Making Pa Thong Ko - Thai Donuts

I took my try at making Pa Thong Ko, the Thai Donut. I had written stories in the past spelling the name of the donut as "Baht-to-go" as that is how most Thais say it. The spelling is either "Pa Tong Ko" or "Pa Thong Ko". To read those stories just click on these titles- Mae Sai 05/01/2010 Happy Labor Day or Trip to Chiang Rai and Water Fall.

Ntoo, the Pa Thing Ko maker, had taken the day of and his lovely wife was running

things at their coffee shop in the center of the Mae Sai Morning Market. Over a hundred times I have watched Ntoo and others make this Thai style donut so I said let me make some. Everyone laughted but it always looked so easy.

I washed my hands and started to take some Pa Thong Ko doe that had been made last night but had trouble right away as it kept sticking to the table. I had to be helped, right off the bat, as I had not used enough flower on the table to keep the doe from sticking to it.

After that I did pretty good getting the doe rolled out, cut, two

pieces put together with a touch of oil between the two pieces. Time to put the doe in the hot oil. Everything was good so far.

The next thing I did not know was there is only a small window

for the Pa Thong Ko to be cooked correctly. If you don't take them back out of the hot oil in a few seconds of them being done they over cook and become crispy rocks.

I got about half of them out of the kettle of oil okay but the other half went from being very crispy to break your teeth rocks.

It was not a big deal; we only had to throw away about ten. That was about sixty cents worth in US money.

Everyone laughed at me!