Binangkal
Dense flour balls coated in sesame and fried low and slow so the middle cooks through.
Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).
Ingredients
- 400 g plain flour
- 100 g caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
- 60 g butter, melted
- 1 egg
- 180 ml milk
- 120 g sesame seeds
- oil, for deep frying
Method
- 150C, NOT 180C, AND SEVEN MINUTES. This is a solid ball of dough with no hollow in it, unlike the cascaron on this site, which is rice flour and cooks fast. At normal frying heat the sesame burns black while the centre is raw paste. Low and slow is the whole technique.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then the melted butter, egg and milk, to a soft dough. Do not knead it -- work it just until it comes together.
- Rest it 20 minutes so the flour hydrates. Fried straight away it tastes floury however long it cooks.
- Roll into balls about 3 cm across, which is as big as they can be and still cook through. Keep them even -- a batch of different sizes cannot all be right at the same moment.
- Roll each ball in a bowl of water for a second, then in the sesame seeds. Water, not egg: egg makes the seeds clump and go dark, water makes them stick in a single even coat.
- Press the seeds on gently. Loose seeds come off in the oil and burn in it, and burnt sesame flavours the whole pan.
- Oil to 150C. Five or six balls at a time, no more.
- 7 to 8 minutes, turning them often so they colour evenly and the seeds on the underside do not catch.
- Break the first one open before frying the rest. The crumb should be dry and open all the way through; if there is a wet core, drop the heat and give the next batch another two minutes.
- Drain on a rack. They are meant to be firm and dense, not light.
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.
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