Asian Dumpling Tips

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Shanghai Dumpling King’s Sugar Egg Puffs Recipe (Bai Tang Sha Weng)

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These deep-fried puffed dumplings are one of the best things I’ve eaten in a long time. I tasted them on Saturday at Shanghai Dumpling King (3319 Balboa Street, between 34th and 35th) in the Outer Richmond  in San Francisco. My friend Linda and I went there for the Shanghai soup dumplings, which were stellar, but we came away with this ‘new’ discovery. Sugar egg puffs are an ethereal cross between a cream puff and doughnut. They are deep fried wonders and not greasy whatsoever.

The young waitress paraded the fried sugar egg puffs (misspelled on the menu as “suger egg puff” in the dessert section) around the small restaurant on a tray and we were instantly taken in. We didn’t want them with the savories, but as soon as we finished all the dumplings, Linda asked the waitress, “Can we get those things fresh and hot?” The waitress obliged and Linda nearly burnt her tongue as she bit into the crisp, steamy hot puff.


Forget Beard Papa’s cream puffs. Sugar egg puffs reign supreme in my book. They are eggy and rich tasting on the inside, and have cavernous pockets like popovers.

After eating them for lunch, I couldn’t get them out of my mind. I wondered if they were simply a fried dumpling made from French-style pate a choux cream puff pastry. The insides tasted like the warm puffs that I used to bake and fill. How else would you get that texture and flavor?

When I went home, I checked my Chinese cookbooks and found a couple recipes from overseas that indeed, pointed to batter that’s similar to a classic pate a choux!  (I looked the French pastry up in Julia Child’s marvelous The Way to Cook and she mentioned that the French name  literally means “pastry for forming little cabbage shapes.”)

The Chinese, particularly those from Shanghai where there was a French expat community (called the French Concession), may have picked up on the Franco pastry. I venture that without butter, Chinese cooks substituted lard, using less as they deep fried the batter instead of baking it, as the French would. There are few ovens in Chinese kitchens.

If you know the back story on these puffs, do fill me and the rest of us in. Also, What is the common name for these in Mandarin and/or Cantonese?

After experimenting  for few hours today, I came up with this sugar egg puff recipe to replicate what I experienced at Shanghai Dumpling King. The recipe below employs classic French technique for cream puff pastry, but the ingredient proportions follow what Chinese cooks would use; instead of lard, I opted for butter, though you can go with lard or shortening. Either way, the result will be splendidly good and worth every single calorie.

Makes 16 puffs

Batter:
1 tablespoon butter, lard, or shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup water
5 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose bleached flour
3 large eggs, beaten

Canola oil, for deep frying
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar, coarser kind preferred

1. Put the butter, salt, sugar, and water in a 2-quart saucepan. Have the flour nearby in a bowl, as well as the eggs. Also keep a large clean bowl nearby.

2. Pour oil into a 5-quart Dutch oven or wok to a depth of 1 1/4 inches deep. Heat the oil over medium-high heat to a moderately-low temperature between 325 and 340F on a deep-fry thermometer. (If the oil is ready before the batter, lower the heat to medium-low to keep the oil hot.)

3. Meanwhile, heat the butter, water and seasonings until the butter has melted and the water begins to bubble at the edge of the pot. Remove from the heat. Immediately pour in the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until well blended. Replace the pot on the burner (don’t turn on the heat, just use the residual heat from the stove and pot) and stir vigorously until a ball of dough comes together, cleans the walls of the pan, and a thin film forms on the bottom of the pan.

4. Transfer the dough to the new clean bowl; if the dough is still hot, stir it for15 to 30 seconds to cool it. Pour in 1/4 of the eggs, then stir vigorously (it will seem like things aren’t coming together well at first) until all the egg has been incorporated. Repeat until all the egg has been worked into the dough, and the dough has been transformed into a thick, smooth batter. The batter should just hold its shape when you spoon it up on the spoon. Expect to give your forearm a workout. If you want extra fluffy batter, use a whisk to hand-whip more air into the batter. Just whisk for about 30 to 45 seconds. You should have about 2 cups.

5. When the oil is ready, fry the puffs in 2 batches. Use two tablespoons to scoop up about 2 tablespoons of batter and scoot it into the oil. Use one spoon to push the batter off the other. You should have 8 puffs frying for each batch Fry for 8 to 10 minutes, turning frequently, until the puffs have expanded to about 3 times their original size and turned crisp and golden brown. Moderating the heat as needed as you fry. Drain the puffs on paper towel. Return the oil to temperature before frying the second batch.

