You Tiao (油条) — Chinese Crullers: The Breakfast Tradition

Ingredients

• For the dough
• 300 g bread flour
• 4 g instant yeast
• 4 g aluminium-free baking powder
• 3 g baking soda
• 5 g fine salt
• 5 g sugar
• 200 ml warm water
• 15 ml neutral oil, plus a large quantity for deep-frying

Method

1. 1
   Combine the bread flour, instant yeast, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the warm water and neutral oil. Mix until a shaggy dough forms and all flour is incorporated — do not knead beyond this point. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky. Stop when it is just combined; sight confirms no dry flour remains.
2. 2
   Cover the bowl and leave the dough at room temperature for 1 hour. Transfer to the refrigerator and leave overnight. A cold, fully rested dough will be supple, cohesive, and markedly easier to stretch than an under-rested one; touch confirms it should yield gently without springing back sharply.
3. 3
   Heat a deep vessel of neutral oil to 190–200 °C. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: oil below this threshold — at 160–170 °C — will produce dense, oil-saturated crullers that do not expand; only oil at full temperature drives the rapid steam and leavener reaction that inflates the dough into its characteristic hollow, airy interior. Verify with a thermometer.
4. 4
   Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Pull or cut a strip approximately 30 cm long by 5 cm wide. Form a second identical strip. Lay one strip directly on top of the other. Press a chopstick firmly along the length of the center — this creates the weak seam at which the two strips will inflate away from each other during frying. The pressed line should be clearly visible by sight.
5. 5
   Gently lower the joined pair into the hot oil. Turn the cruller with chopsticks every 5–10 seconds throughout frying. Constant turning ensures even expansion and uniform browning on all surfaces. Fry for 2–3 minutes total. The you tiao is done when it is deep gold all over, visibly puffed, and the two sticks have inflated away from each other at the pressed seam.
6. 6
   Lift the cruller from the oil and drain. The finished you tiao should be golden brown all over. A tap on the exterior produces a faintly hollow sound, confirming the airy interior. The shell should be thin and crisp, giving way under gentle pressure to a light, slightly chewy crumb.