Why are fritters hard? Not fluffy? The key is to knead the dough and not let the dough become gluten

The most critical part of frying fritters: control the dough without gluten.

When frying fritters, the oil temperature is about 200 degrees, and the fritters must swell up in a short time. In the raw embryo of fried dough sticks, the gluten is in a loose state, which is conducive to rapid expansion; Gluten entanglement, which is what we often call gluten, will stop the fritters from expanding rapidly.

In fact, a dough can be kneaded twice to produce gluten, so to fluffy fritters, you need to start from the dough and the dough until the fritters are raw and the embryo is in the pot, and the whole process must pay attention to not producing gluten, that is, the whole process can not knead the dough.

If you can't knead the dough, how can you make fried dough sticks and noodles? There is a proper noun for fried dough sticks and noodles: fried noodles. Below I will use pictures and explanations to explain the recipe of fritters, the dough technique and a few details that are easy to overlook, to ensure that after reading this article, you can easily make crispy and fluffy fritters.

Three recipes for churros:

There are three types of popular churros recipes, the most famous being the traditional saline alum fritters, which contain aluminium and have been phased out in many regions and will not be covered in this article.

Then there is ammonium bicarbonate fritters, ammonium bicarbonate is a commonly used fertilizer in agriculture, and it is called stinky powder in the south. Food-grade ammonium bicarbonate produces ammonia, carbon dioxide and water when heated, which can be completely volatilized during the frying process, so frying fritters with stinky powder is not as unhealthy as some students think. However, this kind of fritters must be completely fried, otherwise it will smell of ammonia, and ammonium bicarbonate is not easy to buy and not easy to preserve, so it is not recommended for home use.

The third type is baking powder fritters. Most of the fritters that claim to be alum-free and aluminum-free adopt this practice. Of course, the traditional baking powder also contains aluminum, this practice must use aluminum-free baking powder or aluminum-free fritters leavening agent, this article takes aluminum-free baking powder fritters as an example.

Alum-free and aluminum-free fritters recipe: 500 grams of flour, 15 grams of aluminum-free baking powder, 5-8 grams of salt, 20 grams of vegetable oil, 1 egg, 240 grams of water. This is a basic recipe, if you want to add flavor, you can add milk powder, sugar to the flour, the same method. (The formula doesn't have a lot of water because the eggs still provide about 60 grams of water)

Alum-free aluminum-free fritters practice:

1. Prepare two pots and mix all the flour, baking powder, salt and other ingredients in one basin; Mix all liquids such as water, eggs, vegetable oil, etc. in a separate basin.

   
   

2. Pour the liquid into a flour bowl. A simple emulsion mixed with water, eggs, and oil will keep baking powder from releasing gas prematurely.

3. Stir the flour into dough with chopsticks, be careful not to stir in circles, you can stir from the four sides to the middle, or cross to avoid gluten in the dough.

4. Start kneading the dough, clench your hands into a fist, press the dough, press every part of the dough, after you have finished kneading one side, turn the dough over and then roll the other side.

5. If the dough is too wet and easy to get on your hands, you can apply a little oil. After pressing it once, cover and relax for 10 minutes, then rub it a second time, and repeat it three times, and the dough will be reconciled.

6. Grease the bottom of the basin, put the dough in the basin, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

7. Start making fried dough sticks, sprinkle the flour on the panel, take out the dough, do not knead the dough, stretch it directly and flatten it, because the dough has very little gluten, it is easy to form a strip, and then cut it into half a centimeter thick and 2-3 cm wide dough sheets.

8. Stack the two dough sheets together, and use chopsticks to press a line on the two dough sheets to let the two dough sheets stick together (if the dough is relatively dry, you can use another chopstick to dip water on the dough sheet first, so that the middle of the dough sheet becomes wet, so that it will not separate when frying)

9. Press the line, pick up two dough sheets, and gently pull them, and a raw embryo of angular fritters is ready.

10. The oil temperature in the pot is 200 degrees, put in the fritters, it will sink at first, wait for the fritters to float, and after the initial set, then use chopsticks to turn the fritters to let it heat evenly.

11. Fry until golden brown on both sides, remove the oil. As you can see, this churro is very fluffy. (Because the pot I use is relatively small, the fritters I make are shorter)

12. If you pull a dough sheet and put it directly into the oil pan, it will be fried like the above, very hard and very small. The fritters are heated to produce gas, which is like blowing up a balloon, causing the fritters to inflate. When a single root is in the hot oil, the outer layer quickly hardens, which is equivalent to wearing a layer of shell, preventing the fritters from continuing to expand. The contact surface of the two stacked on top of each other will not be fried hard and will always remain soft, and the gas inside will easily "blow" the fritters.

Additional Notes:

1. In the whole process of dough dough from mixing to frying, it is necessary to prevent the dough from glutening, you can think of the gluten as a ball of wool, which can be folded and pressed, but not folded and twisted. (Kneading dough is equivalent to twisting)

2. In principle, baking powder and dough should be heated within one or two hours, but fritters need several hours to relax gluten, so ordinary baking powder is not suitable for making fritters, and in this fritter recipe, the amount of baking powder reaches 3%, which is much higher than making other pasta, and it is a last resort. It is recommended to reduce the baking powder to 2%, that is, 10 grams of baking powder, and then add 3 grams of yeast, the effect is also very good, the disadvantage is that the fritters are a little less crispy.

3. For students who open a store to make fritters, it is recommended to use a baking powder specially used for frying fritters - fritter leavening agent, and now most businesses have also switched to this baking powder for frying fritters, the effect is much better than ordinary baking powder, and the cost is the same as ordinary baking powder.

4. The above is the basic recipe, and it is also a traditional taste when it is done well. Sugar, milk (or milk powder) are added to the basic recipe, and the fried fritters are similar to the taste of old-fashioned butter bread, which is also popular.