Our group of Malaysian ladies attempted making Yau Char Kwai this month. We tried out two recipes and one turn out really well and one failed miserably. Not sure what went wrong with the failed recipe as we follow the ingredients and instructions to the T. Anyhow, we were glad Agnes Chang recipe turns out so well with less work and proofing time compare to the other one. The YCK were light with hollow texture on the inside. So the next time if we are going to make this again we will just stick to this recipe.
For more information about the Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai please read here. As for more information on Ammonia Powder please refer to here. For me information for Alum please refer here .
Ingredients A
(Adapted from Agnes Chang’s Hawker’s Delights with minor changes)
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp lukewarm water
Ingredients B
250 ml water
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp Ammonia powder (chow fun)
½ tsp of Alum (pak fun)
Ingredient C
300 grm bread flour (we used 320 grm)
1 tsp salt
1. Mix all the ingredients A and set it aside for 10 – 15 minutes until it get foamy.
2. Mix ingredients B. Sift ingredient C into a mixing bowl. Add in mixture of A and B into the flour. Used a wooden spoon, mix the dough until well combined. Knead it for 5 minutes and if the dough is too sticky to work with add a little bit more flour.
3. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 2 hours.
5. In the meantime, prepare oil for deep frying.
6. Press lightly on the two strips of dough with a chopstick. Holds both ends of the dough and stretch the strips a little and lower into hot oil. Deep fry, turning constantly until each cruller turns puffy and golden brown.
Note: The dough is pretty sticky to work with so make sure your work surface, hands and utensils are well coated with flour.
44 comments:
I have been waiting for this! Your cooking gathering sounds so fun, I wish I were there... by the way, do you know if I could skip the Alum?
Hey these looks like those selling outside! I'm sure its as tasty as those selling outside too..;) Bravo!!
Yes! Like store-bought, looks crispy and nice!
Wah Wah Wah!!!!!
Kopi O Satu!!!!
Hi
I too just made YCK like 2 days ago ! I used the recipe from Lily Ng. The recipe is similar to yours except no yeast. It was just Bread flour, salt, water, alum, soda bicarbonate and ammonia
How's the texture of your recipe ? Is it doughy like bread cos of the presence of yeast ?
Would love to hear your comments
Thanks and Blessings
Christine
Oh lovely! I just had these with a bowl of porridge for dinner yesterday! Your YCK look very professional!
good job with the yck, malaysians boleh
I love this when it is hot and still crispy. I tend to do the "old Malaysian" style of dunking it into kopi-o.
Wah! your YCK look so good. I always like to dip YCK in my coffee.
Wah, kudos to you! Though I love yau zar gwai, I doubt I'll make it simply because they're deep-fried. Nowadays, I eat less of this too. Hey, I didn't know of dunking it into kopi-O to serve it. I'd been taught the Taiwanese way of dunking it into soy milk! LOL!
Gert, keep it up! Don't stop amazing me! =) Enjoy the last months of summer before fall hits. I'm expecting something pumpkin/squash, apples here ... LOL!
Arr...soo nice Gert! I also want to make you tiao! Yours look really puffed and nicely fried! Hopefully I can get my hands on it soon....
Looks great! I like Agnes Chang's recipes. We always buy this at the Vietnamese bakery shop.
looks like store-bought, yummy
They look really good! I am not a big fan of YCK. Whenever I see them in my Cantonese congee, I will sweep them aside and pass them to my hubby ;P
they really look good!! lucky you guys have so many ppls to share this gems!!...for me it's so sad...if I don't eat or finish trash it's will go...so now I seldom make any kuih..wish I can have one and dip wt my coffee now!! talking about dipping YCK wt coffee make ,this method of eating make my hongKies boss shocked!he said how can we eat YCK dipping in coffee and make our coffee so oily and dirty? in return I said why hongkies dipped their YCK in soy milk? same concept lor but different liquid only!
gert..i suka makan ni...mcm tu aje panas2 pon boleh...haha
Wah,cantiklah Gert punya YCK. Mama dah lama tak buat dan dah lama tak makan YCK.
Hi sis Gert,
Memang cantik char kwai sis Gert. Sedap dicicah ngan kaya pandan ni. yum yum...
Gertrude..I want to make this too..haha yours look crispy and like those stall bought ones :) Kudos to you :)
Wow, good job! I'll love to dip it in kopi-O!
They are great once in a while...esp. dip into the soya milk.
Oh no, this also you can made huh, I think you can open a Asian restaurant at your place, sure good business. I like YCK dip with coffee, porridge, Bah Kut Teh& etc, yummy yummy.
