Clem's "Chinese" Cruellers
 
 

Most Chinese have had this deep fried dough stick at breakfast at some stage of their lives. The name of this culinary item is youtiao in Mandarin and eu cha kueh ("cake fried in oil") in Hokkein.

It is commonly had by itself, cut up and served with split mung bean gruel, or cut up and served with congee. In Sydney, it is rare to find this delicacy offered for sale except maybe in localities such as Cabramatta and Eastwood. Thus, it has been a long time since I have had eu cha kueh.

But, yesterday, I discovered a hack on TikTok for making this dough stick. Quite simple. Here's how:

 

INGREDIENTS

  • A pack or two of supermarket fresh pizza dough (250 g each)
    These can be found in Aldi, Coles and Woolworth's.
    I bought the Aldi and Coles doughs for comparison (the latter was easier to handle but both tasted the same).

    Both the Aldi and Coles dough balls are already salted enough.
     

  • Flour for dusting.
     

  • High smoke point cooking oil
    I used Peanut Oil.

     
    •

METHOD

  1. Remove the dough ball from its packet and let it rest/come to room temperature on the bench (dough balls are sold refrigerated).
    This will take at least an hour or so.

    The bought pizza dough balls do not have live yeast as leavening agents (they have baking soda instead) and so the resting is not about yeast but rather letting it come up in temperature and for the gluten in the dough to rest particularly after stretching. You will not see the dough rise during resting as no gas is formed until high heat is applied.
     
  2. Dust your hands with flour and also the working surface for rolling out the dough.
     
  3. Stretch the ball into a rectangular shape and place this on the working surface.

    You will find that the dough will likely want to shrink back to a smaller size.

    Repeat this procedure with ten minute breaks in between and the dough will become more relaxed and stay in the shape you have made it into.
     
  4. When the dough is relaxed relaxed enough, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a long rectangular shape about 3 - 5 mm thick.

    Dust the dough with flour as you go along to prevent sticking.
  

Two dough balls resting under plastic wrap               

          

               Stretched dough ball

 
 
  1. Now, cut the dough into battens about 5 - 7 mm wide.
     
  2. It is good to dust the cut surfaces with flour (this will prevent these surfaces sticking together during frying).
     
  3. Using a chopstick or something similar, draw a line with a little bit of water along the centre of a dough batten then place another batten on top of it.
    Now use the chopstick to press down on the whole length of the batten to seal the two pieces along the watered centre.
    This step will make for the characteristic shape of a dough stick when fried (two rounded sticks stuck together).
  


 

 

Stretched dough cut into battens                      

 

       Cut battens placed one on top of another and pressed sealed
 
  1. Heat up your high smoke point oil until a wooden chopstick dipped in it begins to bubble. This will be the right temperature for frying.
     
  2. Hold each end of a double batten dough in a hand, slightly stretch apart and then let the middle enter the hot oil first and then two ends.
    Fry until golden brown with much monitoring and turning over to equalize the colour obtained.
     
  3. Drain onto paper towels.
    Let the sticks cool and then consume warm as they will get soggier with time.

    I found that the resulting sticks were only semi-crispy even when straight out of the fryer and so you might want to try placing fried sticks into an air fryer and leave them for some 5 minutes at 160oC to make them crispier. Take care and closely monitor the sticks in the air fryer if you do this because they can be easily burnt if left too long.
  


Clem's "Chinese" cruellers made from supermarket fresh pizza dough
 

 

 

www.clemkuek.com

 

30 June 2026
 

 



Created by Clem Kuek