Greeting My Beautiful Lovelies: A Journey with Rice Paper

Greetings, my beautiful lovelies! It's Emmy, and I'm thrilled to welcome you back to today's episode where we're going to attempt to make a giant puff inspired by The CrunchBros. I adore them so much, and I just can't get enough of their creative recipes. But today, we're going to take our leftover rice paper, dip it in water, stick it together, cut it, and then use our air fryer to make puffed snacks.

The Magic of Rice Paper

I've experimented with rice paper flour, which was incredible! The result looked like some kind of chrysanthemum. I've also made fried chicken nuggets instantly using this versatile ingredient. Not only can you make delicious fresh spring rolls, but you can also create a variety of snack treats and great things out of this very versatile ingredient.

Creating the Giant Puff

I've been doing this long enough to know that sometimes when they show you something seemingly simple, it's often very challenging to get the finished result. So, I'm going to try to do this as close to what I saw in the video as possible. We've got two of these rice paper sheets now, and we're going to dip them in water to moisten. Don't need them to be too wet; just enough to make them stick together.

Pressing and Sealing

Now, let's place it directly on top of the other sheet and press. It gets sticky and immediately sticks to the second one. This is gonna create a little pocket, once it heats, I think. The steam, I imagine, is what's going to puff this up. We don't want sticking to the board, so I'm using a little bit of water on my finger to smooth it out. Trying to get the bubbles out; wasn't explained in the videos. This is just common sense that I'm using.

Cutting and Sealing

Here's a key part of this recipe. Take a sharp knife and cut around the perimeter, and that will seal the edges of the rice paper together. Oops! I think it just is to get the puffing action to work, you have to cut. Could probably use a pizza cutter; I guess. Cutting around the edges and pinching the two halves together. I want this to be round, but it doesn't have to be. You could make it square if you wanted to.

Using the Air Fryer

Now we have this really flexible sheet. Let's place it on our air fryer rack like that. Now, I'm gonna place this in the air fryer. Saw different temperatures; 375, 450. Let's kind of divide that and do 425, 400. Let's see what happens. Okay, slide this in. Air fry, select. Let's do 400. Alrighty, it's quite loud.

The Puffing Begins

Let's see what happens. Oh wait, it looks like it's steaming a little bit. Oh yes, something's happening! Can you see? It's puffing up! Beautiful. Keep its puff. Oh my gosh, it's perfect. Wait; see what I mean? Always cracks and pops.

Fine-Tuning the Recipe

Not crisp enough; has to be really crispy. (Machine beeping) Hear ya. So loud. Let's try that again. What's really important is to make sure there's no cracks on the perimeter of your rice paper because that can often happen. But we don't want any cracking. Okay, one sheet, second sheet, and dry it off a little bit so it's not too wet, right? Get off! Add the second layer on top. Line it up, and press out the bubbles. I made that up; just seems like you would want there to be no bubbles.

The Final Touches

Peel it up, and press on this side. Use a little bit of water to give me some smoothing ability. That's where we're at. Now we're gonna take our knife, and just cut all the way around. Could also use an X-acto knife or utility knife if you have one. Think that would be great because they're sharp.

Lifting and Placing

Okay, all the way around until we meet our starting point. Take this part off; boink! Then lift it gently and place it on our rack. Back into our air fryer at 400 degrees. Okay, it's happening. Keep its puff. Oh my gosh, it's perfect.

The Result

And then, the moment of truth...

