Buñuelos Mexicanos
Thin, crisp Mexican fritters fried from a yeast-free dough, dusted with cinnamon sugar or served with a piloncillo syrup.
Photograph credit: Buñuelos by Juan Fernández · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The Method for Buñuelos Mexicanos
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Mix the flour, baking powder, 2 tbsp sugar and salt. Add the egg, butter and milk and knead for 5 minutes into a smooth dough. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
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Divide into 12 pieces and roll each into a very thin disc about 15 cm across.
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Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F. Fry the discs one at a time for 40 seconds on each side until puffed and golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
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Mix the 60 g sugar and cinnamon and dust over the warm buñuelos.
Keep an Eye on These
- Roll the dough as thin as you can without tearing it.
- Keep the oil at 180°C / 355°F; cooler oil makes them greasy.
- Dust with cinnamon sugar while they are still hot.
The Short Version
Buñuelos are the sweet that comes out at Christmas and fiestas, fried until they shatter. They are not doughnuts or churros but thin, flat discs, like fried crackers, with bubbles on the surface that crunch and flake.
The dough is flour, baking powder, a little sugar, salt, an egg, butter and warm milk. Knead it for a few minutes until smooth, then rest it for 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes and the discs roll very thin. Divide it into 12 pieces, roll each as thin as you can, and the thinner the dough, the crisper the result.
Fry in oil at 180°C / 355°F for 40 seconds a side. They puff and blister at once, and go from pale to golden within moments. Drain on paper and dust with cinnamon sugar straight away, so it sticks. Serve with a syrup of brown sugar and cinnamon if you like. Pile them on a platter and serve them while they are warm, with a cup of hot chocolate beside them.
What to Serve It With
Hot chocolate · Champurrado · Piloncillo syrup · Strong coffee
Leftovers
Best eaten within 1 day. Keep in an airtight tin.
Quick Answers
How long does Buñuelos Mexicanos take to make?
25 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, plus 30 minutes of resting, so allow 1 hour 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 12.
Buñuelos Mexicanos Nutrition Facts
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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