The World Table

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Arizona · Bread

Arizona Fry Bread

  • Intermediate
  • 60 min
  • roughly 1 of 4 for cost
  • Vegetarian

sweet-edged Leads with a sweet edge rounding the corners.

Ingredients

  • 400g flour
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 300ml warm milk or water
  • Neutral oil for frying
  • Honey, powdered sugar, or savory toppings

Equipment

Deep-fry pot

The skills inside

Deep fryingResting dough: the pause that does the work

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add the liquid to make a soft dough. Rest 30 min. 30 min
  2. Divide and pat each piece into a thin round, pressing a hole in the center to help it cook evenly.
  3. Heat the oil to 180C.
  4. Fry each round 1-2 min a side until puffed and golden. 2 min
  5. Serve hot with honey and powdered sugar, or as the base for a Navajo taco.

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes

  • It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
  • It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
  • The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
  • It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
  • Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.

Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.

Deep frying 96 recipes

  • The oil was at temperature before anything went in, measured rather than guessed, and the vessel is no more than two-thirds full.
  • Everything went in dry. Surfaces are patted down and any coating is not dripping, because water hitting hot oil erupts and is the one accident this technique actually has.
  • The oil recovers between batches. It is back at temperature before the next load goes in rather than falling further with each one.
  • A steady vigorous bubbling that slows as it finishes: the bubbles are the food’s own water leaving, so a piece that has gone quiet has stopped drying out and is done.
  • Seasoned or finished in the first seconds out of the oil, while the surface is still hot and will hold what lands on it. Anything applied to a cooled crust sits on top and falls off.

Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once and the oil temperature collapsed. The crust forms slowly while the food sits in warm fat absorbing it rather than shedding steam, and it comes out heavy and greasy instead of crisp, which no amount of draining afterwards will fix.

At the Table

The Pour
Grüner Veltliner
Also Right
Vermentino or dry Chenin
From the Taps
Saison
Zero-Proof
Sparkling water with citrus & herbs

The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.

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Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Arizona Fry Bread Search YouTube: J. Kenji López-Alt on Arizona Fry Bread A YouTube search for J. Kenji López-Alt and this dish. No affiliation.