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Welcome back to Week 8 of my Bake Off 2022 bake-along. Once again, we have a technical challenge that doesn’t involve switching on the oven: Prue’s Spring Rolls! Last week was pastry week, and Prue asked the bakers to make 8 spring rolls which involved making a wrapper dough, filling, dipping sauce and finally deep-fat frying the spring rolls to perfection! Despite the lack of actual baking, I really enjoyed making these Spring Rolls! As always, I have changed and adapted the recipe to give you a cheaper, more home-baker friendly recipe to try yourself!
Check out the video here:
Easy Changes to Reduce the Cost of making Prue’s Spring Rolls
Besides the obvious fact that most home bakers probably don’t own a deep-fat fryer – just use some sunflower oil and a pot and you can manage. I do really recommend using a good-quality sugar thermometer to gauge the temperature of the oil (I can recommend this one).
In terms of the ingredients for the filling, I don’t usually advocate spending your money on pre-prepared vegetable mixed. But to avoid buying loads of different veggies despite needing much, in this instance I decided that a prepared bag of bean sprouts, mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, chillies, etc. was a good option. But as this is more cooking than baking, you are flexible in what you use and I would advise to just use what ever “stir-fryable” (new word!) veg you have in the house.
While some people who enjoy Asian cooking (like us!) may already have a lot of Asian cooking staples such as soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, fish sauce, etc., I know many people will not. In this case, if you would like to keep the cost down, I would advise only purchasing 3 absolute staples: light soy sauce, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. These three ingredients are highly versatile and will elevate any stir-fry, so you should be able to use them another time!
More Bake Off Technical Challenges
As the years go by this list just gets longer and longer. I love making the Bake Off Technical challenges and always put my spin on the recipes. So make sure to check out some of the posts below if you want to give one of the recipes a try, too!
- Mary Berry’s Religieuses
- Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
- Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
- Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
- Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
- Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
- Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
- Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
- Paul’s Crusty White Cob
- Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
- Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
- Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
- Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
- Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
- Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
- Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
- Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
- Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
- Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
- Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
- Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
- Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
- Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits
Prue’s Spring Rolls | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients:
FOR THE WRAPPER DOUGH
- 150g strong white bread flour
- 25g cornflour, plus a little extra for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 egg, beaten (for sealing the wrappers)
FOR THE FILLING
- 35g vermicelli rice noodles
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- Thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 120g shiitake mushrooms, roughly sliced
- 100g pre-packaged stir-fry mix (alternatively, use the ingredients in the original recipe here)
- 50g mange touts, cut into fine matchsticks
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- juice of ½ lime
- ½ tsp soft light brown sugar
- ½ tsp sesame oil
YOU WILL ALSO NEED
- Large Wok
- Rolling pin
- Large non-stick frying pan
- Silicone pastry brush
- Deep saucepan
- Cooking thermometer (up to 200°C) (I recommend this one)
- 1 L sunflower oil (for deep-fat frying), or use a deep-fat fryer if you have one
Method
- Start by making the dough for the wrappers. Sift the flour, cornflour and salt into a small bowl and create a well in the centre. Add the sesame, vegetable oil and 5 tbsp of water and mix to form a stiff dough, adding a little more water if needed. Turn onto a clean surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
- Cover the dough with clingfilm and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
- To prepare the filling, finely chop the ginger, garlic, and spring onion. Then cut the carrot, mangetout, and mushrooms, and any other ingredients if you are not using a shop-bought prepared stir-fry mix (see video).
- Place the vermicelli rice noodles in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to sit for 15 minutes.
- Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok and add a teaspoon (more or less depending on your taste) of chilli flakes. Once hot, add the ginger, garlic, and spring onions, cook for 30 seconds, then add all the remaining ingredients to the frying pan. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, then mix the soy sauce and cornflour together in a small bowl and add to the pan before cooking for a further 1-2 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir 1 tbsp oyster sauce through the vegetables. Drain the vermicelli noodles and roughly chop so that the noodles are around 5cm long. Add to the pan and mix the noodles in with the vegetables. Transfer the mix into a large shallow bowl, then chill in the fridge to cool.
- After half an hour, unwrap the dough and knead it for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (around 35g each) then roll into balls.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out two of the balls into 8cm disks. Dust the top of one disk with a little cornflour, then place the other piece of dough on top. Roll the stacked disks out to circles (as best you can) around 20cm in diameter.
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and cook the dough stack for about 30 seconds on each side. Remove from the pan, carefully pull apart the two disks and place them on a plate. Cover with a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out and set aside. Repeat with the remaining dough until you have 8 wrappers in total.
- Fill the sunflower oil into a deep pot and set over a high heat. Use a sugar thermometer to monitor the temperature and wait until the oil has reached between 180-190°C.
- In the meantime, you can fill and roll the spring rolls. Take a wrapper and use a small knife to trim the sides to make a square. Place about 3 tbsp of filling 5cm from one of the corners. Take that corner and place it over the filling, then fold in the sides to create a seal from the side. Continue rolling until the filling is almost completely encased. Brush a little beaten egg on the edge of the wrapper and fold over to seal the spring roll. Repeat until you have 8 spring rolls.
- Once the oil is hot, carefully lower 2-3 spring rolls into the oil using long tongs or a slotted spoon. Cook the spring rolls for 4-5 minutes until golden brown, then remove and place them on a plate with kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil. Wait for the oil to come up to temperature again if slightly cooled, and repeat until all spring rolls are cooked.
- Finally, prepare the dipping sauce by mixing together all of the ingredients in a small bowl, adding more of individual components if you feel the taste needs to be adjusted.
- Dip the spring rolls into the dipping sauce and enjoy!
