**The Art of Making Perfect Patunko**

Making patunko, a traditional Filipino dessert, is an art that requires patience, skill, and attention to detail. As I embarked on this journey, I realized that it's not just about following a recipe, but also about understanding the nuances of the dough and the cooking process.

**The Crispy Outside and Soft Inside**

One of the key characteristics of patunko is its crispy exterior and soft interior. To achieve this, I make sure to fry the dough balls until they're golden brown and crispy on the outside, while still retaining their tenderness inside. This requires a delicate balance of frying time and temperature, as overcooking can result in a dense or chewy texture.

**The Importance of Absorbing Excess Oil**

After frying, I place the patunko balls on paper towels to absorb excess oil. This is crucial, as too much oil can make the dessert greasy and unpleasant to eat. By absorbing most of the oil, I ensure that my patunko has a crispy exterior and a tender interior.

**The Teachable Moment**

Unfortunately, not all my attempts were successful. Some patunko balls didn't turn out well, either because they came apart or didn't cook evenly. These mistakes served as valuable lessons, teaching me the importance of handling the dough gently and monitoring its cooking time carefully.

**Diverse Variations**

While traditional patunko is made with a simple dough recipe, there are many variations that can be explored. I experimented with different fillings, such as condensed milk, soy milk, and pandan coconut custard, each adding unique flavors and textures to the dessert.

**The Role of Condensed Milk**

One of the key components of patunko is the sweet, sticky condensation milk that coats its surface. When dipped in this milk, the patunko ball becomes indulgently sweet and velvety soft. However, overcooking can result in a dense or chewy texture, so it's essential to find the perfect balance between cooking time and temperature.

**Soy Milk: A Dairy-Free Alternative**

For those who require dairy-free options, soy milk provides an excellent substitute for traditional condensed milk. Made from fermented soybeans, this beverage offers a rich, creamy flavor that complements patunko perfectly.

**The Importance of Smell**

As I cooked the patunko balls, I made sure to check on them frequently, not just by looking but also by smell. The aroma of freshly fried dough is unmistakable, and when it's cooked perfectly, the resulting dessert emits a sweet, savory scent that's both alluring and appetizing.

**A Recipe for Perfection**

After countless attempts and failures, I finally perfected my patunko recipe. With its crispy exterior and soft interior, this traditional Filipino dessert has earned a spot in my heart – and on my table. If you're interested in trying your hand at making patunko, be sure to check out the full recipe on Hot Thai Kitchen.com.

**A Call to Action**

If you enjoy watching cooking videos or following recipes from around the world, make sure to subscribe to Hot Thai Kitchen for regular updates and new content. Don't forget to click the bell icon to receive notifications when a new video is posted, and feel free to share your own experiences with patunko on social media using hashtags #patunko #filipinodesserts #hotthaikitchen.

