Sopapillas

Earlier this week I talked about breakfast. Well, I’m going to talk about it again. It’s important. But not the weekday, rushed, grab-a-bowl-of-cereal-and GET IN THE CAR! kind of breakfast. I’m going to tell you a story about weekend breakfast. Generally a WAY better experience.

I don’t really want to spring out of the bed at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. But, the dog and cats are up by 6:30 at the latest, so I have to get up to preserve the peace. These sopapillas are perfect for breakfast on that kind of morning. I get up at 6:30 with the dog, feed everyone and let them out, whip up this dough, and go right back to bed. When I get up for real, the dough has risen and all I have to do is fry it up! So much easier than standing over the griddle or waffle iron.

Sopapillas 

• 1 box Hot Roll Mix
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1c very hot water
• 2t softened butter
• oil or shortening for frying
• a little flour for the board
• honey for dipping
• cinnamon sugar for dipping

So what are sopapillas? Little fried pockets of dough. Happiness in your mouth. Wonderfulness. My mom made these for us growing up and Mr. Bundt and the little Bundtlet ask for them all the time. Sometimes I even make them for dessert. Cover them with honey and sugar and cinnamon and enjoy!!

Can you tell it was early when I was taking these pictures? I’ve already left out the egg. Good grief.

Oh, wait! There it is. Don’t be like me. Be awake.

Gather up your ingredients. Whisk together the contents of the box (bag of floury stuff and yeast) in a large bowl. You don’t even need to get out the mixer. Awesome.

Stir in the hot water, butter, and egg until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Once the dough comes together, flour a small surface. Plop the dough onto the floured surface and knead for about five minutes until dough is smooth.

Before.

After. See what a difference five minutes can make? And, seriously, you’re only about 10 minutes in at this point. Still groggy enough to go back to bed, I assure you.

Put your smooth little dough ball in a greased bowl, cover with a greased piece of plastic wrap or a clean dishtowel. I sit mine in a cooling oven because the house is so cold, but you can let yours rise on the counter if you have a good dog and your house is not freezing. Give it an hour or so to rise. Go back to bed, have coffee, check your email, catch up on your blog reading, whatever. When it’s doubled in size, you’re ready to proceed. If you do go back to bed and the dough gets HUGE, don’t worry. Not a big deal.

Behold, the risen dough.

Now, give it a punch or two and deflate it.

I have a nice Tupperware pastry mat I like to use to roll out my dough. But you can use the counter or whatever you have. Just dust it with a little flour.

Put your dough on the board and roll it out to about 1/4 in thickness. Shape does not matter, just roll it. Don’t overdo it.

Now, with a sharp knife, pastry cutter, or pizza wheel, cut the dough into squares or rectangles, about 4×4 or so. You can see from mine I have all different shapes and sizes. Neither of these things really matters. You can’t screw it up.

Heat a couple of inches of oil in a deep pan or pot to 360 degrees. Use your thermometer to check the temperature. You don’t want the dough to go into the oil before it gets to 360 degrees because it will absorb the oil rather than float and fry in it. I like vegetable or canola oil. You can also use Crisco.

Once the oil comes to temperature, drop in a couple of pieces of dough. I shouldn’t need to tell you to be careful when frying, but, let’s be honest, you might be doing this in your bathrobe, so be careful.

See how they puff up! It’s so exciting! Let them get a nice golden brown on the first side, then flip them over.

Sometimes they blow up so big that they create a third side. If so, just roll them onto that side for a minute. When all sides are brown, pull them out and drain them on paper towels. Repeat with remaining dough until the whole batch is cooked. You can usually get 20-25 sopapillas out of a batch.

I serve them with honey and cinnamon sugar. To make cinnamon sugar just mix about a cup of sugar with a few dashes of cinnamon. I like to pop open the bubbles on the sopapillas and pour in honey and the cinnamon sugar mixture and kind of roll it around so the inside of the   sopapilla gets coated with it. I’ve photographed them below with powdered sugar, you could use that too!

There you go! Weekend breakfast done! So easy and quick, but your family will think you made them something really special!

What kinds of things do you like to make for weekend breakfast? Or do you eat the same things and do a bigger lunch or dinner? I’d love to hear about your weekend rituals!