Destination
Hong Kong
The story
Yautiau ("oil sticks") is China's original fried breakfast pastry and one of the great partnerships in Hong Kong food: long twin strips of yeasted dough pinched together and deep-fried in hot oil until they puff into hollow, crackly golden rods. Torn into pieces and dunked into a bowl of hot juk (congee), wrapped inside a soft cheung fun rice roll, or eaten straight with a cup of hot soy milk. Sold from every dim sum shop, every congee cart, every corner bakery in the city from 6am. The yautiau-and-congee combination is Hong Kong's morning classic.
Method
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate and yeast. Add the egg and warm milk. Mix on low until it comes together, then knead 6 minutes on medium. Add the oil and knead 2 more minutes until smooth. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.
Cover the bowl with cling film and rise at room temperature for 2 hours, then refrigerate overnight (or for at least 4 hours). The long slow rise develops the specific stretch that helps yautiau puff in the oil.
Take the dough out of the fridge 1 hour before frying to warm slightly.
Turn the dough onto a well-oiled surface (no flour; oil prevents sticking). Pat and stretch the dough into a rectangle about 30cm x 20cm and 1cm thick. Cut into strips 2cm wide and 20cm long.
Place two strips on top of each other. Press a chopstick or a butter knife firmly down the length of the pair, pinching them together so they stick and form the classic two-lobed shape.
Heat the oil in a deep wide pot to 190°C (375°F). A small piece of dough should rise and turn deep gold within 15 to 20 seconds.
Working one at a time: pick up a pinched pair with both hands, gently stretch it to about 25cm long (the dough is very elastic), and lower carefully into the hot oil. Fry 1 to 2 minutes per side, turning with tongs, spooning oil over the top, until the yautiau puffs into a hollow rod and turns deep gold.
Lift onto kitchen paper. Serve immediately, torn into 5cm pieces, alongside hot juk for dunking or hot soy milk. Best eaten within 30 minutes of frying.
Tips
- Long cold ferment is the whole trick. Refrigerating the dough overnight develops the specific stretchy, holey structure that puffs into a hollow tube when fried. Skip the cold ferment and you get flat, dense fried sticks.
- Oiled surface, not floured. Yautiau dough is worked on an oiled bench, not a floured one. Extra flour makes the finished dough tough; oil keeps everything sliding smoothly.
- Pinch pairs together with pressure. The two strips need to actually stick together during frying, or they separate and you get single flat sticks (still edible, less traditional). A chopstick pressed hard down the centre is the classic technique.
- 190°C is the target. Below that, the dough absorbs oil and stays flat. Above 200°C, the outside burns before the middle puffs. A thermometer earns its keep here.
- Stretch before dropping in the oil. The last stretch is what gives yautiau its long thin shape and helps it puff evenly. Handle the dough gently; the elasticity of the long cold ferment is what carries the puff.
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