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(bright music)- Greetings, my beautiful lovelies.It's Emmy. How are you?It's great to see you and welcome back.So today I'm gonna beattempting to make a giant puffthat was inspired by The CrunchBros.Adore them so very, very much.But we can take our leftoverrice paper, dip them in water,stick 'em together, cut them,and then use our air fryerto make puffed snacks.So who knew that you can makeall these wonderful thingsout of rice paper, besides beautiful,delicious fresh spring rolls?I've attempted a rice paperflour, which was incredible.It puffed up looking likesome kind of chrysanthemum.I've made fried chickennuggets instantly using these.There are snack treats thatyou can make with these,all kinds of great things made outof this very versatile ingredient.So let's go ahead and see if we can createa giant puff using ourexcess, extra rice paper.Now, I've been doingthis long enough to know,oftentimes when they show you somethingseemingly very simple,it's often very challengingto get the finished result.So I'm going to try to dothis as close to what I sawin the video as possible.So we've got two of these.Now we're gonna dip themin water to moisten.And we don't need them to be too wet,from my understanding.So get the excess off.Now this material is pretty incredible.First, they're very, very hard and crispy,but once they absorb the water,they get very, very suppleand they turn translucent.So the pattern here is the basket,the bamboo basket thatthey're kind of dried on.So here's our second sheet.Now we're gonna place it directlyon top of the other sheet.And press.And it gets sticky and immediatelysticks to the second one.Now, this is gonna create a little pocket,once it heats, I think.The steam, I imagine, iswhat's going to puff this up.That little bit of waterwe trapped in there.We don't want sticking to the board.So I'm using a little bitof water on my fingersto kind of smooth it out,because we want this to be anice tight seal, I believe.Trying to get the bubbles out.This wasn't explained in the videos.This is just the commonsense that I'm using.So if I see any bubbles,try to press them outand adhere these two together.Now, here's a key part of this recipe.So here's the two sheetsstuck together, right?And now we're gonna take a sharp knife.And we're going to cutaround the perimeter,and that will seal the edgesof the rice paper together.And I think this is pretty essential.(metal clangs)Oops.Because I think it just isto get the puffing actionto work, you have to cut.You could probably usea pizza cutter, I guess.So I'm just cutting around the edges,and that will pinch thetwo halves together.I want this to be round,but it doesn't have to be.You could make it square if you wanted to.Oh yeah. This is the way to go.Use the tip of the knife,just kind of drag it through.Okay, very cool.I've seen people makenoodles outta this too.And instant tteokbokki as well.Korean rice cakes by rolling them up,all kinds of wonderful things.Okay, now we have thisreally flexible sheet.I'm gonna place it on myair fryer rack like that.Now I'm gonna place this in the air fryer.I saw different temperatures, 375, 450.Let's kind of divide that and do 425, 400.Let's see what happens.Okay, slide this in.That's air fry. Air fry, select.Let's do 400.Alrighty, it's quite loud.(machine whirring)Let's see what happens.I'll turn another light.So far, nothing.Oh wait, it looks likeit's steaming a little bit.Oh yes, something'shappening. Can you see that?Yes, yes. You're growing.Oh my gosh. Can you see this unfurling?It is happening. Just puff all the way.Will you please? Yes, yes,yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.Get my mitt out.Yes. This is looking so good.Okay, keep going all theway. All the way, darling.Yes, you're almost there.It looks like a jellyfish.Oh my gosh. That looks so awesome.Yo, that looks so good.Yeah.Amazing! Amazing.Oh man, it's deflated. Itpopped right on this edge.Curses, but it totallyworked until it didn't.So let's try it again.It's not crisp enough.It has to be really crispy.So.(machine beeping)I hear ya. So loud.All right. Let's try that again.So I think what's reallyimportant is to make surethat there's no cracks on theperimeter of your rice paper,because that can often happen.But we don't want any cracking.Okay. One sheet, second sheet.And dry it off a littlebit so it's not too wet.Right? One layer, what is that?Get off.Okay, add the second layer on top.Line it up, and press out the bubbles.I don't know how importantthat is, actually.I made that up, but it justseems like you would wantthere to be no bubbles.Peel it up. Press on this side.I'll use a little bit of waterto give me some smoothing ability.So that's where we're at.It's almost completely transparent, right?Now we're gonna take our knife,and just cut all the way around.You could also use an X-acto knifeor utility knife if you have one.I think that would begreat 'cause they're sharp.All right, all the way arounduntil we meet our starting point.Okay, and we can take this part off.Boink. Then lift this gently.Place it on our rack.Back into our air fryer at 400 degrees.Okay, it's happening.Okay, good.It's puffing, it's puffing, it's puffing.Beautiful. Beautiful.Okay, keep its puff. Ohmy gosh, it's perfect.