CHRUSTy.... Delicious melt in your mouth pastries

Recipe Lena Goldstein

makes 40 bow ties 

Light, melt-in-your-mouth bow ties, made of dough which is then deep fried. The dough is only very slightly sweet, so the biscuits can be prepared as a savoury dish, and served in soup as they are in Lena’s family. Or they can be served dredged in sugar, as a desert, as they are in Italy, or dredged in honey and spices as they are in Russia and Central Asia.

One of the wonderful things about this project is seeing how variations on the same dish appear in Jewish homes from country to country! 

This is Lena Goldstein's signature dish.

“Every festival meal, the family insists that I prepare these, so we can have them in the soup. They say, ‘You must make it!’ , so I do, even though I am 96 years old, I still make them.”

INGREDIENTS

•  ¾ cup plain flour
• 1 egg
• 2 yolks
• 1 thimble vinegar, or 2 thimbles vodka
• 1/3 cup icing sugar
• Vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• Pinch salt

METHOD

Lena's does it all by hand! For those who don't have hands as strong as Lena's, the first step can be done in a mix master or food processor.

1. Mix ingredients and knead together. You want the dough well-combined. 
2. Flour your benchtop or a board, and dived the dough into four sections. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball of dough out thinly. About as thin as it will go and still be sturdy enough to fold. 
3. Cut out rectangles, about 3 inches by 1 inch (7.5 cm by 2.5 cm) Lena does this just by sight. You can give that a try, or use a ruler. 
4. Cut a slit in the centre of each rectangle and push one end through the middle, to make a bow. 
5. Deep fry in hot oil. Watch t carefully, they are quite easy to burn! Once the oil is hot, it may be helpful to turn the heat down.
6. Rest on paper towels.  If making the sweet version, dredge with icing sugar.