Twinkle Star Mexican Bunuelos.

Nothing makes me more happy than having Lily and James helping me out in the kitchen, seeing their little faces brighten up when they learn to make something new really warms up my heart and know that it means something to them too, sure there is also loads of mess afterwards but it’s okay to let go for a bit and just enjoy that instant, here is to many more of those precious days with them.

This recipe from my childhood is the best way to connect those two things, I have very fond memories from being a little girl and nosing around with my cousin Gaby into my grandma Tita’s kitchen, we knew what we were looking for, there was always a big box of bunuelos that she would get for the grandchildren and we couldn’t wait to munch on them, that’s why I think these lovely fried pastries bring a little bit of magic every Christmas .

Mexican Bunuelos are fried round pieces of thin dough until golden and crispy, traditionally covered in sugar and cinnamon and served with a bit of *piloncillo honey drizzled on top , these as many other dishes were brought to by the Spanish after the conquest, there are different variations of them all along latinoamerican countries.

There is two ways that I would use these during the holidays: the first one is laying them on the dessert table at the end of dinner and serve them with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream and perhaps a little chocolate ganache as pudding. The second one is to wrap up little homemade gifts for special friends and family, the outer circles go for the grown ups and the stars for the little hands in your family.

*Syrup made with unrefined sugar made from sugar cane.

Makes 10 round bunuelos and 10 stars.

Ingredients:

1 cup of plain flour.

1/4 cup of self raising flour.

1 tsp of baking powder.

1 egg.

1/4 cup of soft butter.

1/4 cup of milk.

1 tsp quality vainilla extract.

2 mandarins (only zest).

1 lt of rapessed oil or any oil for frying.

1 cup of sugar.

1 tbsp ground cinnamon.

Method:

Add the flours, egg, soft butter, milk, vanilla extract and mandarin zest into a mixing bowl, integrate the ingredients first with the palette attachment on medium speed, once they are integrated change your attachment to the hook and knead your dough on high speed until it stops sticking to the sides.

Once is ready remove your dough from the mixing bowl and shape it into a bowl, place it in a medium size bowl and let it rest for 20 min, ( no need to grease the bowl or cover it with cling film).

In the meantime mix your sugar and cinnamon and place into a dish where you’ll be able to coat your bunuelos once fried.

Get your dough and cut it into 10 equal size pieces, shape them into small balls and let them rest for 15 min. after that add a bit of flour into your kitchen surface and stretch the dough balls one by one with a rolling pin, you have to stretch them quite thin (nothing like a delicate and light fried pastry), try to keep them round but it doesn’t really matters if they are not a perfect circle.

Once you have your thin round piece of dough get your star shaped cookie cutter and place I in the middle, remove the outer layer and the star in the middle, place them over your kitchen counter over a bit of flour, repeat the same procedure with the rest of the dough balls, once they are all ready let them rest over your counter for another 15 minutes.

Add your oil into a frying pan , heat up the oil you know is ready for frying when you add a pice of dough and it starts bubbling away as soon as it hits the oil.

Fry your bunuelos one by one until golden, beautiful and crispy, fry both sides . Then remove from the oil carefully and place them over kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil, before it cools down completely place the fried pastry into the sugar and cinnamon mix and coat both sides, repeat the same procedure with the remaining dough.

Make them fresh on the day if possible you can prepare them in the morning and have them ready for Christmas Eve if you live in Mexico, or on Christmas Day and after lunch, get these beauties out and serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and perhaps a bit of melted chocolate sauce on top.

Happy Holidays!