re just gonna prick it with a fork.
So guys you may notice we have a new camera here.
It’s the behind the scenes camera.
What’s that catching?
Well, behind the scenes!
A little bit of everything.
So prick the potatoes with a fork, I’m gonna put over a little bit of olive oil.
That’s good.
So potato gnocchi, if you do have a weighing scale for your potatoes, it’ll give you
a more precise measurement.
So sprinkle over a little bit of salt.
So here’s what we’re doing, well you might see out there that there’s a few different
ways to do your potatoes.
You can boil them, you can steam them or you can bake them.
Now let me tell you the advantages of all of these.
Baking is the preferred version because you dry them out.
You put salt on them which draws out even more moisture which in turn makes lovely and
fluffy gnocchi.
If you steam them or boil them, yes you can do that it’s actually faster, but the thing
about it is you have all that moisture coming from the water.
So for best results bake them in the oven, and if you can’t do that, like steam them.
But this is what you want Kevin, like I said a little bit of salt to draw out the moisture
to get those nice and crisp.
So we’re going to bake our potatoes off at 425°F or 210°C for roughly an hour or
until a fork comes out nice and clean with no resistance.
So these are our baked potatoes, I had them in the oven at 425° F for around an hour
or so.
What you want to make sure is, Kevin check this out, that they’re nice and fluffy and
soft in the middle.
So now what you want to do is, this is really important, check that out.
Those are hot, Gem, that’s a hot potato.
You need to kind of rice these, mash these, when they are still hot.
So I’m just gonna move this over here.
So here’s my secret weapon, usually when you make gnocchi you need a potato ricer and
those aren’t easily found in domestic kitchens like mine so what I do have is a sieve and
I know many of you out there do as well.
These are really almost as good as a potato ricer and it still makes you lovely soft fluffy
gnocchi.
So here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to get a nice clean tea towel, like
this, and we’re going to scoop out our hot potato, in there.
My gosh I love baked potatoes, Kevin let’s have baked potatoes for dinner.
Smells delicious.
What would you have on your baked potato.
Well in Ireland we used to just have, sorry in my house we used to just have Kerrygold
salt and pepper, that’s what I would have that’s my favorite.
I know that since I moved to America, sour cream, cheese, cheese is also good on them
we would have cheese in Ireland.
But we wouldn’t have sour cream on our potatoes.
Just going to put a little bit of potatoes in here and then we’re going to see the
magic happen.
So here we have a spoon Kevin, and we’re just going to pass our hot potato through
the sieve with our spoon.
Look at that Gem, it’s like magic!
So just so you know if you tried to do this with cold potatoes or even cooled down potatoes,
it wouldn’t work.
And I know that because we tried it.
There we go, look at that.
Looking really good, gorgeous, almost clean.
This is what you’re going for, look at that Kevin, get in there, nice light, fluffy, airy
potatoes.
That’s what a ricer does and the sieve will give you the same effect.
Lovely, I’m thrilled with that, we’re going to continue with our other potatoes.
As I go along here I’m going to be telling you tips and tricks, but on BiggerBolderBaking.com
I have loads more tips also for how to make gnocchi and some problem solving when it comes
to gnocchi like gnocchi can get overcooked, it can fall apart a little bit.
I have all of that information in the recipe.
What you want to do is spread it out a little bit, you don’t want it all clumping on top
of itself.
And waffles just got a piece of potato on the floor.
Good job buddy!
Ok Kevin look at that, that’s a lot of potato for 4 potatoes isn’t it?
That’s the great thing about these recipes is that they yield a lot.
Ok lovely.
So our potatoes are looking good, I have an egg here.
And we are going to beat that up a little bit.
A little tip, use a room temperature egg because the potatoes are still gonna be warm if not
hot so you want a room temperature egg so it’s not too cold.
And just in case you don’t eat egg, egg for gnocchi is a binding agent which does
hold it together better.
If you leave it out, which you can do, it might not be, the structure might be a little
bit softer.
So I would say, if you can, use an egg for sure.
So they’re not too hot now Kevin, I’m going to just pour this over.
Okie dokie.
And then we are just going to follow that with our flour.
So this Is all purpose flour.
And I’m going to scatter the majority of it over.
Let me just get some salt while we’re talking.
So all purpose flour, you can use double zero flour that’s used for making pasta, you
can also use a gluten free flour.
If you’re gluten free that’s great you can just use an all purpose gluten free flour.
So here I have a dough cutter, or a bench scraper more commonly known, and here’s
what we’re gonna do.
Move the dough around and fold it on top of itself.
Now just like I tell you with pastries and different types of baking, we don’t want
to overwork the flour here, it’s the same thing, we don’t want to overwork the gluten.
So we just want to fold this together until our dough forms.
But just kind of gently bring it together, fold it over.
So now here’s the thing.
For this amount of potato I used a cup of flour.
But everyone’s potatoes are different, you might not need all the flour, you might need
a little bit more.
My dough is a little bit sticky so I’m going to add a little bit more onto the surface
and continue to like, knead it in there.
