The Easiest Way To Make The Best Kao Fu - Magical Vegan Meat 用最容易的方法做最完美的烤麩 - 百變素肉

Making Kao Fu is so easy and simple. Here, I’m going to share with you how easy it is to make your own Kao Fu, why you'll love to make it, and how versatile Kao Fu can be when it comes to cooking vegan cuisine. 

自己做烤麩是多麼容易。在這裡，我將會為大家示範，為什麼您會喜歡製作它，以及烤麩在素菜美食的烹飪舞台上，可以擔任多少千變萬化的角色。

You can produce one or multiple batches which can be stored in the freezer, and defrosted overnight in the fridge for making meal the following day. This way, a restaurant-style dish or a traditional home cooked meal can be ready in a very short space of time.

Kao Fu can be pan seared, deep-fried, braised, or stir-fried, depending on what the recipe calls for. It can be turned into different forms of vegan meat, and produces a wonderful appearance, texture and flavour which will exceed anyone’s expectations of the dish.

As long as you have mastered the basic technique, you can be as creative as you like, veganising almost any of your old time favourites. The sky is the limit.

製作烤麩非常容易簡單。 你可以預先做一份或多份，然後把它們儲存在冷凍庫中，需要時前天晚上取出放在冰箱退冰以供明天做菜時應用。 這樣，一頓餐廳風格的菜餚或傳統的家常小菜便能够在很短的時間內準備好。

烤麩可以用作煎、炸、紅燒或炒，適合不同菜譜的要求而變成不同形式的素肉，它擁有美好的賣相、口感和風味，絕對會超出任何人對每道菜的期望。

只要你掌握了基本做法，便可盡情發揮，將很多你以前最喜歡的食物素食化，創意無限。

( 中文食譜在下面 For the Chinese recipe please scroll down)

The Easiest Way To Make The Best Kao Fu - Magical Vegan Meat 

Ingredients:

100g vital wheat gluten flour

150ml lukewarm water (30 - 32°C)

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp dried active yeast (the type needs to dissolve in water)

Method:
 

1.  In a measuring jug, add the water, sugar, then the yeast, stirring to mix. Leave the mixture for 5 minutes to activate the yeast.

2.  Put the vital wheat gluten flour in a bowl and once the yeast and water mixture has activated after 5 minutes, add this to the flour. Use a spatula to mix it together quickly into a soft dough. You need to work fast as vital wheat gluten flour absorbs water really quickly. If not mixed well fast enough, it could result in uneven textured dough.

3.  Once the dough is formed, gently press and squeeze it together for 2 minutes. You don’t need to do too much kneading or pushing, as the shape and texture of the dough has more or less been formed once the water was added into it.

4.  Put the dough in a lightly oiled deep dish, I used an oval shaped one, roughly 20cm x 25cm x 5cm, you can use a round one or a rectangular one. Brush the dough all over with oil too to prevent it from sticking to the wall of the dish when it rises later.

5. Put a bowl of hot water in the oven, place the dough next to it, close the oven door, leave for 1 hour and 30 minutes to proof. (Please note, when the dough put in the oven with the boiling water, the oven is not turned on, we only use the temperature provides by the boiling water to help the dough rises. Most doughs rise faster in a warm and humid environment.)

6. After 1½ hour, the dough should have relaxed and risen. Turn it over carefully. This will help loosen dough from bottom of the dish, and make it easier to remove after steaming.

7. Bring the water in a steamer to the boil over medium high heat, then turn the heat down to medium until the water is on a rapid simmer (over medium heat) and giving out some gentle steam (visible) through the vents. Keep the water on a medium heat and steam the dough for 30 minutes.

8. When 30 minutes is up, don’t turn off the heat, remove the lid from the steamer while the heat is still on to prevent water dripping down or the cold air from outside deflating the Kao Fu too much. The dough should now be fully risen, looking like a sponge - soft and springy to the touch. This spongy gluten has become our Magical Homemade Vegan Meat. It will be perfect for soaking up and absorbing flavours and turning into juicy vegan meat following different recipes.

9. Once cooled, cut the Kao Fu up and store in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 4 hours to firm up before using.

You’ve just finished making Kao Fu!

Video link to our next video 👇 of how to use the Kao Fu to make:

"Tender & Juicy Vegan Beef Lo Mein" 

Tips :

Please note, when the dough put in the oven with the boiling water, the oven is not turned on, the oven is only acting as a proofer (aka proofing oven, proofing cabinet, dough proofer, proofing drawer, or proof box).

Proofer is a warm area designed to maximize proofing by keeping dough warm and humid. We only use the temperature provides by the boiling water to help the dough rises. Please do not turn on or heat the oven at all—the hot water will keep the closed oven warm and moist. Most doughs rise faster in a warm and humid environment.

If yeasted dough isn’t allowed to proof, the yeast can’t release carbon dioxide, and the gluten won’t stretch to hold the air bubbles.

Proofing is a step in bread baking that activates the yeast in the dough, although we are not baking bread here, but the proofing method helps the dough to create air pockets so the “meat” pieces are hollow inside, therefore, will be light and fluffy and will absorb all the lovely sauce during cooking, that is what we aim to achieve in the next video and the future recipes which I'm going to share with you.

Additional tips:

How to choose Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG)?

Recently, lots of people online have mentioned that the properties of the vital wheat gluten currently available on the market seem to be somewhat different from those in the past. Recipes that had always been successful suddenly became uncontrollable. And I have been asked about how to deal with this issue by our readers or channel subscribers.

