​Silk Road Souvenirs

​Fried Dough Twists

Sanzi is a fried dough snack of the Hui people of the Xinjiang (shin-jiang) Uyghur (WEE-gur) Autonomous Region of China. To make sanzi, dough is made from flour, oil, Chinese prickly ash, and egg white. The dough is shaped into spaghetti-like noodles. These noodles are then deep-fried and arranged in a circular pattern and stacked to form a beehive-like pyramid. Throughout Xinjiang you can find sanzi for sale in Uyghur supermarkets or local bakeries.
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Try making fried dough twists.

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 2 Tbsp. of oil
• 4 Tbsp. of sugar
• 2 tsp. of active dry yeast

What Else is Needed?

• Frying pan or deep fryer
• Additional oil
• Tongs
• Paper towels
• Plate

Directions:

1. Place the yeast into warm milk and stir until combined.
2. Place all ingredients in a big bowl and knead until doughy. Place to the side.
3. When the dough doubles in size, split the dough into several small balls about three inches wide.
4. Place both hands on top of one piece of dough. Knead right and left and back and forth to shape each ball of dough into a long, skinny roll about 8 inches long.
5. Repeat step 4 with three other balls of dough.
6. Stack the four skinny rolls on top of one another so that the ends line up. Pinch the ends on both sides together.
7. Bring both sets of ends and pinch them together to form a circle.
8. Twirl the circle to form a twist.
9. Repeat steps 4 through 7 until all balls of dough are twirled into a twist.
10. Place about ¼ inch of oil into frying pan or in deep fryer according to deep fryer directions.
11. Place dough twists into heated oil. Use tongs to turn the twists to heat evenly.
12. Place a paper towel onto a plate.
13. When golden brown, lift each twist from the oil and place them onto the plate. Place a paper towel on top of the twists to drain additional oil.

Recipe based on the following website: http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/134Kaleidoscope7778.html

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