The first time I had sata andagi was in 2023 when my family and I were visiting Japan. We went to a local bakery in Kyoto, and they were selling these cute, rectangular, crackle-surfaced brown sugar doughnuts. I was a bit taken aback from the texture at first – I was expecting something more like an old-fashioned cake doughnut, but while the exterior of these dark brown doughnuts resembled those, the interior threw me off a bit compared to what I was expecting. The ones I had, while the flavor was this pleasant, earthy-sweet brown sugar taste, the texture was a bit too soft and almost greasy for my liking. However, the craggy exterior of the doughnuts were quite delightful, as they were everything I love about an old-fashioned doughnut. It turns out that how they achieve that texture is by frying the doughnuts at a lower temperature, which allows the doughnuts to crack, but also does cause the doughnuts to have a more oily interior. It was an interesting experience, but truthfully, I was not a fan the first time I had them. Fast forward a year later, and I randomly started developing a craving for them again. The more I thought about the textural contrast, the more I came to appreciate how unique of a pastry sata andagi was. The soft, kind of wet interior was more reminiscent of Indian gulab jamun, while the exterior was like an old fashioned. So by framing it that way, I suddenly wanted to try my hand at making these myself. It also helped that I was trying to figure out some recipes to use up my sourdough starter, and sourdough doughnuts were on that list. So I figured, why not try to make a sourdough-based, air-fried version of these brown sugary little bites.

Traditional Okinawan sata andagi uses Okinawan dark brown sugar in the batter/dough. In this case, I used dark brown sugar, and kecap manis(Indonesian soy sauce) to accomplish a very similar flavor and color to the ones I had in Japan! If you do not have kecap manis, you can use molasses as well, but I would also add a pinch of salt to layer in a bit more seasoning. Also, this is a recipe designed to use sourdough starter, so if you do not have sourdough starter, unfortunately this recipe is not for you. You can attempt to make it without the starter, but I cannot guarantee that the results will be the same. One thing that was tricky was the consistency of the dough. Sata andagi that is deep-fried uses a very loose, soft dough, bordering on a batter, that is scooped into balls and dunked straight into the oil. Since we are air-frying these, I relied on the sourdough starter to suck up some of the excess moisture in the dough, and also chilled down my dough so that is was firmer and easier to shape. The typical shape for sata andagi is a sphere or a ball, but since the ones I had in Kyoto were rectangular, I went with that shape instead – I found it to be more appealing, since I was planning on eating these with coffee in the morning anyways. That and with a rectangular shape, it is easier to portion out the dough, and there being more edges to the doughnut means that we will get crispy, crackly bits on those parts of the rectangle as we air-fry them! Similarly to sourdough bread, I did score the doughnuts prior to air-frying them, just to guide the doughnuts and allow them to break and crack at those parts! The end result is still a similar product to traditional sata andagi, but a bit easier to execute(as much as I LOVE a fried doughnut, setting up a deep fryer or fryer oil at home can be super finicky).

Makes 8 doughnuts:
1 egg
3oz dark brown sugar
.5oz kecap manis
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1oz unsalted butter, browned
2oz sourdough starter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

In a bowl, mix together the egg, brown sugar, kecap manis, vanilla, salt, and brown butter. Fold into that the other ingredients to form your dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before attempting to shape. Each doughnut is roughly 2-3 tbsp of dough, molded into a rough rectangular shape. Arrange each shaped piece of dough onto an air fryer-liner that has had cooking spray applied to it. Score the tops of each doughnut using a pair of scissors, cutting the tops with one incision. Air fry at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Then flip the doughnuts and air fry another 5 minutes at 400 degrees F.