You've
likely seen these in the dessert section of Mexican
restaurant menus. They're crispy little dough pillows
served with honey. When I found an easy recipe
I tried it immediately, and they turned out great the
first time, despite the recipe containing a big error:
3/4 cup of water when 1/4 was what was needed. (Even
my inexperienced eye caught that mistake - thankfully,
before I dumped all that water in.)
What you'll need:
1 cup of flour 1 tbsp of baking powder 1
tsp of salt 1 tbsp shortening 1/4 cup of water Oil
for frying (I use canola) Honey or whatever else
you want to serve it with
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Then crumble in the shortening, a little bit at a time,
rubbing and mushing it into the flour mixture with your
fingers until it has a crumblike texture. Then add in
the water, a little at a time, mixing with a fork. The
dough will clump around the fork. Shape the dough into
a ball, then put it onto a lightly floured working surface
and knead it gently until the texture is fairly smooth.
Then roll it out using a rolling pin (or reasonable
facsimile) into a sheet as thin or thinner than pie
crust. Cut it into 3 inch squares, or triangles half
that size, or however else you may want to shape them.
Finally, heat the cooking oil to 375 degrees and fry
them, turning once, until they puff up and turn golden
brown. Drain them on paper towels and serve with honey
(my favorite!), syrup, cinnamon, powdered sugar, or
whatever else strikes your fancy.
Slight variations in the oil temperature can have
a drastic effect on how much the sopaipillas puff up.
A few degrees less and they stay almost flat; a few
degrees more and they blow up into big hollow round
pastries. In the middle and they'll have various
sized bubbles. All are good, believe me. Just
don't "pop" the bubbles while the sopaipillas
are still cooking or the oil will get inside them. Yuck.
|