I think George is getting excited.
Georgie’s getting excited for his first pasta here.
Georgie is a few months away from eating some sort of solid foo which is really exciting.
We’re definitely going to introduce him to as much flavors and varieties as we possibly
can.
So there you go just bring it together like that.
So I’m really happy with this, it’s not sticky, it’s not too dry.
Now this is where we shape it.
So I have a few options here.
You can put flour on your board, that’s totally fine it’s just that it does add
extra flour to your gnocchi.
Makes it a little bit starchier even stodgier.
So what I like to do is a little bit of white rice flour and what this does is actually
dries out your gnocchi and takes some of the moisture out of it.
So if you have rice flour then feel free to roll and cut your gnocchi on that, if you
don’t, then absolutely use plain all purpose white flour.
So here’s what we’re going to do Kevin, I have my tray here to put my finished gnocchi
on.
I have my dough cutter, we’re going to cut off, can you see that?
Look at that nice dough.
Beautiful.
So here’s what we’re gonna do, cut off a little piece for yourself, roll it, and
then cut it around maybe 3/4’s an inch, to an inch thick.
There you go this is our gnocchi, now let me show you how you get, Kevin, you know those
lovely ridges and the shape of the gnocchi the classic way.
So we’re gonna grab our gnocchi, a little bit of rice flour there, I’m gonna put some
on my fork, put flour on your fork.
Get a little piece of gnocchi, go like this, push it down your fork, and there you go.
Gem that’s magic!
Now look at this, you don’t have to take so long to do it, look at this gorgeous.
So as you can see Kevin, you see what I’m doing here, press my finger in the middle
of the gnocchi.
So as you see, when you turn it over it’s kind of folded, It’s so rewarding to make
something like this from scratch.
I absolutely adore it.
So push your finger down in the middle, and roll it over.
And then you just keep on going with the rest of your gnocchi.
All you’re doing is pretty much rolling the dumpling over your fork.
So like I said, place them on your tray but don’t stack them on top of eachother because
I did that the other day and they stuck together and it was a big mess.
So learn from my mistakes.
Gorgeous.
It’s actually pretty fast to do this.
Gem I think, that’s a lot of gnocchi coming together.
Yeah but Kevin we eat a lot of food, yeah fair enough.
So there you go, it’s actually really fast to make homemade gnocchi.
So here’s what I’m going to do, I’m not going to cook them off right away I’m
actually going to put them in the fridge, let them get nice and cold for around half
an hour, actually what I also love to do in this stage is put them in the freezer at this
stage, on a tray just like this, then when they’re frozen put them in a tub and then
you have homemade gnocchi ready to go for any dinner.
It’s just really really nice to have close at hand so I’m just going to pop them into
the fridge.
My gnocchi are lovely and chilled, I’ve got a nice big pot of boiling water here,
and we’re very gently just going to scoop some of those in, don’t overcrowd your pan.
In you go.
So when it comes to cooking gnocchi what you want to do is put them into a pot of boiling
water.
Once they float to the top, it’ll probably take around a minute, maybe a minute longer,
that’s when they’re almost ready, then leave them for around 20-30 seconds, then
out of the pot straight away.
Make sure whatever you use is nice and smooth to stir your gnocchi, I’m using a nice smooth
slotted spoon.
Oh look at that guy, there you go, there’s our first one it’s starting to rise!
Our first one to the party.
It really takes no time to cook these, if you want to make them up and want to have
them ready in advance, so now they’re all floating to the top I’m going to give them
another few seconds here, and then right over here Kevin you see I have a pan on with a
little bit of brown butter in it.
It smells delicious.
I’m going to take them straight from here, I’m going to let some of the water drain
off and then I’m going straight into our pan.
Wow so that’s how they do it in those restaurants, that nice finish.
Yeah you get a little bit of butter in there, you get it nice and nutty in the pan, you
don’t burn it, you get it nice and brown.
And then you put in your gnocchi, we’re just going to let them fry on one side, then
we’re gonna flip them over.
Now look Kevin what I’m gonna do here, I’m gonna put in a little pesto.
This is pesto I made with some spinach and walnuts.
Look at that Gem, that smells amazing.
That’s some nice technique.
Well it’s not my first rodeo.
There we go, and they’re done!
Gorgeous, look at that.
They look amazing, they smell amazing, Kevin come on over here and we’ll try some.
Gem, I’m gonna bring you a little something to go along with it all.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
You’re a man after my own heart, Kevin.
Alright let me get in there.
Gem, cheers!
Thank you Kevin.
Wine is always a good idea.
Absolutely.
There you go, dig in there.
Oh man.
I love the crisp outside, but how pillowy the inside is.
And how fluffy they are on the inside.
And again, you don’t have to fry them, but those are delicious.
Gem this was like, my request, I wanted homemade gnocchi so thank you.
And you got it!
Always let us know any recipe requests you have.
Let us know in the comments.
And right now we’re going to enjoy our dinner and we’re going to see you back here really
soon.
Thanks guys, cheers!