Buñuelos, a recipe from Muy Bueno

Do you have a few cookbooks that you return to again and again, knowing that you’ll find a recipe to suit whatever occasion arises? Well, this beautiful new cookbook, Muy Bueno, from sisters Yvette and Veronica, along with their mother, Evangelina, promises to be just that type of resource in your kitchen. The recipes are beautiful, the stories of family are authentic and the photographs are mouth-watering. Try these buñuelos and you’ll see what I mean. This dessert starts with a quick homemade dough with a cinnamon accent, then the small, thin circles are fried before receiving a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. Stop by on Saturday for a giveaway of this gorgeous cookbook!

We all know you can’t go wrong with fried dough, right? I usually shy away from fried food. No, it’s not the extra calories that bother me—it’s the hot, bubbly, jumping oil that intimidates me. Today I used just a small amount of oil, maybe 3/4 inch in a small saucepan, and I fried two buñuelos at a time. This method worked well and was manageable for me. The biggest surprise, though, was the lack of oil on the finished buñuelos. There was barely any greasy mark on the paper towel. These were light and airy, not heavy at all.

Here’s the recipe from pages 249-250 of Muy Bueno.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup milk
4 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Canola or vegetable oil for frying
Cinnamon-Sugar Coating:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions: (with my comments added to Muy Bueno’s directions)
1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon
2. In a small saucepan, bring the milk, vanilla and butter to barely a boil. Remove from the heat.  In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk the beaten eggs into the warmed milk mixture.
3. Immediately combine the warm liquid mixture with the dry ingredients. A dough will start to form. The dough will be slightly sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until it transforms into a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Divide the dough into 20 sections and roll into small balls. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball into a flat circle like a thin tortilla. If you would like, you can leave the rolled dough sitting out over night so that the moisture is reduced and this makes for a crispier buñuelo when it is fried. I chose to continue right away which results in a slightly thicker fried bread texture (yes, simply delicious either way!).
5. Prepare the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
6. Heat 3/4 to 1 inch deep oil in a pan.  Deep fry the buñuelos, flipping once, until they are golden brown. The book suggests placing the fried buñuelos vertically in a bowl that is lined with paper towels to remove any excess oil. I found it useful to use a cooling rack as a stand for the buñuelos.

7. Cover the buñuelos with cinnamon-sugar while they are still warm. Serve with chocolate or caramel if you
wish.

Wouldn’t this be perfect along with the Mexican cinnamon hot chocolate I made yesterday?