Place all the ingredients in a mixer with the dough hook attachment, and let it mix and knead for 8-10 minutes, until the dough becomes smooth. If you find that the dough doesn’t come together within the first 5 minutes, add some milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together. It should be sticky to touch, but there shouldn’t be any bits sticking to the sides of the bowl.
After the kneading process, let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Then, shape the dough into a 2cm thick rectangular block (about thrice as long as it is wide). Place the dough on a flat tray, wrap it with cling wrap, and keep refrigerated for 2 hours, or up to overnight.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, and cut the dough width-wise into roughly 3cm wide pieces. To form the youtiao pieces, stack 2 pieces of dough together, and press them together in the middle with a chopstick.
Ready a pot or wok of oil, and heat it up to 190°C. Stretch the dough pieces to about double its initial length, and fry them in the oil for 1-2 minutes. Keep tossing and rolling the dough in the oil as it fries so it cooks evenly. When the youtiao is puffy and golden, remove it from the oil onto a wire rack to let it cool down.
Youtiaos are best enjoyed for breakfast, dipped into a hot bowl of soy milk or coffee, but you can also have them with chocolate, jam, cinnamon sugar or any other doughtnut-ty flavours really!
Notes
Suggested Improvements
Be super careful when kneading! I over-kneaded mine (almost 15 minutes of kneading at medium speed), which i suspect made the dough super firm and dense.
Add more baking powder (½ a teaspoon more maybe) might help to lighten and fluff up the youtiao a little more during the frying process.
To get the youtiao to stick together better, try using a bit of eggwash before pressing them with a chopstick.
As a point of experiment, it might be interesting to do a yeasted dough in the style of a youtiao, and compare the flavour and textural differences!