Here, I can only propose solutions based on my own recipes. Whoever has made vegan meat using my recipes such as Char Siu, Baked Gluten Puffs or Kao Fu … would know that for the wet ingredients I only use yeast, water and sugar, and I may add a little salt or oil depending on the recipe. So it’s very easy to adjust.

The protein content of each brand of VWG varies, generally ranging from 75% to 85%. I use the 85% type, but depending on the supply, it may not always be available. Protein content can affect how the dough turns out when water is added. Just like when you make any dough using flour, when kneading, you can make slight adjustments. If you feel that the dough is too dry and hard, you can add some water little by little. If you feel that the dough is too wet, then add a little dry flour until a satisfactory result is achieved. Once you have done it a couple of times, you will know exactly what to do.

( 中文食譜在下面 For the Chinese recipe please scroll down)

用最容易的方法做最完美的烤麩 - 百變素肉

材料：

麵筋粉 (vital wheat gluten flour) 100g

温水 150ml (30 - 32°C)

1 小匙糖

乾酵母 ½ 小匙（需要溶於水的種類）

做法：

1.  在量杯中加入水、糖和酵母，攪拌混合。 將混合物靜置 5 分鐘以激活酵母。

2.  將麵筋粉放入大碗中，5 分鐘後將酵母和水混合物加入麵粉中。 用抹刀將它們快速混合成柔軟的麵團。你的動作要靈活，因為麵筋粉吸水很快，如果攪拌不夠快， 可能會導致某部份吸水量不均勻。

3.  麵團成型後，輕輕按壓，揉捏 2 分鐘，不要太用力推和搓，因為一旦加入水，麵團的形狀和質地或多或少已形成了。

4.  把麵團放在抹了少許油的深盤裡，我用的是橢圓形的，大約 20cm x 25cm x 5cm，你可以用圓形或者長方形的。麵團上下四方也抹油以防稍後發大時會沾黏盤壁。

5.  烤箱裡放一碗熱水，把麵團放在旁邊，關上烤箱門，靜置 1小時30 分鐘發酵。(請注意，當麵團和熱水同時放入烤箱時，烤箱是不需要熱度的，我們只是使用沸水提供的溫度來幫助麵團發酵。 大多數麵團在溫暖潮濕的環境中發酵得更快。)

6.  1.5 小時後，麵團應該已鬆弛並發大了。小心地翻過來，這樣可以幫助麵團在蒸完後不會黏著盤子的底部和更容易取出。

7.  將蒸鍋中的水用中高火煮沸，然後將火調低一點，直到水剛剛沸騰並從通風口處發出一些輕微 (可以看得到 ) 的蒸汽。 將水保持在滾滾文火上把麵團蒸 30 分鐘。

8.  30 分鐘後，不要關火，趁熱打開蒸籠，以防止水滴落下，或外面的冷空氣使烤麩過度下塌。 麵團現在應該完全發起，看起來像一塊海綿 —— 按下鬆軟有彈性。 這塊海綿狀的麵筋已成為了我們的百變素肉烤麩 。它的多孔質感非常適合吸飽湯汁和吸收美味，並可依照不同的食譜演變成各款美味多汁的素肉。

9.  冷卻後，將烤麩切開，然後放入密封容器中，置冰箱冷藏至少 4 小時，使其結實一點後再使用。

就這麽簡單，你已經把烤麩 — 自家製百變素肉做好了！

我們下一個視頻的連結 👇  怎樣用烤麩做 

" 鮮嫩多汁的純素牛肉撈麵 "  

小提示 :

請注意，當麵團和沸水同時放入烤箱時，烤箱是沒有熱度的。烤箱只是充當個 Proofer 發酵箱（又名發酵櫃、麵團發酵盒等等）。

Proofer 是一個溫暖的地方，旨在通過保持麵團溫暖和潮濕來產生最快速的發酵。我們只想用沸水提供的溫度來幫助麵團發酵。請不要加熱烤箱——熱水會使關閉的烤箱保持溫暖和濕潤。大多數麵團在溫暖潮濕的環境中發酵得更快。

如果我們不讓加了酵母的麵團發酵，酵母就不能釋放二氧化碳，麵筋也不會伸展以容納氣泡。

發酵是麵包烘焙的一個步驟，它激活麵團中的酵母，雖然在這裡我們不是在烤麵包，但發酵的方法有助於麵團產生氣孔，以致這些 “肉” 塊的內部是空心的，烤好後很輕軟，蓬鬆，在燉煮過程中會吸收所有美味的醬汁，這就是我之後要與大家分享的食譜所需要的。

小提示：

麵筋粉怎樣選擇？

最近有頗多朋友說，目前市面上買到的麵筋粉，性質跟以前的好像有些不同。向來做開都成功的食譜突然變得控制不了。他們問我如果遇著這情况該如何應付？

在此，我只能依我本人的食譜提出解决辦法。跟我的素肉食譜如义燒、烤麩或烤麵筋泡芙做過的朋友都知道，我做麵筋的濕材料大致就只有酵母、水和糖，間中根據食譜需要或加少許鹽或油。所以非常容易調整。

麵筋粉每隻牌子含的蛋白質不同，一般是 75% - 85% 不等。我用的是 85%那種，但看貨源，也不一定時常買得到。蛋白質含量可以影響加進水後麵糰的效果。就像任何用麵粉搓的方法一樣，可以在加進水搓過後作少許的調整，覺得麵糰太乾硬的可以逐點水添加調教，覺得麵糰太濕的話杓量加點乾粉。直至達到滿意的效果。多做一兩次就會掌握得好了。