(gasps) It popped again.Oh no!See what I mean? Always,\"Oh, it's so easy.\"And it's not. It popped.That one puffed up beautifully,and then it just, pff, too much steam.Ugh, third time's the charm, right?Okay, rubbing it to getall the air bubbles outand into a hotter oven this time, 450.(tray shuffling)Oh yeah. It's happening in even less time.Look at that, look at that, look at that.You see that? Yo.Sick.Okay, it's puffing. That's good.Don't want it to pop. Want to get golden.Sheesh. stop, light. Why it stay lit?Okay. Puff, puff, puff.Stay puffy, stay puffy.Don't pop, don't pop. It popped.What the heck? What am I doing wrong?It's just the wrong brand?It inflates and then it pops.CrunchBros, I don't know.I've tried this threetimes and it doesn't work.Maybe I just need to try a different typeof rice paper sheet.Rice paper instead oftapioca, I don't know.I'm gonna get some more sheets,and we'll try with adifferent brand, until then.All right, my lovelies.I'm back with two morebrands of rice paper.Pick these up at the supermarketand spring roll wrappers.(machine beeping)Air fryer's ready. (chuckles)We have these two springroll wrappers, Vietnamese.It says rice pancakes for spring rolls.And these also contain tapioca.This one contains rice flour,tapioca, water, and salt.And this one containstapioca, rice, starch,salt, and water.Well, this original one,I love the Three Ladies Brand rice.That's why I bought this one.This one says it's just tapiocaflour. Didn't notice that.So let's hope that therice makes a difference.I don't know. I just want this to work.I just want it to work.So let's try this onefirst, 'cause this one listsrice flour first, solet's try the Blue Dragon.So what we're gonna do is same thing.We're going to dip them into some water.Then we're gonna rub these togetherso that they stick.And I have my air fryer preheatingbehind me at 350 degrees.So push this down so thatthe two halves stick.And now we take our knife andwe're supposed to cut around.And that's supposed to seal the edge.Okay, so get rid of that.Use a little bit more waterand press this together.Okay, so now that it has timeto kind of sit a little bit,this has softened.and I'm really trying tostick the two halves together.Okay, carefully lift it up.Place it on my air fryer rack like that.Into the air fryer.(machine whirring)Oh, we're getting some puffing. Yes.Starting to go across. Excellent.Light, you suck.Very good. We like thelooks of this so far.Yes, yes, yes.Yes. Very good.Don't stick to the bottom, please.Oh, light.Oh, that's not lookingperfect. What is it doing?Keep going. Keep going, keepgoing, keep going, keep going.Yes. Meet on the other side.Let's go. Keep going.You want to succeed.Oh my gosh, what is that?Why are you sticking to that one edge?All right, at least it's notpopping. We'll take that.All right, my lovelies. Ithink we kind of have success.Here we are. Look at the puff.It's slightly golden.I don't know if youcan see that on camera,but right here is golden,and we are inflated.So I definitely thinkthis is just based offthis very first attemptthat the formulationof the rice paper is pretty important.This one contains rice whilemy other one was all tapioca,and that made it veryflexible and easy to inflate,but it popped, while this one did not.Look at that.It is not perfect. Itis not the perfect puff.But I will try it again andsee if I can get it to puff.There we go.I'm pretty happy about that,especially after these(chuckles) previous attempts.Look at these sad attemptsthat inflated but then deflatedand never turned golden andwere way too firm to ever eat.Did three times all failures,and now we have this.Alrighty, lovelies. Let's give it a taste,our rice paper inflated puff.Alrighty. Itadakimasu.(rice puff crunches)Did you hear that?That was fantastic.Hey, it's actually taster thanI thought it was gonna be.(rice puff crunches)Wow.It's very, very thin and super crunchy.And it's got some salt in there.And it has a little bitof a rice snack flavor,a little bit, butsignificant amount of salt.I didn't realize how seasoned these are.But very pleasant and apleasure to bite into.(rice puff crunches)Look at that.Wow. It reminds me of a papadam.A lot like an Indian papadam.Isn't that delightful?How beautiful is that?Okay, it is salted, but itdoes need a little seasoning.So I'm gonna use a little bit ofthis Trader Joe's umami mushroom,Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend.And this has a blend of ground mushrooms,salt and white pepper, onion powder.It's pretty tasty.Let's give that a taste.It doesn't stick very well tothis. Okay, let's just try it.(rice puff crunches softly)Mm-hm.Pretty tasty snack.