**Conclusion**

Making patunko is an art that requires patience, skill, and attention to detail. From frying the dough balls to coating them in sweet condensed milk or soy milk, every step is crucial in achieving perfection. With practice and experimentation, anyone can master this traditional Filipino dessert and enjoy its crispy exterior and soft interior.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is sponsored by squarespace an all-in-one platform to build a beautiful  website get 10 off your first purchase by going to squarespace.com pailin's kitchen  welcome to hot thai kitchen so today i am finally making a recipe that's possibly  the most requested recipe of all time and i just haven't made it for various reasons so i am making  what's called pa tong go which many call thai donuts but really they are the thai version of chinese  donuts so this is something that's a street food you can find them usually only in the morning  because it's a breakfast kind of thing and people buy them and eat them with sweetened condensed  milk which is my favorite way or with a pandan coconut custard or with hot soy milk or with  congee so it's a breakfast thing but this isn't something people make at home very much because  to be honest with you it is not easy like it requires a lot of technique it requires practice  um to get it really really good like you can make some version of it but to make it  perfect it requires a bit of technique so most people just buy it however since i'm far away  from the source you most of you are far away from the source let's try to make it ourselves and i  finally come up with a recipe that i'm so happy with it took me many tries and i think it's the  simplest and i'm going to show you all the tricks and tips and technique to make sure that you are  successful all right let's get started this is an extremely simple dough which actually means every  single ingredient that you use is important so i have some all-purpose flour here i'm going to  add some corn starch and i'm going to sift the cornstarch in so most recipes that you find in  thailand would just call for flour and no corn starch but i have found that the flour that they  use in thailand are low gluten flour for patonko and the problem with batungo if you have high  gluten it becomes really tough and really hard to work with and it's not going to be puffy and airy  because it's going to be a lot denser so i find that cutting the cornstarch with a little bit  of flat no cutting the flour with a little bit of cornstarch really makes a difference so i'm just  going to whisk that together well and i sifted the cornstarch because sometimes corn starch can get  clumpy and i am going to work this dough so little that i want to make sure the dry ingredients are  well mixed so i don't get any uneven distribution of the corn starch okay that's it the rest of our  ingredients are very simple i've got some water to the water i'm going to add a tablespoon of sugar  make sure that's dissolved and then i have some salt and i'm using fine table salt here  okay now that that's dissolved this next ingredient is the key right here and it is  our leavening agent ammonium carbonate also known as baker's ammonia or baking ammonia  now before you ask me i don't have it what can i use instead just just hold off  let me explain why we're using it first this is the classic stuff that if you buy patonko from  a street vendor in thailand this is what they use and they use this for a couple of reasons one it  is a strong leavening agent that really gives a beautiful puffiness to this it also makes  things the surface a little extra crisp and that crispness is why if you look at the box a box of  crackers you'll often find ammonium carbonate as one of the ingredients because it just has that  ability to make things crisper that baking powder baking soda doesn't do also they use it because  it doesn't leave any aftertaste whatsoever if you did this recipe with baking powder which you could  when you eat it you will be able to taste the flavor of baking powder which is not nice and i've  done it before and as you can see this dough is so simple and there's nothing to really hide it so  that's why people use something a loving agent that doesn't leave any aftertaste for best result  the problem with this is it's extremely pungent so do not open this and smell it just don't  i know some of you are gonna do it anyway but you i've been you've been warned um when you cook  it once it's all reacted it'll all go away and leave no flavor so that's why i want to show you  first this one that uses the classic ingredient this is the traditional way they do it it's all  those so the simplest and you can get this online i got this in vancouver gourmet warehouse which  is a store that sells a lot of specialty baking items so it's not impossible to buy i'll link to  the amazon link in the description as well for substitute hold off i do not have a recipe that  does not use ammonia just yet down the line i will work on a recipe that doesn't use it  so don't ask me in the comment what can you use instead i don't have an answer yet  but subscribe so you'll be notified when i do have one okay that was a long thing but it's  very important now i'm going to hold this away from me while i measure out a teaspoon  into the water and the good thing about ammonia is it does not activate until  heat is applied you can make the dough in advance and unlike baking powder and baking soda  that cont that starts working right away this will just sit here until you apply heat to it  it's dissolved i'm going to add just a couple teaspoons of oil to