Merry Christmas
By Martha // Posted 25 December, 2009 in: Bread, Travel
Every Christmas my father prepares buñuelos for the family on the mornings of the 24, 25, and 26 so that all can have their share–no matter their arrival time. A round Colombian cheese bread, buñuelos are made from corn starch, shredded queso campesino, milk, and a little salt and sugar (we first mentioned them here). They are made from a very wet dough, as you’ll see below, and fried to perfection. The dough-balls turn naturally in the hot (but not too hot) oil, and can be helped along with the tap of a chopstick or the end of a wooden spoon. They’ll be firm to the touch when ready to be removed from the oil, and are best eaten warm. As kids we’d sometimes have them with peanut butter and milk. As a lover of sausage biscuits, this year another idea occurred to me…
Enjoyed for the first time today, “Buñuelo Sliders” proved to be a very repetible experiment.
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- Shredded cheese
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- Early stages of the dough
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- Mixing
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- Masa, ready to be made into balls
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- dough balls, ready to be fried
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- Frying
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- Buñuelos, fresh from the hot oil.
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- Sausage & Buñuelo Sandwich
Update: For the recipe, see comments below.
8 comments | Bread, Buñuelos, Burgers, Cheese, Cheese Bread, Christmas, Colombia, Colombian Food, Holidays, Tradition, Traditional
This entry was posted by Martha on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Bread, Travel. You can subscribe to responses to this entry via RSS.
Those look very cool, guys, and the slider version, delicious! Happy New Year~ Brett
Y la receta?
Papá uses a little bit of baking powder in the buñuelos.
After several requests from the readers I need to include here the detailed process to make buñuelos:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine one cup of corn starch, two teaspoons of baking powder, one teaspoon of sugar, and a pinch of salt.
2. Add two cups of grated queso campesino to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
3. Add one beaten egg to the mixture and combine.
4. Then add milk or water (we use milk), one spoonful at the time, and work the mixture with your hands until it is smooth but firm. Be careful not to add too much water or milk because the mixture may become too sticky.
5. Make balls (somewhat smaller than a golf ball) with the mixture and place them on a plate. You should get about 24-30 balls from the mixture.
6. Fry the dough balls in canola oil. You can tell when the oil is ready by dropping a small ball into the oil. Normally it should go to the bottom and start to form bubbles as the baking powder decomposes to make CO
2. As the mass swells it will float to the top of the oil. At this time the oil is ready to start frying the balls. These will float as the little trial ball after they get lighter. Tap them with a wooden spoon or a wood stick to force them to turn over and get fried evenly. They will produce a flat sound and will feel soft first. When they are ready, they take a deeper color and produce a sharper sound when tapped with the wood stick. Transfer them to a bowl lined with paper towels and allow them to cool a little before eating.7. To eat them, brake them open with your hands to release the heat and avoid burning your mouth. If they cool for a longer time (if you can wait that long) you can bite them safely. Enjoy them with a good Colombian coffee.
Note: If you notice that the dough balls begin to break apart when adding the first full-sized dough balls to the oil, you will need to lower the temperature and begin again.
I was wondering how many bunuelos the recipe posted makes ?
Keara,
One recipe using, as my father says, “one queso,” will yield about 30 buñuelos.
Those look great. the slider type sounds better than any Abuelo ever made, or Oma for that matter.
Abuelo did make these.