We received a gift of Blue Beard semolina and ran it through the AEX 5, a small, tabletop extruder. While it is designed for home kitchens, it is also a workhorse on a small scale in restaurants (say, for tasting menus) and is our go-to in the kitchen when testing new flours and recipes. We set the machine up with a Teflon-lined macaroni die. Tradition demands bronze. Functionality favors Teflon. I noticed the Blue Beard semolina required additional water, beyond our baseline 30% hydration. The addition of 10 extra grams of water made the difference. We squeezed the streusel-like dough together into chunks and then broke them easily in our hands. We extruded an aromatic dough reminiscent of corn. The Teflon die made the process faster and created a darker, shinier appearance in the finished macaroni.
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