Buñuelos or Crispy Flour Tortilla Fritters are a Christmas holiday favorite here in South Texas. The ingredients are common, but no one ever refuses a serving. Crispy and sweet they were the most delicious part of my Chirstmas memories.
Buñuelos are a delicious part of Christmas
Nonethelss, there are quite a few tricks to making fresh buñuelos. What is more important is that you have experience with frying and cooking. Flour tortilla dough can be difficult to handle and frying the floppy uncooked dough can be a challenging. Make sure you are properly dressed for cooking when you make buñuelos – and wear shoes! You don’t want to get burned.
Traditionally, we make the whole tortilla shapes when making buñuelos here at the ranch. But if you are having a party, consider making smaller bite sized shapes. Or, you can simply fry the whole buñuelos and then break it up after you have fried and sugared it. The smaller pieces can make your frying session longer.
Many types of Buñuelos
There are all types of buñuelos in the world. There are some that ball-shaped and some that are soaked in syrup. Fritters around the world can differ greatly, but your favorite is always the one that you remember from your childhood. This is our regional type here in South Texas.
Every year, my grandmother would fry up a stack of these flour tortilla fritters and keep them in her pantry throughout the month of December. She could always hear me sneaking another one, as I tried to tiptoe across all of the sugar that I dropped on the floor while eating one after another. I was always caught red-handed!
I love crispy fresh warm buñuelos when the weather is chilly with a bit of drizzle. Along with a hot cup of coffee, I can’t imagine a more enjoyable breakfast or snack
PrintBuñuelos are Crispy Tortilla Fritters
Ingredients
6–7 cups all-purpose flour (1kg)
1 tbsp. salt (12g)
2 tsp. baking powder (8g)
1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening (250g)
Approximately 2 cups warm water (480ml)
Vegetable oil for frying
2 cups sugar (400g)
1 tbsp. freshly ground cinnamon (6g)
Instructions
Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and shortening in a large bowl. Add the water a little at a time until you have a smooth though. Knead the dough for a minute or two until elastic. Form the dough into 18-24 equal sized patties. Return the patties to the mixing bowl and allow to rest covered with a damp towel for two hours or overnight.
Roll out the patties in to large 8” (20cm) circles.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet until it reaches 330°F/165°C.
Fry each rolled out piece of dough one at a time in the hot vegetable oil about 30 seconds on each side until golden crispy. Removed from hot vegetable oil and drain on paper towels.
Continue until all the buñuelos are fried.
Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a large heat proof pan. Pass the buñuelos through the cinnamon sugar mixture one at a time until each one as well coated. The buñuelos will stay crisp for several days if stored in an airtight container or Ziploc bag
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