Puff puff

Ingredients

• Flour500 g
• Dry yeast10 g
• Sugar100 g
• Warm water400 ml
• Nutmeg½ tsp
• Salt1 tsp
• Oil for frying1.5 l
• Icing sugar — to serve40 g

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and leave it ten minutes, until it foams.

   12 min

2. 2

   Whisk in the flour, nutmeg and salt to a smooth loose batter without lumps.

   8 min

3. 3

   Cover it and leave it somewhere warm for an hour; it should double and bubble all over.

   62 min

4. 4

   Heat the oil to 170 °C and test with a drop of batter; it should surface within two seconds.

   8 min

5. 5

   Take batter in your palm and squeeze a ball out between thumb and forefinger straight into the oil.

   12 min

6. 6

   Fry three minutes, turning them with a slotted spoon, to an even golden brown.

   18 min

7. 7

   Drain them on paper and serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.

   5 min

About the dish

The batter is loose, like thick soured cream, and it is never kneaded. A firm dough gives a doughnut; what is wanted is a ball with large bubbles inside, and only a loose batter gives them.

The batter is squeezed through the fist: the hand closes and a ball emerges between thumb and forefinger. A spoon gives teardrops with tails rather than spheres.

The oil is held at 170 °C. Hotter, and the crust burns before the middle bakes, leaving raw batter inside.

Worth knowing

• — Wet your hand before each ball. Otherwise the batter clings to the palm and will not release.
• — Fry five or six at a time. An overloaded pan drops in temperature and the puff puff soak up oil instead of puffing.
• — Give the batter the full hour to rise. Under-risen, it gives dense heavy balls with no bubbles inside.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

320 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

48 g

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