Bicho-Bicho & Goldilocks Bakeshop®-style & Spanish Ensaimada Recipes

I received several email asking for the recipe for the Filipino donuts, bicho-bicho, which I wrote about when I reviewed Michael Chabon's new novel.
This recipe is quite large and may be halved. I prefer eating these donuts simply rolled in white sugar. They have to be consumed right after frying, which I think won't be a problem because they are very good.

Bicho-bicho

1. Put in a mixing bowl:

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups bread flour

2. Beat thoroughly. Cover and let rise for ½ hour. Add:
¼ cup melted butter or grape seed oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 well beaten eggs
1½ cups bread flour

3. Beat well. Cover and let rise again until dough is light, about 1 hour. Punch down.

4. Add more flour if dough is too soft to handle. Turn out into a well-floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Cover each and let rest for 10 minutes.

5. Roll dough to ½-inch thickness and cut into 6 x 1-inch strips. Set on baking sheets, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

6. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, roll in granulated sugar. Enjoy!

There were also a lot of readers who emailed me for the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada which unfortunately I don't have. I don't think anybody, except for the people who work in that bakeshop, has the exact recipe. I have one from my cookbook FAVORITE FILIPINO RECIPES by Pat Limjuco Dayrit which comes closest to the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada in taste and texture. It takes the whole day to make, though.

Ensaimada
½ cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 level teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup flour
6 egg yolks
9 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups bread flour
extra butter, softened
1 cup grated cheese, preferably queso de bola
sugar

1. Put lukewarm water in a stand mixer bowl. Add sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
3. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until double in bulk.
4. Add egg yolks, sugar and butter to flour mixture. Add to this the 2 cups of flour and knead with dough hook attachment.
5. Cover and let rise again in warm place for 3 hours.
6. Divide dough in 12 portions. Roll each portion to ¼-inch thick. Spread butter and sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Roll up, starting from one end and twist like a knot.
8. Place into an ensaimada mould or large muffin pan lined with parchment then greased.
9. Keep in a warm place to rise for 4 hours.
10. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
11. Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and grated cheese.

Ensaimada (Spanish)
And for Spanish nationals who live outside Spain and would like to make ensaimada, here is the recipe adapted from THE CUISINES OF SPAIN by Teresa Barrenechea. This one doesn't have a single pat of butter, it uses lard and she explains that in Majorcan saim means lard. I have made this ensaimada and I think this is the best recipe.

Makes three 8-inch diameter coils
4½ teaspoons yeast
2/3 cups whole milk, heated to lukewarm
3½ cups flour, sifted
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cups sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for oiling rolling pin, work surface, and baking sheets
½ cup melted and cooled lard
½ cup confectioner's sugar

• In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/3 cup of the warm milk and let stand for 5 minutes. 
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and add the remaining milk, eggs, olive oil, and the yeast mixture into the well. Using a spoon, gradually pull the mixture into the well, stirring as you do. When a uniform dough has formed, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky; if dough is too sticky work in a little more flour. Gather the dough into a ball, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Oil a work surface, a rolling pin and 1 or 2 baking sheets. Roll out 1 portion into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle. Brush with lard and fold in half lengthwise. Brush with melted lard and fold again in half lengthwise. Roll again into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle and starting from the long side, roll up into a tight 10-inch cylinder. Shape it into a snail-like coil. Repeat with the 2 remaining dough portions.Place the coils on the oiled sheets, cover with kitchen towel and let rest in a warm spot overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the coils for 30 minutes, or until they are airy and golden and springs back when pressed with a fingertip.
• Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. Dust with confectioner's sugar and cut into segments just before serving.

Filipino Donuts & Michael Chabon's THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION

If you are wondering what's up with the odd title, please read on. The donut will be explained after the review of the book.

Spoiler alert: If you are here looking for shtekeleh and have not read the book in its entirety, please scroll to the bottom of this page for the recipe page.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION by Michael Chabon A+
This is a superbly written novel set in the fictitious Federal District of Sitka, Alaska, where the Jewish people were given a safe haven by the US government after the collapse of Israel in 1948. (There is a real Sitka with about 10,000 people but here it is fictitious with a population of more than 2 million). The city has been striving for 60 years but with its coming 'reversion' back to Alaska, their dream of having a permanent state and to become real Americans is again threatened. The main character is a homicide detective Meyer Landsman who had to investigate and deal with rabbis, rebbes, the affluent and Jewish gangsters to find out who murdered his neighbor. He found out that the death was connected to his own sister's accidental death a few years back and discovered a graver event that even he was not able to prevent from happening. Michael Chabon managed to be both very funny and thoughtful in this 1940s noir style whodunit. The book has lots of yiddish terms which are not that difficult to understand, although I had to google and look for the meaning of a few yiddish terms at the yiddishdictionaryonline.com. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Now, why the Filipino donut? In the book there are a few Filipino characters: a boy who delivers the detective his lumpia, housemaids, a chauffer, hired thugs and the one who owns a donut coffee shop called Mabuhay Donuts. He is a 70-year old Filipino ex-boxer who is a valuable 'informant' to the detective.

Pages 172 - 173:

The Filipino-style Chinese donut, or shtekeleh, is the great contribution of the District of Sitka to the food lovers of the world. In its present form, it cannot be found in the Philippines. No Chinese trencherman would recognize it as the fruit of his native fry kettles. Like the storm god Yahweh of Sumeria, the shtekeleh was not invented by the Jews, but the world would sport neither God nor the shtekeleh without Jews and their desires. A panatela of fried dough, not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets. You sink it in your paper cup of milky tea and close your eyes, and for ten fat seconds, you seem to glimpse the possibility of finer things.
The hidden master of the Filipino-style Chinese donut is Benito Taganes, proprietor and king of the bubbling vats of Mabuhay, dark, cramped, invisible from the street, stays open all night long. It drains the bars and the cafés after hours, concentrates the wicked and the guilty along its chipped formica counter, and thrumps with the gossip of criminals, policemen, shtarkers and shlemiels, whores and night owls. With the fat applauding in the fryers, the exhaust fans roaring, and the boom box blasting the heartsick kundimans of Benito's Manila childhood, the clientele makes free with their service. A golden mist of kosher oil hangs in the air and baffles the senses. Who could overhear with ears full of KosherFry and the wailing of Diomedes Maturan? But Benito Taganes overhears, and he remembers. Benito could draw you a family tree for Alexei Lebed, the chieftain of the Russian mob, only on it you would find not grandparents and nieces but bagmen, bump-offs, and offshore bank accounts. He could sing kundimans of wives who remain loyal to their imprisoned husbands and husbands doing time because their wives dropped dimes on them.

With the mouth-watering description of the donut, which I believe is called bicho or bicho-bicho in the Philippines, I was inspired to make these delicious shtekelehs.

hope this is what he wrote about: fried dough, not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets

The recipe for bicho-bicho is here.