Simple Baking: Fry Bread

Inside is airy, puffy, moist and light. Outside is crispy. A very tasty bread. The method used here is slightly different from the usual Indian fry breads, I noticed. A satisfactory experiment for me.

Oops, not a good photo here :)

Recipe from here ( China cookbook)

(A)
Bread flour 400g
Instant dry yeast 4g
Milk 416g

(B)
Plain flour 200g
Lye 4g ( I used 1/2 teaspoon baking powder instead)
Salt 8g

Method ( with alteration in kneading method)
1. Take 4 tablespoons from your lukewarm milk, add in 1 teaspoon sugar and whisk to dissolve the yeast. It should become frothy very quickly. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour. Gently warm up the remaining milk to lukewarm again and add into the flour as well. Use a chopstick, stir and mix everything in (A). Cover and let it rise until it become 3 times bigger ( in about 3 to 4 hours).

2. Pour (B) into (A), stir and mix into a soft dough. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. Gentle fold, knead and stretch for 10 seconds. Cover and leave for 10 minutes. Do twice more for the 10 minute interval. Dough should be glossy and smooth by now. Cover and let it rise for an hour, or until it has doubled it's size.

3. Transfer dough to the oiled work surface, punch down air. Divide dough evenly into 2 long pieces of flat dough, let it rest for 10 minutes. Using your hands, gently stretch it out longer. Pat down to flatten or smoothen the dough. Cut into 4 pieces (each piece about 8cm wide), altogether 8 pieces (see picture below).
Cover the top with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes.

4. Using your hands, stretch and lengthen each piece gently . Now, using your finger tips, apply a little pressure all areas of the surface. Let it rest again for 30 minutes. By now, you should see the dough puffing up nicely.

5. Use a sharp knife, make two slits for each piece of dough (see picture below)

6. Set up deep frying pan with enough oil in it. Sit a bamboo chopstick in the centre , if you see bubbles around the chopstick, meaning the oil is ready for deep frying. Now, change to medium high heat, keep turning both sides, constantly moving, shifting the bread during frying. When it turns golden brown, it is done.