Chinese breadsticks

SERVES 2-4

250g plain flour

1 egg (vegan option: 1tbsp vegetable oil mixed with ½tsp baking powder)

½tsp salt

1½tsp baking powder

1tbsp milk (vegan option: soya milk)

2tbsp softened butter (vegan option: vegetable or olive oil spread)

1 litre oil (vegetable, groundnut or coconut), for frying

cook's digital thermometer

Using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, mix the flour, egg, salt, baking powder, milk and softened butter together on the lowest setting. Keeping the speed at ‘stir’, slowly add 75ml water in 2 or 3 batches. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for 10 minutes. The dough should feel very soft, but should not stick to the bowl.

Cover the dough with a damp cloth or cling film and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

On a clean, lightly floured surface, form the dough into a long, flat loaf shape, around

1cm thick and 10cm wide. Take the time to make it truly uniform. Place it in the centre of a large piece of cling film on a baking sheet or long, flat plate and wrap the dough, tucking the two ends of the film under the loaf, ensuring that the dough is completely covered. Chill overnight if possible, but for at least 2 hours.

Retrieve the dough and let it sit on the work surface (wrapped) for 1-2 hours until the dough comes up to room temperature and is soft to the touch. This step is critical. If you don’t let the dough come back to room temperature, it won’t fry properly.

Now heat the oil for frying in your wok or in a wide, deepsided frying pan. The goal is to have a large vessel, so that you can produce authentically long breadsticks. Use a medium heat to slowly bring the oil up to 180C.

While the oil is heating up, you can unwrap the dough. Gently flip the dough onto a lightly floured surface, peeling off the cling film. Lightly flour the top of the dough. Next, cut the dough into 2.5cm wide strips (try to cut an even number of strips), then stack the strips two by two and press down the centre, lengthways, with a chopstick, to make an impression. Hold the two ends of each piece, and gently stretch the dough to around 20cm.

Once the oil is ready, carefully lower one of the stretched dough pieces into the oil. If the temperature is right, the dough should come to the surface right away. Quickly turn the dough in a continuous motion for around a minute. You can fry a couple of dough pieces at a time – just be sure to take the time to continuously roll the dough in the oil. The breadsticks are done once they turn light golden brown. Try not to over-fry them as they become unpleasantly crunchy rather than chewy and delicious. Drain on kitchen paper while you fry the remaining dough strips.