help tenderize the dough okay  that's it now we're going to mix the two things together and the dough is done pour all of that ini'm gonna go in and mix it just until it comes together i'm not i'm using the word mix  because i don't want you to knead because kneading will lead to gluten development which will lead to  a dough that is tough and when a dough is tough it cannot puff as much because the air doesn't  have enough strength to blow it up so you just want to mix it until all the flour is mixed in  oh my god i just got a whiff don't use a machine just use your hand because the machine is really  difficult to control when to stop okay that's it that's it it doesn't look like it's well mixed at  all but trust me it will be because what we're going to do next is we're going to let it sit  for about three four for three hours i haven't tried anything less two will probably be okay  and while it's resting the water is going to evenly distribute itself the gluten is going  to develop in itself and it'll have time to then relax and everything when we come back to it like  magic the dough will be smooth okay you want to cover it so it doesn't dry out and you can do  this in the morning and let it sit throughout the day if you want the baton go vendors in thailand  they just have the dough sitting out and you know sell it over the period of several hours  so you can definitely let it sit for a long time it's not yeast so it's you don't have to  worry about it over proofing over rising again the great thing about working with ammonia it's  just going to sit there until you fry it but you want to fry it when you're ready to eat it okay  before we get cooking let me tell you more about today's sponsor squarespace is an  all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence whether it's a website an online shop or  a portfolio you can get your domain build your website and host it all in one place and most  importantly you don't need to know how to code at all they make it really easy for anyone to use  my husband is a graphic designer as many of you know and he could have designed his  own website but he used squarespace for his portfolio because it's so easy so convenient  and all of their templates look professional and beautiful now the best part my viewers can get a  free trial by heading over to squarespace.com pylin's kitchen and when you are ready to  launch you can use the offer code pylon's kitchen for 10 off your first purchase of  a website or a domain and i will link to everything in the description below okaynow i know what you're thinking pylin that looks just as crappy as it did when you first left it  trust me something has happened yes if it looks exactly the same it's fine um it has only been  two and a half hours i i told you three but i'm in a rash baby is waiting so we're gonna  do that two and a half and we'll find out what happens so the oil you want it to be at 375  no less well you can go down to 360 but try not to let it dip to 350 because it really does make  a difference and you want to also make sure that you cook off all that ammonia so if you fry them  at a lower temperature you might be tricked into thinking that it's done because you know it's  golden on the outside then you pull it out and in fact it's a little doughy on the inside so if  you let your oil drop add a little extra time for frying okay all right so now with our work surface  so that dough is quite wet but because it's quite wet you want to make sure your board is pretty  thoroughly floured turn this out that's heating my it's like burning my arm hair off um come see this  in this bowl here i want you to see so even though it looks really rough on the surface you can see  that it's really smooth on the inside now that's the work that was happening see that there we go  and it's going to want to stick to your hands that's fine it's supposed to be a sticky dough  you can smell that ammonia and dust dust dust the top and then you want to pat this down don't  knead it again you want to work this as little as possible just pat it down into a rectangle you  want it to be about a quarter inch thick and you want the sides as straight as you can so you don't  waste as much so you get nice square pieces so what i'm looking for is not so much how long it is  but how thick it is because i want to be able to get three strips about two to three inches  and i'm only going to work with one at a time so let these rest and cover them in some moist  towel not wet so they don't dry out and then with this one we're going to form okay this is like  my ugliest piece i'm going to trim off the ends you fry that up it's just not going to be prettyand then with each piece you want to get it about an inch thickokay the last one is gonna be a little bit fat that's okay the way these are shaped is  they're actually two pieces stuck together in the middle so when they fry up it's like a chromosome  to to a few two stick sticks stuck together in the middle and the way you stick them is  you use a little bit of water and i'm just using a little baby uh chopstick here to put  a little line of water on every other piecei think i might have an odd number here that's okay so put this one then that's dry on top of  the one that's wet and you press it just gently so they stick same thing with these other pieces  and then when i have this last one i just grab my  sometimes it works out so you don't have you know odd numbers butthere we go that's good enough there we go and that's it  now they're ready to go into the fryer so now i'm just waiting for my oil if there's a lot of excess  flour you can brush it off or if