Wow, so happy for you ladies! The YCK look very successful. I like it with my coffee. Hope you're enjoying your day.
Cheers, Kristy
p/s have you tried the YCK recipe without using the Alum? I really wanted to try without the Alum cause it's not good to our health.
These are great!
Wow! Nice!! I wanna try to make it, what is Ammonia powder (chow fun) and Alum (pak fun)??
Shirley, yea it is fun to get together once a month. I am not sure if you can omit the alum or not. I infact plan to try this out with the alum and ammonia. Will let you know if it turn out well or not.
Reese, thank you.
Jessie, thanks.
Wendy, it was great with Kopi O :)
Christine, they texture were really light and airy except not as cripsy as the one we get from Malaysia. I am curious to know how your YCK turn out using Lily's recipe?
Jeannie & Lily, thank you.
Jo, oh yea we Malaysian love dunking it in Kopi O
Anncoo, thanks.
Pei Lin, if I am in Malaysia I will never attempt making this as we can get it easily. Oh yes, dunking it in Kopi O is so Malaysian.
Bee Bee, looking forward to see yours :)
LCOM, I don't like the one sold here. They are soft and very oily.
Jess, thanks.
Tigerfish, ha ha I actually like it in my rice porridge.
Lesley, yes we have quite a few Malaysian family here so it is nice to gather together once a month to cook, eat and catching up with each other. Actually we have been eating YCK dunk in Kopi O since young. There were good.
Jun, memang lah sedap makan panas panas :)
Mamafami, thank you. Petang ni pergi kat pasar malam mesti ada jual ni :)
Indahhouse, thank you. Memang sedap cicah dengan kaya atau kuah kacang.
Elin & Cheah, thank you.
Angie, yes it is.
Sonia, ha ha what to do. Craving for it have to made it ourselves lor. I too like it in porridge and BKT. We always asked for more YCK to go with it.
Kristy, I am going to try it out without Alum the next time I make this again. We actually reduced the amount of ammonia and alum when we made this.
Chriese, thanks.
Mysimplefood, please refer to the link a provided in this post.
Looks good! I love to dip YCK in porridge!
I love this. :))
yau char kwai dipped in condensed milk oh yums... or dipped in Bah Kut Teh soup, double yum..
Just had this last week - twice - once for breakfast - once with bkt! Love it!
Hi
I can send you photos of my YCK from Lily's recipe.
You can email me directly or you can give me your email so that I can email to you = )
My YCK was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The next day... it was soft all over but a trip into the oven makes it all crispy again.
Leemei, thank you.
Surin, thanks.
Swee San, mmmm I never eat it with condensed milk. I have to try it one day.
The Sudden Cook, yea we love our YCK in Porridge and BKT.
Christine, Since you didn't leave your email address so I guess you have to email it to me :) My email address is at my profile. Thanks.
I'm really impressed with the wide variety of Asian food you can make :D
Hi, I want to try making these, but I can't find ammonia powder anywhere. I looked at all the grocery stores nearby and even tried looking at oriental stores too but no luck.
I was wondering if you would know a certain store that sells it or if I can use something else as a substitute for it. Thanks!
Ruby, you can get Amonia powder from the Vietnamese grocery store. I saw them the last time I shop there. I am in PA and the Vietnamese supermarket is called
1st Oriental and it is at Washington and 7th Street.
I'm going to try this recipe this weekend! I've tried other ones that are similar without yeast and they turn out OK, but always soft and limp and not crunchy like the ones they sell in Hong Kong. Do you have a recipe for "Ngau Lay So"...or "Ox Tongue Pastry" for a literal translation. I've been searching for that one for so long, but have not found one. Your blog is wonderful!
Atlas 1059, homemade one will never be as crunchy as the one sold outside. This crullers will soften too in a few hours. The Ox tougue pastry you are refering to sound like what we called Mah Keok. Is this what you are looking for? http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2010/05/horses-hoofmah-keok.html
Hi, it is somewhat similar to what Lily's recipe says...a little sweeter than the usual mah keok. But it definitely looks similar in the sense that there is a slight split in the middle. Thanks again!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I will definitely try it. It's hard to get freshly made recipe yau char kwai in Ipoh in the evenings.
hey i'm living in kl malaysia, please tell me where can i find ammonia and alum in here :(... i've been looking all over the place tesco, giant and none of the carries it...
thankss :)
KL Girl, you are welcome.
Irene, you have to get ammonia and alum from the bakery supply shops. There are everywhere in KL. One of them is Bake with Yen.
Hi there. Just checking if your Yau Char Kwai (Chinese Cruellers) have any ammonia tasting after frying? Please reply. Thank you.
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