6. Let the puffs cool for 3 to 4 minutes, then dredge them in the sugar to lightly coat. Serve hot or warm. The puffs stay tasty for about 30 minutes after frying.

Note: I tried reheating non-sugar coated puffs in a preheated 350F toaster oven for about 3 minutes, until hot, but the puffs shrank, got a bit greasy a heavy and didn’t taste as good as fresh. Ethereal perfection only lasts for so long!

Update: Bee Yinn Low of Rasa Malaysia below says that these are called 沙 翁. I did some investigation and that’s a shortcut name for these. The full name is:

白糖沙 翁 = bái táng shā wēng (Mandarin) = bok tong sa yung (Cantonese)

 

This literally translates into white granulated sugar elderly person. But I noticed that there were references to it as being called “Shakespeare” and Sa bak yung — like sabayon which the pastry is not related to. My friend Monique Truong, the acclaimed novelist, told me that the French version of this kind of fried cream puff treat is called pets de nonne, or nuns farts. Celebrated author Michael Ruhlman informed me that he has a recipe for pets de nonne in his latest book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rasa Malaysia

    Yes, they are great. Called “沙翁” in Cantonese. The best ones are served at Koi Palace in Daly City, San Francisco. The malassadas I had in Hawaii are pretty much the Chinese version of malassadas.

  2. Andrea Nguyen

    Fantastic Bee. I just looked up the characters and also found the longer name for the puffs. But who needs to go Koi Palace or Shanghai Dumpling King when you can now make them yourself! Bet you can do it better than them.
    What are malassadas?

  3. Nate

    The ones we had at Koi Palace were a revelation. Very nice, though different in texture from the Hawaiian-Portuguese malasadas.
    Thanks for posting the recipe. I hope we get to try it out soon!

  6. Andrea Nguyen

    Ah, malassada is leavened with yeast and has more fat in the dough. Looks more like a filled doughnut. Chinese egg puffs are made of pate a choux type pastry dough/batter. That’s why they’re ethereal tasting.
    Bee and Nate — is Koi Palace paying you? Just kidding. Their dim sum is good but the times I’ve been there the service and food has been uneven. Head to Vancouver, my friends.

  7. Rasa Malaysia

    Andrea, I have no clue in baking, and you have all your facts straight! If I really had to choose between malassadas and 沙翁, I would choose the latter because as you said, they are ethereal tasting.

  8. Andrea Nguyen

    Bee, no problema. It would be kinda fun to figure out malassadas. I’ll put it on my to do list for when I get back from Australia. Thanks for pointing them out to me!! 🙂

  9. Nate

    Koi Palace used to be excellent, but they’re living on their reputation of the past. Last time we were there, we waited for an hour and a half to get seated. The dim sum was so-so, and spotty (the egg dumplings were one of the highlights). I think Dynasty Restaurant on Story and McLaughlin in San Jose is better and more consistent in quality.
    As for malasada, you can get them anytime at Portuguese Bakery on El Camino in Santa Clara. You can also find them at other Portuguese bakeries in San Jose the week before Ash Wednesday.

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  13. AZ

    I agree…Koi Garden and Koi Palace versions are awesome…am tempted to make them but as my husbands says perhaps we “leave it to the experts.”

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  16. Wes Chang

    Thank you for the Sa Yung recipe! I have been looking for this for years! My Grandfather would treat me to one of these (he called them Ja Dan or fried eggs) during our visits to chinese restaurants in San Francisco. However, I moved to Hawaii, and never saw them again. The restaurants used to make them very big; about a softball size with one per order.
    Malasadas are not the same; they are portugese yeast doughnuts that are deepfried, and rolled in sugar. The inside is not hollow.

  17. Quyen

    Hi Andrea, try out the egg puffs in Cooking Papa in Santa Clara on Homestead. So delicious and eggy tasting!

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  21. Jeremy Hunter

    You’re my hero! We had these over the summer and I can stop thinking about them. Shanghai Dumpling King is by far the best dumpling place we’ve been to…and that includes a comprehensive search of all the great LA dumpling spots. These Sugar Egg Puffs are truly the best!
    Can’t wait to make them!

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