You don’t need to be Canadian to appreciate the beauty of this northern dessert. Vegan food writer and recipe developer Zacchary Bird is from Australia, but includes his plant-based take on the beaver tail (a Canadian fried dough pastry shaped and scored to resemble its namesake) in his book The Vegan Baker: The Ultimate Guide to Plant-based Breads, Pastries, Cookies, Slices, and More. Here’s how Bird describes the snack, which he makes with a sweet-potato-based dough:
“These Canadian carnival classics seem like the intersection on a Venn diagram of donuts and flatbread upon first encounter. The top is scored to mimic the appearance of a beaver’s tail before frying, which also helps them to hold on to flavour. I love them simply dressed with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with fresh lemon juice, but the wide surface area on these bad boys mean they’ll form a dam to hold all sorts of sweet garnishes.”
Vegan Beaver Tails
Ingredients
Cinnamon Sugar
- 2¾ oz (80 g) superfine sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Beaver Tails
- 60 ml soy milk
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 4½ oz (120 g) all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
- 4½ oz (120 g) whole-wheat flour
- 2 tsp instant dried yeast
- 1 oz (25 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- 1½ oz (45 g) vegan butter
- 4½ oz (125 g) mashed orange sweet potato see note
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
- olive oil for greasing
- neutral-flavoured oil for deep-frying
To Serve
- 1¾ oz (50 g) Cinnamon Sugar
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
Instructions
Cinnamon Sugar
- Combine the cinnamon sugar ingredients in a wide bowl.
Beaver Tails
- In a small bowl, combine the soy milk and vinegar. Set aside for 5 minutes to thicken and curdle into buttermilk.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flours, yeast, sugar and salt.
- Mash the butter into the sweet potato with a potato masher in a separate large bowl, then vigorously stir in the flour mixture to achieve a crumbly mixture. Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla until combined, then knead the dough on a counter top for 2 to 3 minutes, until smooth. You won’t need to flour the counter for this part, as the dough should pull away from it.
- Lightly oil the first large bowl, then add the dough, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled in size.
- Lightly flour your countertop. Punch down the dough and divide into eight balls, each weighing about 2 oz (60 g). Roll the dough balls between your palms until smooth, then roll into flat ovals with a rolling pin. Adjust the sides so they’re even, and will come out of the fryer looking camera-ready. Use a dough scraper to score a crisscross pattern into the top of each donut, to get the telltale look. Use the dough scraper to transfer your beaver tails to a well-floured countertop or silicone baking mats. Cover and leave to rise for 30 to 60 minutes, until doubled in size.
- Heat at least 2 in (5 cm) of neutral-flavoured oil in a large heavy-based saucepan until the temperature registers above 345°F (175°C) on a kitchen thermometer, or when the handle of a wooden spoon instantly bubbles when placed in the oil. Adjust the temperature slightly to keep it around 345°F (175°C) while frying the beaver tails.
- Get ready to dress your beaver tails as they leave the fryer by tipping the Cinnamon Sugar into a shallow bowl.
- Working in two batches, slide a wide spatula or dough scraper under the puffed-up beaver tails and transfer to the hot oil. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, until golden, then remove to paper towel to drain. While still hot, quickly toss the beaver tails in the cinnamon sugar and serve right away, with lemon wedges for squeezing over.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container and demolish within a day.
Notes
More recipes from Zacchary Bird
Vegan Shortbread Cookies
Zacchary Bird's surprisingly-easy, large-batch recipe for vegan shortbread cookies.
Get the recipe
