Buñuelos are a very typical dessert in Spanish cuisine. I bring you an easy recipe to prepare the classic buñuelos de viento and I explain how to prepare the filling of vanilla pastry cream and whipped cream.
I'll also tell you how to make them rise a lot and have a lot of space. I encourage you to make them because they are a real delight. You'll see that your family will appreciate that little time in the kitchen. A luxury dessert for very little money.
What are wind fritters?
Essentially, buñuelos de viento are a dough made from flour, lard (or butter) and eggs that is shaped into balls and fried. When fried, they swell, taking in a lot of air (hence their name, buñuelos de aire, buñuelos de viento). They are small balls, about 3 cm in diameter when they are done.
They can be eaten fried, plain, or filled. Some of the most classic fillings are whipped cream, pastry cream, chantilly or chocolate.
Due to their basic ingredients, they are an inexpensive dessert that has gained great popularity. You will also see them made with corn flour, or with aniseed flavours. There are many variations depending on where you eat them, but here is the traditional recipe, which we hope you enjoy very much.
Buñuelos de viento are a typical dessert in November (it is a classic for All Saints' Day), also a classic on Christmas or Easter tables, but you can certainly have it all year round.
Things to keep in mind
If there is something interesting about wind fritters it is:
- Let them grow while frying (we tell you how in the recipe), taking in a lot of air and leaving holes inside (either to show off a good traditional preparation or to be able to fill them to taste).
- A good fry : as any good frying requires, the dough must be fried when the oil is hot and at a constant temperature. For this, it is interesting to use a cast iron pan : cast iron pans reach a higher temperature than any other material, and will help you both to get a very hot oil ready to fry quickly and to maintain that temperature despite adding the dough (for all this, cast iron pans are so ideal for frying).
- Put the dough to fry at room temperature : If for some reason you have made the dough in advance and had it in the fridge, before forming the balls and frying them it is important that the dough has cooled down (take it out of the fridge half an hour before frying them). Thus, with the dough at room temperature, you will not lower the temperature of the oil as much when adding the balls to the fryer, and you will also get the balls to rise more, achieving some great puff pastries.
- Do not add too many fritters at once : this way they have space between them to grow, and also to not alter the temperature of the oil and achieve good frying.
NO.W Round Plate by Revol , Revol Round Porcelain Plates and Luigi Bormioli Airtight Jars and Bottles .
Foolproof recipe for wind fritters
Ingredients for about 27-30 fritters
- 170 g flour
- 7 g baking powder
- 250 g of water
- 50 g butter
- A pinch of salt
- 5 g of sugar and a little more for coating
- 4 eggs
- For frying: olive or sunflower oil
- Whipped cream for filling
Preparation
- In a bowl, sift the flour and yeast together and set aside.
- Put the water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan on the heat. Once the butter has melted and is starting to boil, add the bowl of flour all at once and stir quickly without removing it from the heat until you get a compact mixture. Remove from the heat and continue mixing. Now let it rest for about 5 minutes.
- Next, add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each one until completely integrated. The dough should be creamy but quite thick. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- After the time has elapsed, we heat plenty of oil in a De Buyer Mineral B cast iron frying pan to a temperature of approximately 170ºC.
- Using two spoons of oil, form little balls and put them in the oil. When there is enough oil, the balls should float in the oil and when they are done, they will turn over on their own to fry on the other side. If necessary, help them with a wooden spoon so that they turn over and become golden on all sides. You should not fry too many at once because they grow quite a bit and should not collide with each other. And yes, let them grow so that they remain hollow inside!
- We take them out with a skimmer and place them on absorbent paper. Now that they are still hot, it is time to coat them in sugar as I did, and then all that remains is to fill them with whipped cream using a pastry bag , a small spoon or the infallible filling gun .
de Buyer Mineral B Cast Iron Skillet , Luigi Bormioli Airtight Jars and Bottles , and Revol Round Porcelain Plates .
Tips and Tricks
- Add the sifted flour and baking powder all at once and stir vigorously.
- Keep an eye on the temperature of the oil in which you are going to fry them, making sure it does not exceed 165ºC - 170ºC.
- When frying them, let them rise and don't worry if they split open, as this is normal. This way, they will have more space inside.
- You can substitute the water in the fritters with milk if you prefer, this can also be done.
- Some people like them with anise or vanilla flavour - in this case, add a teaspoon of extract to the dough during preparation.
- You can serve the fritters without filling: simply, after removing them from the pan, sprinkle plenty of sugar on top and serve them as is.
- We have filled them with cream, but you can also fill them with pastry cream (in this post , you will see how to make pastry cream in the easiest way), chocolate or chantilly, or make a few of each.
NO.W Round Plate by Revol , Revol Round Porcelain Plates and Luigi Bormioli Airtight Jars and Bottles .
