Num Kong, Khmer Donuts – A Taste of Cambodia

Cambodian donuts are known for their fantastic and surprising flavour and texture. You may ask for more after one!  They have a mildly sweet creamy flavour and are soft and chewy inside and wonderfully crunchy outside.

Follow the step-by-step guide to achieve this on the first attempt.

Ingredients for making donuts dough:

• 400g Glutinous rice flour
• 80g Rice flour
• 1/4 tablespoon Salt
• 400ml Coconut milk (1 can)
• 80g Palm sugar
• 4 cups Cooking oil or vegetable oil (for deep-frying)

Ingredients for the glaze:

• 200g Palm sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 cup | 60ml Water
• 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp Sesame Seeds (toasted)

1

First,  let’s start with the dough!

DOUGH

Glutinous rice flour is also known as sweet rice flour. It’s available in any Asian store. Usually, it comes with a bag of 400 grams with green writing on them and this recipe that we are about to make is very simple, we need only one whole bag for making the dough.

Rice flour is to add a soft texture to the donuts.

Palm sugar is sweet which I prefer whenever I prepare dessert, especially Cambodian-Khmer desserts. Alternatively, sugar is also fine with the same amount as palm sugar.

Salt, with just a pinch of salt, helps to balance the sweetness and to add more flavour to the dessert. Dessert is rarely without salt.

Coconut milk, use a can of coconut milk with a 400 ml container for this recipe. Compared to typical coconut milk obtained naturally, this milk has a thicker consistency. Add gradually until the mixture is just right for rolling—neither too soft nor too hard.

Knead the dough for about two minutes or until it is smooth. After that, cover with a plastic wrap or kitchen towel and let it stand for 10 to 15 minutes before rolling.

How to roll the dough!

Step 1: form the dough into a small ball.

Step 2: roll the dough into a rope shape.

Step 3: circle, press the ends to attach together.

Prepare the oil and heat it over medium heat to a low-deep-frying temperature (280ºF – 300ºF or 145ºC).

Gently and carefully drop the rolled dough into the hot oil so as not to overcrowd the pan. The doughs will float once they reach the firm texture, cook one side until crispy and golden then flip to cook another side. Continue rolling and frying until finishing the dough.

The doughs will float once they reach the firm texture, cook one side until crispy and golden then flip to cook another side.

Place the fried donuts on a cooling rack to let the excess oil drip off before dipping into the glaze.

2

It’s not really called Cambodian donuts without the glaze, let’s make it!

Glaze: to add the richest taste to the glaze, toast the sesame seeds first. Toast until nice and golden over medium heat. The palm sugar is then caramelized with water and salt; salt again serves to balance the sweetness. If you find that this step is not necessary, feel free to skip it. Yeah! We are the king of ingredients, hence the flavour belongs to us. Last but not least! Mix thoroughly after adding the toasted sesame seeds.

Use a pair of chopsticks or your finger, dip the top side of each donut in the glaze then transfer it onto a rack to harden the glaze

NOTE: 

• Reheat the glaze gradually on the burner until it becomes liquid enough to continue dipping the donuts if it becomes too hard to cover all of them.
• The glaze is hot, be very careful as it can cause burns if you get any on your skin.

Best to serve on the day you made the donuts! However, it still tastes good the day after!

For this recipe makes about 20 donuts.

Enjoy!

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