Bunuelos

As I was skimming my bookmarks for recipes "saved for later" I found this Latin-American desert and thought to give it a try.

I used the recipe found at cooks.com to make these. They're kind of like a doughnut, elephant ear sort of treat. They're not too sweet, more doughy than sugary for sure. They're not as airy as a doughnut but kind of bread-like.

They're not bad. I'd probably make them again, if I were in the mood for them, but it's not a seasonal "I have to make those" recipe for us.

Mine were a little more bubbly than they probably should be. I think you can tap them to get the bubbles out when frying. I didn't necessarily let them sit very long either...that could have something to do with it.

Prerequisites:
4 eggs
1/4 Cup of sugar 
2 1/4 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp vegetable oil (I used canola because that's what we had)
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt


Cinnamon-Sugar Topping: 
1 Cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Oil for frying (at least 1 inch deep in pan)

I started with the eggs and sugar, since that would take a while to get them "thick and lemon colored".

I decided to sift the flour. When searching for the best recipe I saw a few that said to sift, and thought "hey, why not, I never use the sifter anymore?" so here goes...nice powdery texture.

Then I checked on my eggs, still thickening, not quite the texture I think we need...

Add baking powder, salt, and stir the flour together. Eggs are still just eggs and sugar. I'm lucky I didn't forget to add the oil at the end.

We're going to have to roll them out, so time to flour the counter. It always feels a little taboo to me to dump flour all over the place. Aidan decided he wanted to help so he made his best attempt at carrying the chair over and made a bigger (MUCH bigger) mess.

Mixin' mixin' mixin'...

  I added the oil (don't forget!!).

 Then gradually the flour.

This is looking sticky...

Good thing we put all that flour on the counter...

I kneeded the dough and got the insides covered with flour so it wasn't unbearably sticky anymore, and then pinched off a piece to roll out.

On to the wax paper it went to set up (I guess? maybe dry out is a better word for it) and I pinched the rest into balls and started rolling. With some help...

In the mean time I let the oil get hot.

Here goes...

 They bubble up quite a bit when frying.

 Messy, messy, messy.

 Cinnamon-sugar prepared to coat the bunuelos with.

Pretty yummy. Particularly for people who aren't big on sweets. I, however, prefer things with three cups of sugar in them.

I'm happy to announce that in about an hour and twenty minutes I will be on Thanksgiving break, so I will hopefully be able to make more posts. It's not that I ever quit being busy or doing blog-worthy activities, I just forgot to capture them on camera and take the time to share. Hopefully I'll have the chance to get a few more things done between reading academic papers and preparing my research paper due in December. Care to learn about the Late Devonian Mass Extinction?

Until next time, I've got one last class to go to.