Happy Cinco de Mayo! While Cinco de Mayo is actually a celebration of the Mexican army's victory at the Battle of Puebla back on May 5, 1862, we tend to view the holiday as a reason to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas and Mexican beer. So that said, fix yourself a margarita, and let's get to the eating!
Yesterday I posted a fabulous dinner idea for today -- shredded beef and cheese flautas -- and today I'm treating you to an equally fabulous Cinco de Mayo dessert recipe.
Sopaipillas are my favorite Mexican dessert. I despise flan, probably a more traditionally thought of Mexican dessert, and always scan over it in search of sopaipillas on dessert menus. Sopaipillas are basically fried dough wedges that can be topped with cinnamon-sugar (or even used for savory dishes). For a little something extra, you can drizzle them with honey or make a honey butter, and you can even top them with ice cream.
Sopaipillas With Cinnamon-Sugar And Honey Butter (adapted from The Border Cookbook
via Cookstr.com)Print this recipe
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons sugar
1½ teaspoons vegetable oil
½ cup lukewarm water
¼ cup milk, at room temperature
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Cinnamon-sugar, for sprinkling (Mix 1 cup sugar with 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon)
Honey butter, for serving (recipe below)
Preparation
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Pour in the oil, and mix with your fingertips or a rubber spatula to combine. Add the water and the milk, and continue mixing until a sticky dough forms.
Lightly dust countertop with flour, and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough for about 1 minute, or until it feels soft and is no longer sticky.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth, and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into three balls, cover the balls with the damp cloth, and let them rest for another 15 to 30 minutes. (The dough can be refrigerated at this point for up to 4 hours, according to the recipe. I actually refrigerated one of the balls of dough overnight and made a fresh batch of sopaipillas with it that next night, and it worked just fine.)
Lightly dust countertop with flour again, and roll out each ball of dough into a circle approximately 1/8-inch thick.
Cut each circle of dough into 8 wedges.
In a heavy, high-sided saucepan or skillet, heat the oil to 400 degrees. Line a large plate with paper towels.
Transfer five or six wedges of dough to the oil. Spoon some oil over the tops of the sopaipillas. The tops will start to puff up.
When the bottoms are light-golden brown, turn the sopaipillas.
Let the bottom sides cook to a light golden brown, and then transfer the sopaipillas to the paper-towel-lined plate. Sprinkle them with cinnamon-sugar, flip them, and sprinkle them with a little more cinnamon-sugar.
Repeat with remaining dough.
Serve warm with room temperature honey butter.
Honey Butter
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
Preparation
In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened. Pour in the honey, and continue mixing on medium speed until completely combined. Transfer to a small bowl. Keep at room temperature if using within a couple hours. Otherwise, refrigerate the honey butter, but bring it to room temperature before using.
The honey butter absolutely makes these. Jeff doesn't like honey, so he was happy with the cinnamon-sugared fried dough wedges on their own, but I used as much honey butter as possible on each little wedge -- as much as I could without making it seem like I was just trying to eat straight butter. I do have some limits. I suggest making these as soon as possible, but I warn you that once you try them, you'll be hooked.
Do you have a favorite Mexican dessert?