(rice puff crunches softly)Look at that. Ooh, I thinkit should be delightfulto fill up with something.Although I think it wouldget soggy very, very quicklybecause it's just so, so thin.Let's try it with some furikake,which is a Japanese seaweed shake shakethat you add to rice.I'm not sure how the furikake will stick.Not that well, but let's give it a go.Here we go.(rice puff crunches)Mm-mm. That didn't stayon very well at all.It all just fell into the inside.So if we flatten it out,try it like that. (chuckles)(rice puff crunches softly)Mm. Mm-hm.That's a nice combination.The nutty sesame seeds go really wellwith a toasted rice paper.Pretty tasty snack.I feel like there's a lot of potentialfor some kind of fancygarnish with this technique,but you have to get theright kind of rice paper.(rice puff crunches softly)Mm-hm.So when you get thesespring roll wrappers,make sure to look at theingredients and get the onethat has rice listedfirst, rather than tapioca,or at least a combinationof rice flour plus tapioca.Because if you get the 100% tapioca,it will not work.At least it didn't work for me.I'm gonna attempt it one more timeto see if I can get a perfect little puff,just because, I don't know.That was satisfying, but notquite. You know what I mean?(machine whirring)Osh.Okay, close it up. Let it do its thing.Had a little bit of awrinkle folding thing,but I was able to smooth it out.Okay, we're puffing.We've got puffing action.Will it go across(object scraping)all the way?Come on.♪ You can do it, you cando it, you can do it ♪Come on, halfway, halfway there.Come mom. Keep going, baby.Is it gonna do it?Oh, I think it might. Keep going, friend.Right there, just touch your friend.Just go, keep going. Keep going.I think it's gonna fart.It stopped. Did it stop?I think it did. Came so close, buddy.Buddy, buddy, buddy.It looks pretty good though. Not perfect.So I think the last thing I'm gonna dois to do one that's smallerin diameter, not so big.So leave a bigger space around it.Then that will be the last one.(machine whirring)Okay, we'll see. If itdoesn't work, it doesn't work.Come on. Okay, we're abouta third of the way, nice.Nice. Looking good.Stretching, inflating. Ugh.That side's looking plump.All right, good. More than halfway, yes.This little edge is doing it too. Good.Oh, oh. No, it stopped.So this one was the worst one.Well, that theory didn't work.All right, lovelies.I thought doing a smallerdiameter was the ticket.It's not, still didn'tbubble up all the way.This one was my most successfulone. It was not perfect.I wanted the whole thingto bubble up perfectly,but it didn't.So I think this is theclosest I'm going to get.Done six attempts andthis is the best one.But at least I got to taste it.At least it crunched up.(rice puff crunches)(coughs) Whoo.Some finely-ground white pepper in there.It's going into my airways. (chuckles)I feel like there's a lotof potential for garnishingwith this technique.I don't know, filled with something,I think it would be something really fun,or just something for yourguests to pop and breakand to bite into, pretty delightful.But have not perfected the puff.The next thing I would trywould be turning this upto 400 degrees, even hotter temperatureto get a quicker surge.I don't know. I'll try thatone more time off camera.And if I'm successful,then I will show youthe finished product.Lovelies, I got it. Itworked, it totally worked.400 degrees, and it puffed, and it puffed.And then baby is looking perfect.She's getting her goldenlittle tan right nowand she's gonna be allcrispy and gorgeous.So for me, Blue Dragon brand,400 degrees on my air fryer.Cut the same diameter,one inch from the edge,ju, ju, ju, ju all the way around.And we got this little,little alien UFO thing going.So, great! Yes!(huffs) There she is. She's perfect.Look. Boom, all the way around.Yeah.Alrighty, so now I finallyfound the formulationto work for me, but I've got a feelingit's probably gonna be alittle bit different for youas well because your air fryermight be a little bit different,your rice paper formulationmight be a little bit different.So after making seven of theseand having the last one workout, these are the conclusions.You have to have some kind of rice flourin the formulation of your rice paper.And try baking it at apretty hot temperature.I did 400 degrees. And whenI say bake, I mean air fry.Also, having an airfryer that has a windowis also really helpful soyou can see it inflate,which is really, really fun,but also to know when it's done.I think you could alsodo this in an air fryerwith a basket, but it'llbe trickier to figure outthe cooking times and whether or notit has fully inflated or not.So very happy about that. Boom.All right, my lovelies.Thanks as always for watching.I hope you enjoy that one. Ihope you learned something.Please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social media,like this video, subscribe.And I shall see you in the next one.Todaloo. Take care, bye.(gentle music)I cannot wait to share this with my kidsand to have them bite into it.Look, it's so beautiful. (softly growls)(claps) Yes.♪ I love it when a plan comes together ♪\n"