Crisp and Light Angel Wings

Angel Wings – Crisp Christmas Sweet

Let me show you how to make crisp and light Angel Wings, a delicate and flaky delight from Goa made at Christmas time. It is quite similar to Goan phenori for which the rolling out procedure is somewhat different. This is an irresistible Christmas sweet and also a very beautiful one.

Yes, this delicate, flaky Christmas treat is deep fried, but my recipe has a special ingredient that will make the angel wings crispier and less oily and stay crisp for a longer time. I’m also going to show you another new way to make Angel Wings by following a Pat-a-Cale original recipe. And since it will soon be Christmas time, you might like to check out my last minute, no-presoaking, moist Christmas fruit cake.

Ingredients

Dough 1

1 cup (125g) maida

1/8 tsp salt

Dough 2 (New recipe)

1 cup (125g) maida

1/8 tsp salt

Zest of ½ to ¾ orange

Cornflour paste

2 tbsp ghee/butter

1 ½ tbsp cornstarch/cornflour

1 tbsp rice flour (or cornctarch)

A little extra maida

Powdered sugar

Oil for deep frying

Procedure

1. Sift the maida. Add in the salt. To make Dough One, make a smooth and soft pliable dough by adding a little water at a time. To make Dough Two, mix in the orange zest into the flour and salt mixture and knead a soft dough. (You could also add in the zest after mixing a little water into the flour first to get a rough dough. After that, add in more water to make a smooth, soft dough.)
2. Cover both the doughs and let them rest for 10-15 minutes.
3. In the meanwhile, prepare the soft, spreadable layering paste by whisking the ghee, cornflour, and rice flour together.
4. Divide dough 1 and dough 2 into two parts each. Roll each of these 4 parts into a ball. Keep the dough balls covered and start working with the first ball from dough 1.
5. Roll it into a thin roughly rectangular sheet on a rolling board dusted well with maida to prevent it from sticking to the board. Move this dough sheet to a thali dusted with maida, and cover it with a napkin.
6. Roll out the second dough ball from dough 1 too into a thin roughly rectangular sheet. Spread half the layering paste on it and then add a dusting of maida all over the sheet. Place the first rolled out dough sheet over this one so that the edges of these two sheets meet and there are no air pockets between them. Now roll up this double layered sheet into a tight cylinder. Finally, roll the cylinder backwards and forwards to seal the edge.
7. Cut away the two uneven ends of the cylinder and then slice the cylinder up into discs around ½ inch thick. Keep these discs covered.
8. Repeat steps 5, 6, and 7 with the two dough balls of dough 2.
9. Next, you have to roll out each of the discs by dusting the rolling board with maida and then setting the disc down with the smooth surface on top and the two sides with the rolled up layers on each side. Press down on the disc with your forefinger to get a roughly rectangular shape. Then move your rolling pin forwards and backwards over it with gentle pressure, so that the rectangular dough expands in length. But don’t make it too broad. Place the flattened and rolled out angel wings on a thali dusted with maida, and keep them covered till you finish rolling out all the discs into angel wings.
10. Heat oil in a kadai on medium low heat till it is hot enough. (A small piece of dough dropped into it should slowly rise to the top.) Now reduce the heat to low and depending on the size of your kadai, drop a few angel wings into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pan. You have to fry just a few angel wings at a time, that too on low heat. Splash some hot oil on the angel wings with a spoon once they float to the top. Splashing oil on them will help the layers of the angel wings to separate nicely and become crisp. After a minute or so, flip the angel wings and let them fry on the other side as well. Each batch of angel wings will take around 2-3 minutes to fry till crisp. Before removing the angel wings from the kadai to a bowl or plate lined with absorbent paper towels, drain the oil out from between the layers of the angel wings.
11. As a final step, while they’re still slightly warm, dust the angel wings with powdered sugar. There’s no sugar in the dough. So all the sweetness will come from this powdered sugar. That is, you can control how sweet you want your angel wings to be.
12. Once cooled to room temperature, store the crisp angel wings in an air tight container.

Enjoy!