I am trying to make Buckwheat noodles (Soba). The recipe involves nothing but buckwheat flour and water. I am failing to make the dough solid. It crumbles apart. I was trying to adjust it by adding more water or more flour, but it always crumbles. Could you give any advice on how to make it? I suspect it might be easier with different ingredients but it should be possible to make it with just buckwheat flour.
Dough – Why is the Buckwheat soba noodle dough crumbling
buckwheatdoughjapanese-cuisinenoodles
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Best Answer
The crumbly texture is, apparently, quite common when working with an all buckwheat dough since it doesn't develop gluten - one of the reasons why many home-made soba noodle recipes use a percentage of wheat flour to make the dough easier to work with.
If you have your heart set on a buckwheat-only soba noodle, be aware this is a common problem. You might try boiling water and rolling and cutting a little thicker so they don't end up so fragile, mentioned below. I also saw that the brand of buckwheat flour may be important (using a Japanese style, rather than American style buckwheat flour, apparently makes a big difference). Check that the flour type is correct, that may help.
Another recipe I saw "pre-soaked" the flour (making a dough with water and a bit of lemon juice, and letting sit under a wet cloth overnight) to give the dough time to hydrate the flour. I'm not sure whether the lemon juice or the extra long resting time was the relevant factor, but she doesn't seem to have problems with the dough.
And the last suggestion I found involved "beating the buckwheat", that is, mechanically working the dough long enough for the water-soluble parts of the flour to dissolve into the dough and let it become elastic that way (this extra working may be related to the extra-hydrating time of the last hint, or perhaps actual, mechanical thumping might be helpful in working the dough - it is used in some kinds of recipes to make dough behave).
From an article I found, here: