Hello lovely friends, hope you’re all well. I haven’t been overly adventurous with food lately, but stumbled across this recipe recently that was just too good not to share!
It’s an intriguing method for making curry puff dough from Nyonya Cooking. Traditionally, this pastry is tricky to make – two types of dough are made and then laminated together to achieve the necessary flakiness. By contrast, this is the easiest pastry I’ve ever tried and it’s made in a completely different way – HOT oil is added to the flour, followed by COLD water. The link above has more information, including a video on how the dough is made. The oil appears to cook the flour a little first, making the pastry pliable and easy to manage.
It’s super simple (and as an added bonus, vegan) – 120g hot oil (we used canola) is poured on to 220g plain flour with 5g of salt added, then 70g of cold water is stirred in. It’s all made in a bowl with a spoon – no rubbing in of fats or kneading required. We made two batches, and on our second attempt, we increased the flour to 250g, reduced the salt to 4g, and added a touch more water.
I used my standard filling (see here) and baked the egg-washed puffs on a lined oven tray for 30 minutes at 180C with fan. The end result was absolutely brilliant – the pastry was easy to roll out and fill, and the puffs baked to tender, flaky perfection.
Definitely a keeper, and it will be a great foil for future vegan pastries as well! x
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Such a thrill to open my email and find your post. Thank you for this great recipe which I can’t wait to try. I have been trying to catch up with you on social media but not regularly as my life has been on fast forward for a couple of months. Hope you and your family are well and experiencing many moments of joy. I tried to post this on your blog but received a message that, that was not possible and, therefore, I resorted to a return email
Keep safe,
Merle
Sent from my iPad
These look fantastic! Thank you for sharing your recipes and sustainability initiatives. Your blog is a gem!
You inspired me to mend clothing, take an extra look at the stuff I have and see if it can be reused again or upcycled before throwing them away. In doing so, I’ve been sewing again and learning to compost. And making gifts by hand rather than just buy. Just trying to be more creative overall!
I’m so happy to hear that, thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind comment!
They look quite tasty!
Definitely trying them! I’ve made quiche and pie crust with olive oil and was surprised by how much I liked the result, so these go on my “to do list” for sure!
thank you!
Brilliant and so happy to ‘see/hear from’ you! we are well here despite weird weather.
So happy to see a post from you and these curry puffs look delicious!
Wow! This looks great! Thanks, Maz. <3
Bravo, Cecilia!
Oh Celia, so good to see your email when I opened up today. I do hope life is good for you.
They look perfect!
these look amazing, just what I need for our Christmas picnic I think. So lovely to have a post this month, merry Christmas to you and your family
So happy to get a recipe from you lovely lady. This is wonderful. I also saved and thought to make the difficult dough recipe you first mentioned then put it in the too hard basket so this sounds perfect. I hope you and your family are doing well right now. Can’t be easy down there. We had it great till now in Townsville and the boarders are open. See how it goes.. Take care. Sue. Xxx
How interesting! I wonder if it would work with something like British pork pies? Glad to know you’re all well, and you’re enjoying retirement. x
Happy New Year! I am very late getting caught up with posts but it is nice to see you on line again. This looks like a wonderful technique.
What a beautiful blog – your editorials (and recipes) are inspiring!