"Laughing" Sesame Ball(开口笑)

These sweet and crisp balls are traditional Chinese snack, originated in Beijing. The Chinese name literally means "Laughing". These small flour balls will be crackled during frying, like laughing. I modified the recipe from Xiachufang.

Ingredients

Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
All purpose flour - 1 and 3/4 cup
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Oil/clarified butter - 1 TBSP
White sesame - 1/2 cup

Steps

1. Add sugar and water in sauce pan, boil util sugar is fully dissolved. Set aside to cool down. 

2. In a mixing bowl, mix flour and baking soda; then add oil and sugar water to knead lightly  into a dough. If the dough is too dry, add up to 1 TBSP water. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

3. Portion the dough into small balls. Prepare a small dish of water. Dip each ball in water before roll it in sesame so that the sesame will stay on the ball.

4. Add oil in a sauce pan and heat up until 320°F, turn off heat, put in the sesame balls. The high temperature should cause the sesame ball to expand quickly and crack the surface. When the balls are starting to float, turn on low heat to fry until the balls are turning yellow. At the end, turn on high heat to quickly brown the balls.

5. Serve after the sesame balls are cool down.