Guatemalan Buñuelos

Kitty FloridoSeptember 10, 2016

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

This is a recipe very close to my heart. Many of my earliest memories in the kitchen, was cooking with my grandmothers.

My grandmother Lucy lived across the driveway and every end-of-school vacation I would spend hours with her in the kitchen, learning how long to beat the cake batter or how to make a pie from the week leftovers. Since my grandmother Flory lives all the way on the other side of town, I would spend entire weekends with her, and there I would learn all about baking cookies, making the best pancakes and whipping up the best pineapple pie around.

Both my grandmothers made Buñuelos, as it’s a traditional dessert in Guatemala for the end-of-year holidays.

Every country in Central America has its own version, so here is the recipe from my Tita Lucy. When you start to make the buñuelos, we suggest you don’t stop. Avoid letting the batter sit too much before frying, as it will dry up and its consistency will change. One little thing we do different in the Florido family, is that we skip the anise star in the syrup, but if you like the flavor, add it!

For portioning, we usually used two teaspoons and slide the batter (using the second teaspoon) into the batter, but for ease I used a small OXO scoop (takes 2 teaspoons of batter) and it made it so much easier. The end result are perfectly sized buñuelos, about 1-inch. each.

The Buñuelos are served warm, with agua miel poured on top. Agua Miel is a warm syrup, made with equal parts water and sugar, flavored with cinnamon, anise star and vanilla. At home we like it without the anise star, and my dad, well, he has his own preference: warm buñuelos with honey poured over them!

Kitty

Buñuelos

Yields 36 buñuelos
A Foodies’ Kitchen Original recipe

Ingredients, for the Buñuelos:
1 cup of water
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (½ stick)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of all-purpose flour
3 eggs
vegetable oil

Ingredients, Agua Miel:
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 anise star, optional

Directions:

In a medium-sized pot, take the water to a boil over medium heat. Add the butter, and melt.
Remove from heat and place the pot over a heat-resistant surface.
Add the all-purpose flour and baking powder at once, mixing well with a wooden spoon until everything is perfectly incorporated, with no dry flour left and there are no lumps left.
Add the eggs one by one, mixing the batter well between each one.
In a different medium-sized pot, add enough oil until its half-full. Heat the oil until bubbly, and with a small scoop (to make this process easier), add small scoops of dough to the oil until you get 5 or 6 buñuelos in the pot frying at the same time.
Fry until they are golden, and in case they don’t turn by themselves, help them a bit with a wooden spoon. You want uniform frying.
To get them out of the oil, you can use a slotted colander spoon, making sure that the excess oil drips away. Place the fried buñuelos in a bowl, prepared with kitchen paper towels so they absorb the excess oil.
Continue working until you finish the dough. When completing a layer of buñuelos in the bowl, place a second kitchen paper towel so when I place more buñuelos on top, their excess oil is not absorbed by the buñuelos beneath.
To prepare the Agua Miel, add the water, sugar and cinnamon stick in a small bowl and bring it to a boil. Remove the cinnamon stick and pour over the buñuelos at their individual dishes. At home, we reheat the buñuelos for 30 seconds and pour the Agua Miel on top before serving.
For the remaining buñuelos, you can store them in a glass bowl covered with plastic film, and store them in the fridge for up to a week.

Have you made this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture with the hashtag #thefoodieskitchen!

Want more?

You can subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll send you the monthly recipes! You can also keep up to date on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr or Snapchat.