it's just you you can blow it off but what you don't want is  too much flour that will linger at the bottom of the pot because that will kill your oil faster  so it's not a big deal if you don't have a lot to fry but if you do your oil will last longer before  you drop you want to give it a stretch so it's about double the length it was then you drop it  and you want to stretch just before you drop  because otherwise it'll spring back here stretch it about this much and then immediately  into the oil and now just watch the magic happen look how much they're fluffing puffing  and they'll sink in the fur at first and then you want to flip them oftenso that they heat evenly yes you see how much that pops one side always looks better than the  other side so don't worry if they don't look all the same that's what you want that's the  ammonia doing the work right there nice and puffy and golden i think it can fit in one more piece  oh yes now you want these to be in the oil for a minimum  of five minutes and i say minimum because i find that anything less the ammonia has not had time  to cook through therefore you're still gonna smell it a little bit and i find that five six minutesat 375 so if your oil drop too low make sure you add a little bit of time five six minutes you're  good so go and flip them often oh yes and if you're wondering do you have to fry them together  like do you have to have two sides stuck together yes you know why because if you don't it is  impossible to turn around log in the oil this is not aesthetics this is practicality right here  yeah i would say one biggest mistake that people make with these is they need the hell out of the  dough in the in the ones that i failed years ago i tried making these and they didn't work out and  they always come out looking okay but when you eat them they're like oh they're like tough and chewy  and not airy and hollow you want them to be kind of hollow and it's because you over knead them  another sign that they are close to being done is the bubbles will start to subside because bubbling  is basically water escaping the dough and the less water there is the more crispy the exterior is  okay it's been about five minutes i've got a nice golden brown color here also you see how  still that one is that's what you're going for because that means that the outside is crispy  and then onto paper towel to absorb excess oil which trust me there is excess oil to be absorbed  this one got ugly not sure not sure what happened here  was oh no these came apart oh that's a good teachable moment see this one i'm trying to turn  it and it just like keeps wanting to roll back help me out here come on stay damn it this is why  you stick them together hashtag teachable moment yes oh donut balloon look at these oh my god if  this is not perfect i don't know what is so don't let these fool you i have set aside the  rejects in a separate bowl so i can snack on them before the party so this is just like end pieces  or like that one that split apart like this mini one you know like that's that's for you okay some  of them will turn out like the perfect h sometimes k and then others are just a little more wonky  now i want to show you which one should i show you i want to save the nice ones for the photos but  see how crispy see and that's long frying waiting for things to  waiting for the bubbles to subside and the ammonia really does help with this  look oh hello that's what you want if you open it up and it's like dense dough  that's not good you want hollow so you can then dip these in condensed milk soy milk here  ah hot see this that's what you're looking for but when you do get to the meat like to this dough  it's still tender see it's still nice and tender that's the perfect patunko right there so you can  dip in condensed milk which is the easiest the other thing that we always dip it in is um or  pandan coconut custard which i have a recipe for and i will link to that below  or sometimes just a glass of fresh soy milk and this isn't silk okay this is not like the dairy  substitute soy beverage that you can find at the grocery store this is real pure soy milk you can  get them at asian grocery store or you can make them yourself i have a recipe for that as well  time to dip oh and another thing really important to check on before you eat  smell it do you smell any more ammonia nope nothing that means you cook thatperfectlyso good so good i'm telling youeven in thailand it's not easy to find a really really good barrancolike sometimes they're not hollow enough that's a lot actually like ones that are too dense  ones that are too chewy because it's actually easier to over knead than it is to underneath  you get ones that are not crispy or the flavor of the dough isn't perfect like it's not salty  enough or it's not it's too sweet or whatever look at this there's so it's such a simple dough  but there's so many little details that even in thailand you know i buy potenco and like  nine times out of ten it's not like oh my god this is so good but trust me i worked on this  so many times because i thought if i'm gonna give you a recipe it's gonna be as far as i'm  concerned perfect and i really really think that these are so the recipe as always will be on hot  thaikitchen.com and if you make it you can send me a photo by tagging me on instagram on twitter  or posted to my facebook page if you haven't subscribed to the show make sure you do so you  don't miss an episode and click the bell icon as well so you get a notification when i post a new  video thank you as always for watching and i will see you next time for your next delicious time\n"