Recipe: Sopaipillas (or sopapillas)

- SOPAIPILLAS -

For at least 8 small or 4 large sopaipillas:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
Oil for deep-frying

Making the dough: If you already know how to make biscuits,
then proceed as you normally do, for sopaipillas are made from the same
sort of soft, lightly handled dough. Combine the flour, baking powder
and salt in a mixing bowl. Using two knives, a pastry cutter or your
fingertips, cut the lard or other shortening into the dry ingredients
until a flaky meal is formed. Pour in the liquid all at once and mix
the dough quickly with a fork. It will form a uniform mass that is
soft, moist and a little sticky. Heavily flour a bread board and turn
the dough out onto it. Knead the dough gently by folding it in half,
patting it down and folding again. After no more than 10 to 12
foldings, the dough should still be very soft, but no longer sticky.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and place one part in a plastic bag
while you roll out the other.

Rolling the dough: With the portion of dough in front of you,
it is possible to make sopaipillas in the following shapes:

2 squares measuring 5 x 5 inches
4 oblongs measuring 5 x 2 1/2 inches
4 triangles with about a 6-inch diagonal

Roll out the dough with gentle strokes of a rolling pin,
keeping the board well floured. Keep rolling until you have a
rectangle measuring about 10 x 5 inches. Using a ruler as a guide,
trim the dough into a neat rectangle, then divide it into two 5 x 5
inch squares. From this division you can begin frying or you can cut
the squares in half, either on the diagonal forming triangles, or
cutting across to form oblong sopaipillas.

Puffing the bread: If you have an electric skillet or deep-fat
fryer, heat it to 400 F. Pour in 1 to 2 inches of oil. The oil is hot
enough when it causes a scrap of dough to bubble hard and puff up as
soon as it hits the oil.

Drop a square of dough into the oil and gently paddle it under
the surface with a pancake turner of back of a large slotted spoon.
The oil should bubble up hard and you will feel the sopaipilla
straining to come to the surface. As it begins to puff up all over,
release the sopaipilla and let it brown on one side - about 10 to 20
seconds - then turn it over to brown on the other.

The initial puffing is the precarious step and an unpuffed
sopaipilla may be because the oil is not the correct temperature or the
dough is too thick.

Remove the browned sopaipillas and drain on several layers of
paper towels. They are served hot and can be kept warm in a 200 F oven
or reheated in a 350 F oven.

Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon or bite off a corner and then pour a bit of honey into the sopaipilla - yummy.

From: Feast of Santa Fe by Huntley Dent
Simon & Schuster, New York 1985