morado@milton.u.washington.edu (Maralee Morado) (08/31/90)
Sopaipillas (from Elena's Secrets of Mexican Cooking by Elena Zelayeta) 1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons shortening 2/3 cup cold water Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl; add shortening and cut in coarsely; then add cold water gradually. Mix just enough to hold together as for pie crust. Turn out on lightly-floured board and knead gently until smooth. Cover and let dough rest for five minutes; then roll out into a rectangle about 12 by 15 inches (dough should be very thin, about 1/16" to 1/8 inch thick). Cut into 3-inch squares or 2- by 3-inch oblongs. Drop a few squares at a time into deep, very hot oil. At first, turn squares over 3 or 4 times to make them puff evenly. Fry about 2 or 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. The sopaipillas will puff up like little pillows. Serve hot as a bread with soup or guacamole. Makes about 20. __ Personally I have never used this recipe. I was able to find a a sopaipillas mix once while visiting Fort Collins, Colorado. But they do taste great. Also try having a mixture of cinnamon and sugar handy. I find that people like to sprinkle the mixture on top of warm sopaipillias. Good luck
kastella@cajal.biostr.washington.edu (Ken Kastella) (04/11/91)
There have been a couple requests for sopaipilla recipes in the last
week or so. Here is one from the "Feast of Santa Fe". I would like to
note that I have never tried to make sopaipillas so I really can't
attest to the difficulties one might encounter. On the other hand,
since I got the book a month or so ago I have made several other
recipes and each one brought back memories of my days in New Mexico.
If you are interested in New Mexican cooking, I recommend purchase of
"Feast of Santa Fe".
Ken Kastella
- SOPAIPILLAS -
From: Feast of Santa Fe by Huntley Dent
Simon & Schuster, New York 1985
For at least 8 small or 4 large sopaipillas:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
Oil for deep-frying
Making the dough: If you already know how to make biscuits,
then proceed as you normally do, for sopaipillas are made from the same
sort of soft, lightly handled dough. Combine the flour, baking powder
and salt in a mixing bowl. Using two knives, a pastry cutter or your
fingertips, cut the lard or other shortening into the dry ingredients
until a flaky meal is formed. Pour in the liquid all at once and mix
the dough quickly with a fork. It will form a uniform mass that is
soft, moist and a little sticky. Heavily flour a bread board and turn
the dough out onto it. Knead the dough gently by folding it in half,
patting it down and folding again. After no more than 10 to 12
foldings, the dough should still be very soft, but no longer sticky.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Divide the dough in half and place one part in a plastic bag
while you roll out the other.
Rolling the dough: With the portion of dough in front of you,
it is possible to make sopaipillas in the following shapes:
2 squares measuring 5 x 5 inches
4 oblongs measuring 5 x 2 1/2 inches
4 triangles with about a 6-inch diagonal
Roll out the dough with gentle strokes of a rolling pin,
keeping the board well floured. Keep rolling until you have a
rectangle measuring about 10 x 5 inches. Using a ruler as a guide,
trim the dough into a neat rectangle, then divide it into two 5 x 5
inch squares. From this division you can begin frying or you can cut
the squares in half, either on the diagonal forming triangles, or
cutting across to form oblong sopaipillas.
Puffing the bread: If you have an electric skillet or deep-fat
fryer, heat it to 400 F. Pour in 1 to 2 inches of oil. The oil is hot
enough when it causes a scrap of dough to bubble hard and puff up as
soon as it hits the oil.
Drop a square of dough into the oil and gently paddle it under
the surface with a pancake turner of back of a large slotted spoon.
The oil should bubble up hard and you will feel the sopaipilla
straining to come to the surface. As it begins to puff up all over,
release the sopaipilla and let it brown on one side - about 10 to 20
seconds - then turn it over to brown on the other.
The initial puffing is the precarious step and an unpuffed
sopaipilla may be because the oil is not the correct temperature or the
dough is too thick.
Remove the browned sopaipillas and drain on several layers of
paper towels. They are served hot and can be kept warm in a 200 F oven
or reheated in a 350 F oven. When I lived in New Mexico we would bite
off a corner and then pour a bit of honey into the sopaipilla - yummy.
The stores around Albuquerque used to have sopaipilla mix but
it doesn't seem to be widely available in Seattle.