Youtiao

A fried dough stick that is hollow inside, because two strips are jointed down the middle so they pull each other open in the oil.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g plain flour
• 8 g baking powder
• 4 g bicarbonate of soda
• 6 g salt
• 250 ml cold water
• 20 ml flavourless oil, plus about 2 litres for frying

Method

1. TWO STRIPS ARE PRESSED TOGETHER WITH A CHOPSTICK and that is what makes it hollow. The pressed seam cannot expand and the free edges can, so each half pulls away from the seam in the oil and drags the inside open. A single strip fries into a dense finger however good the dough is.
2. THE DOUGH IS NEVER KNEADED AND IS BARELY HANDLED. It is folded three times with long rests. Worked dough springs back when cut, and a strip that springs back will not stretch into the oil.
3. Flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt whisked together dry and thoroughly -- an uneven raising agent gives one hollow stick and one solid one out of the same batch.
4. Water and oil poured in and turned with a spatula to a sticky shaggy mass. Covered, rested 20 minutes.
5. With a wet hand, lift one side of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the middle; turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, four folds in all. Cover, rest 20 minutes. Three times in total, then into the fridge overnight, at least 8 hours.
6. COLD DOUGH CUTS CLEANLY, and the long rest has done the work that kneading would have done badly.
7. Tipped onto a well-floured surface and PRESSED, not rolled hard, into a rectangle about 1 cm thick and 10 cm wide. Cut into strips 2 cm wide.
8. Strips stacked in pairs. A chopstick pressed down the length of each pair, hard enough to joint them firmly without cutting through.
9. Oil to 190C. Lower and they soak; much higher and the outside sets before the inside has opened.
10. A pair lifted by both ends, stretched to about 25 cm as it is carried, and laid into the oil away from you. It sinks and then rises.
11. TURNED CONSTANTLY, every few seconds, with chopsticks. One left still browns on one face and stays pale on the other, and the turning is also what keeps it swelling evenly. 2 to 3 minutes to deep gold all over.
12. Drained upright if you can manage it. Worth eating within the hour and not worth keeping.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes