You only need 3 ingredients to make a deliciously sweet Okinawan treat called Sata Andagi. It’s a type of deep-fried donut or dango from Okinawa, Japan that is the winning combination of crispy and cakey!
Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
To Make the Dough
In a large bowl, combine 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and ⅓ cup black sugar. Whisk together until the sugar has dissolved.
Add 1 tsp neutral oil and whisk together.
Sift 1 cup cake flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt over the egg and sugar mixture.
Using a silicone spatula, start to combine the dry and wet ingredients. If the dough is too wet, you can add extra flour. Humidity and moisture in the air affects your dough. If you feel that your dough is too soft and wet, add more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time. The consistency is similar to cookie dough, but slightly softer. Let the dough rest for an hour.
To Roll the Dough and Deep-Fry
Bring 3 cups neutral oil in the deep fryer or medium saucepan to 300–320ºF (150–160ºC) over medium-low heat. In order to cook the inside of the doughnut, we deep-fry at low temperature. (You can use less oil, but you will need to rotate the balls often as they won’t be covered by oil.)
Prepare some extra oil (for rolling the dough) in a small bowl and rub it on your palms to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.
When the oil in the deep fryer reaches 300–320ºF (150–160ºC), scoop the dough with a cookie scooper into your hand and roll it into a ball. It should be around 3 cm (slightly bigger than 1 inch) or about the size of a Ping-Pong ball. Tip: To achieve the same portion size, a cookie scooper is a great tool to have.
As soon as you are done rolling the dough, start adding the dough balls to the oil. They will expand as they cook, so do not add too many and crowd the pot.
Once the dough balls are cooked through, they will start to float. They rotate themselves, but you can help them rotate to achieve even coloring.
When golden brown, after about 7–8 minutes of deep-frying, pick them up and drain excess oil on a paper towel or wire rack. Let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!
To Store
You can store the leftovers in the refrigerator for 3 days and in the freezer for 2 weeks.