Spiral Curry Puff

Curry puff is one of my favourite snack back home in Singapore. There is an Old Chang Kee stall opposite my office and I will often buy a curry puff on my way back after lunch, just in case I get hungry in the mid-afternoon.

Recently, my cravings got the better of me and I started searching online for curry puff recipes, especially those with a spiral pastry shell, those similar to A1 style.

This was the result with the first recipe that I tried. It was a failure as the pastry was hard and the fillings were too dry. I think it had to do with the fact that I fried the puffs for too long. Or it could be the way I worked the water dough as I could feel that the dough was a little hard when I rolled it out (the recipe asked for an egg to be used for the water dough and I'm not sure if this was another contributing factor).

I tried another recipe the next day as I had leftover fillings and this time round, I managed to get the texture and taste that I wanted. The recipe's a keeper! This recipe yields 30pcs of small curry puffs.

Water Dough
400gm all-purpose flour (sifted)
225ml water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

- Add salt to the flour and blend in the butter with a pastry blender.
- Add water gradually and mix well. Work till the dough forms into a ball and is soft, pliable and non-sticky.
- Divide dough into two balls and wrap individually with cling wrap and leave aside. Work on oil dough now.

Oil Dough
200gm all-purpose flour (sifted)
150gm unsalted butter (cubed)

- Blend butter into flour with pastry blender until it resembles coarse sand.
- Form dough into a ball and divide into two.

Assembling the pastry

- Take one ball of the water dough and flatten it slightly with hands. Place a ball of oil dough on it and wrap it up.
- Roll out the dough into an oblong shape on a floured surface.
- Make 2 folds on the dough, one going on top of the other. Roll it out again.
- Roll up the dough into swiss roll style.
- Cut dough into 15 round pieces of approximately 1cm thick.
- Roll each piece into a circular shape and place filling in the middle. Try not to over fill as it may break the pastry.
- Repeat the steps above with the remaining water and oil dough.

- Fold over and make pleats to seal.

Finished product! Deep fry until it starts to turn light brown. Drain on paper towel to remove excess oil.

I made a tray of 30 curry puffs for deep frying next week. Hope they will turn out well!

Here's a video of me pleating the curry puffs.