油条 Chinese Crullers You Char Kway

One of my favourite comfort food is rice porridge or congee. Its the beauty of combining a soup and rice that seals the deal for me. Recently, I had a craving for the crunchy youtiao (油条) which I like as the finishing garnish on my porridge with pepper and a dash of soy sauce. I missed how I can dunk them into the porridge and feel the semi-crunchiness with hint of pepper and soy sauce all in one mouthful. So, I decided to try them again. Yup, this is one of those experimental thing I tried in 2007 and it didn't came out well - it was more like a fried biscuit then.

My main reference for this recipe comes from Cherry's kitchen, this particular post kinda of combines all three very typical Singaporean snacks. I also made the soymilk and beancurd (the next upcoming post) and oo.....it's just so good with everything freshly made!

One thing I didn't really like is the amount of oil one have to use to have perfect 油条, so I kinda of play cheat i.e I cut the youtiao into shorter slices and I didn't use as much oil that the crullers can float in. What happens was one side is nicely puffed up, the other side is flat. ! I adjusted some ingredients because I don't have the exact one or I didn't have at all (ammonia)But it still taste good! So here's my successful 2011 experiment :)

Ingredients (for 10 long double pieces)
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 level teaspoon alum

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

220ml water
glutinous rice flour for coating and handling of dough

Steps

1. In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder together and mix well.
   
   
   
2. In a separate bowl (expect some bubbling action here), stir the alum, salt, baking soda and water together until all are dissolved.
   
   
   
3. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture until the dough comes together. Cover and let it sit for 15 minutes before *punching down the dough 8 times, folding it over 4 times and flipping the dough over to let it rest for another 15 minutes. 
4. Repeat * 4 times. Then rub some oil/margarine over the dough and let it rest for at least 4 hours or overnight. (I let mine rest in the fridge overnight).
5. Take the dough out of the fridge an hour before you intend to fry it to let it return to room temperature.
   
   
   
6. Divide the dough into two parts and roll each part into a rectangle. Slice each rectangle into 10 strips and place one strip on top of another.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Take the back of a knife and indent in the middle before frying the dough strips. Stretch the dough by pulling it gently in opposite directions.
   
   
   
8. Make sure the oil is hot and should be deep enough that the dough strips can float and you can turn it over easily.
9. Fry until both sides are golden brown and serve it as it is, or with porridge or soy milk.