Krispy knots with honey pistachio

I always miss those days when I lived in city, which was in Hongkong. This place never sleeps! Every night, I'm talking about after 11 o'clock, there was a hawker outside my building, setting up a big stove, and cooking clams, snails and prawns to feed those night-shift daddys who just came home. When the weather was bad, some hawkers carrying cooked food came inside the building to sell door-to-door. Right now I can already think of their meat dumplings, tapioca cakes, pudding, sweet-n-sour gluten doughs, sweet bean soup... oh one more was my dad favorite - fried honey pastry. He always had it with sweet wine, yes, he has a terribly sweet tooth. In fact, my "candy pasta" is an old news to him as he has already started cooking noodle in simple syrup long time ago. My Krispy Knots aren't the same fried pastry, but the stickness and sweet honey still bring me back to that time back then. I'm going to submit this post to Ellie at Kitchen Wench, who is running an once-off event Nostalgia. Please pop over to check for details!

Ingredients (yield: about 30 knots)

• 1 cup flour
• Honey
• 1 Tbp white sesame seeds
• 1/2 salt
• a few pinches of baking powder
• A handful of unsalted roasted pistachio, chopped

Directions:

• Dilute spoonfuls of honey with water, ratio about 1:1
• Combine flour, sesame, salt and baking powder, add enough dilute honey until the dough forms. We are looking for soft and tender dough, but not too wet. Rest dough for 1/2 hour in room temperature
• I flatten the dough by pasta machine, and done at the second-thinnest setting. If you do it by rolling pin, roll dough to 1/4 cm thick. Either way, you got to give the dough many rest between rollings, covered. This way your dough will be easier to spread out, and yields a more tender texture.
• Lightly flour the work table, lay the dough sheet, cut into 1.5 cm-wide ribbon. Tight into knots (don't pinch the knot).
• Pre-heat 2-inch deep oil, fry dough over medium-high until they turn golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Drain well.
• Drizzle more honey (not dilute) and sprinkle roasted pistachio to serve. But if you're going to store them, don't proceed this step.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------