“Similar forms of this deep-fried pastry are found in Europe and Latin America…This version comes from Mexico.”
-James Beard, Beard on Bread
I have never deep-fried anything in my life. I am more likely to eat a salad than French fries, a bagel over a doughnut. But there is a “Fried Cakes” section in Beard on Bread, so on Thursday I embarked on a new culinary adventure.
I decided to start with Bunuelos because they looked to be the simplest of the fried cakes. In a rush of confidence after a particularly invigorating 5K run on the treadmill, I started baking at 9 pm on a work night.
Here are the ingredients:
I halved the recipe to yield about 16 Bunuelos.
I mixed the ingredients together to form a stiff dough, and then kneaded until it reached a smooth texture. Next, I divided the dough into 16 pieces and rolled each out into an approximation of a circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Now for the hard part: frying in oil.
I heated my canola oil up to what I though was the right temperature, judging by the fact that the mercury on my candy thermometer had surpassed “doughnut” (370 degrees Fahrenheit) and was off the chart. Why I thought this was the right temperature isn’t clear to me anymore. Maybe my logic was the hotter the better. Anyway, I placed two of the Bunuelos in the oil. Then the oil started smoking, a little at first, then a bit more, then before I knew it, black smoke had filled the kitchen and my eyes were burning. I had the intelligence to take the pot of oil off of the burner (my only redeeming moment of the whole debacle). Mike looked up “frying in oil” on his tablet while I opened all the windows.
“It’s a good thing you took the oil off of the burner when you did,” said Mike, “because once the oil gets 30 degrees hotter than the smoke point, it bursts into flames.”
At this point, it was 9:30 at night, we had to wake up for work at 6 am the next morning, our house was filled with smoke:
and my only two cooked Bunuelos looked like this:
But something (stubbornness? my type-A personality? a longing for fried dough?) made me heat up some more oil, carefully monitoring the temperature this time. I had to constantly adjust the burner temperature to keep the oil at a steady 370 degrees. But I was able to fry up some fairly nice looking Bunuelos, which I let drain on paper towel and sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Bunuelos are really, really good. They are deliciously fried and crispy on the outside, with a wonderfully soft center. I have to agree with Beard–they are “absolutely marvelous.”
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