Chinese donut (油条)

This is a popular Chinese dim-sum item and it is my daughter's favorite. I have finally earned my daughter's approval after a few attempts.

Ingredients:

Bread flour or All purpose flour - 2 cups
Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp　
Milk - 1 cup

Dry active yeast - 2 tsp

Oil for frying - depends on pot size

Material cost: Approx $1.60 (exclude oil)

The number of Chinese donuts you can make depends on the size. I split the dough and used it for two breakfast. You can keep the unused dough covered in refrigerator. 

Steps:

1. Warm up milk in microwave to 90 - 110°F (dry active yeast works best in this temperature). Mix in salt, sugar, yeast. Make sure all ingredient are fully dissolved.

2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda in the milk solution, knead until the surface is smooth. Cover the dough and leave it to rise under room temperature. ( I left it out overnight).

3. Take the raised dough out and knead it to make it smooth. Roll it out on pastry board to sheet about 1/8" thick. Cut the sheet into strips of about 1/2" wide. 

 4. Lay two strips, one on top of the other; Use a chopstick, or back of a dinner knife to press the middle to indent it.

5. In a frying pan/pot, heat up the cooking oil until you can see small bubbling. Pick up the strips and stretch it before drop in oil. Use chopstick to roll it in the oil pan. Fry until it is golden.

Tips for success:

1. The oil should be deep. There should be enough room for your end product to roll in the oil freely.
2. The oil should be hot when you drop the donut strip in. The donut expands within the second you drop it.
3. The strip should be thin. The thinner the strip, the more puffy your donut will be. Remember to stretch the strip just before dropping in oil pan.