Gnocchi Experiment

In response to Molecular Gastronomy I wanted to create my own food experiment. I chose to tackle to debate between gnocchi batter and whether it should contain eggs or not. 
Now I really don't know too much about these little lumps of love but I do know that I think they are totally amazing! And that is enough of a reason as any to try making them... right?

To start my experiment I pulled from two chapters in the Molecular Gastronomy: Chapter 4: Quiches, Quenelles and Puff Pastries and Chapter 5: Echaudes and Gnocchi. Chapter 4 is about the expansion of eggs when cooked due to the water evaporation and chapter 5 debunks the myth that gnocchi are done cooking when they rise to the surface of the water. My experiment came from these ideas. I had never heard why gnocchi would contain egg or why they would only be made up of potatoes and flour so I thought it would be a great experiment. 
My hypothesis was that the addition of eggs would make the gnocchi increase in size when cooked and the ones without would stay the same size. 

In order to test my theory I decided to make two batches of gnocchi from two of my favorite food blogs, Vegan Yum Yum and 101 Cookbooks. Here are the links to the recipes I used:

Vegan Gnocchi and Gnocchi with egg

I made the two gnocchi doughs side by side, which in retrospect did not give either dough enough attention. But, I had invited my dad over for dinner and for a little help. So we got started on the project.

First we weighed out and washed the potatoes. Then i set up our work station.

Then they were put in the oven while the water started to boil
After a moment in the oven they were placed in the salted and boiling water

Once a fork could easily move through the potato we started peeling them (this process was pretty hot but we used kitchen towels to make handling the potatoes easier)

When all the potatoes had been peeled they were put in a food mill and turned into a light and fluffy potato cloud

This is when things got messy

After the potatoes had cooled for a quick minute I started making the batter by adding about a cup (maybe a little less) of flour and mixing it all together with my hands. Or in the case of the egg dough adding both egg and flour.

What you are supposed to do at this point is form the dough into a long snake but sadly my gnocchi batter was crumbly, even the dough with the egg could not hold up to being rolled out. It made me ask a couple questions:
-Was it the potatoes (I think they were russets, but they were home grown so I’m not sure)?
-The length of time I cooked them for?
-How long I let the milled potatoes cool for?


At any rate neither dough could be rolled into a snake so instead my dad and I just grabbed little bits of dough and rolled them out. It seemed to work, they were plenty cute. 

Now for the cooking

Keeping the two kinds of gnocchi separate was easier enough we just cooked them in two separate pans


Sadly this did not quite work out either. 




The egg-less gnocchi looked very slimy on the outside but were nice and firm in the center and had good flavor, they expanded enough to make the ridges on the outside disappear (but maybe it was just the potato slime). However, they were still very yummy with a little red sauce



The egg gnocchi on the other hand did not really expand so much as fall apart, but the gnocchi that kept their structure also kept their ridges. When they  finally made it to our mouths they had more the consistency of mashed potatoes. But little balls of mashed potatoes are not all bad; in fact they were quite good.



I liked the egg-less ones more basiced on both consistency and flavor, the egg gnocchi had  that egg flavor that I am really not a fan of but both were good.

 Conclusion: Because the gnocchi are cooked in water it does not allow for the evaporation of the water in eggs allowing for the indirect expansion of the final product. This is why the size of the gnocchi did not very after cooking. Only their flavor was altered by the addition of eggs to the batter.

Conclusion two: I need to work on my gnocchi making techniques. They are hard to make and need some real expertise and my expertise does not happen to fall in gnocchi making catgorie. But don’t be scared even if you make funny gnocchi like me they are sill really yummy! After all, my dad had never had gnocchi and appreciated the little potatoes dumpling he got to enjoy. 

BEST OF LUCK GNOCCHI LOVERS!