Sopaipillas With Cinnamon-Sugar And Honey Butter

Happy Cinco de Mayo! While Cinco de Mayo is actually a celebration of the Mexican army's victory at the Battle of Puebla back on May 5, 1862, we tend to view the holiday as a reason to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas and Mexican beer. So that said, fix yourself a margarita, and let's get to the eating!

Yesterday I posted a fabulous dinner idea for today -- shredded beef and cheese flautas -- and today I'm treating you to an equally fabulous Cinco de Mayo dessert recipe.

Sopaipillas are my favorite Mexican dessert. I despise flan, probably a more traditionally thought of Mexican dessert, and always scan over it in search of sopaipillas on dessert menus. Sopaipillas are basically fried dough wedges that can be topped with cinnamon-sugar (or even used for savory dishes). For a little something extra, you can drizzle them with honey or make a honey butter, and you can even top them with ice cream.

Sopaipillas With Cinnamon-Sugar And Honey Butter (adapted from The Border Cookbook via Cookstr.com)
Printable version

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons sugar
1½ teaspoons vegetable oil
½ cup lukewarm water
¼ cup milk, at room temperature
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Cinnamon-sugar, for sprinkling (Mix 1 cup sugar with 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon)
Honey butter, for serving (recipe below)

Preparation

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Pour in the oil, and mix with your fingertips or a rubber spatula to combine. Add the water and the milk, and continue mixing until a sticky dough forms.

Lightly dust countertop with flour, and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough for about 1 minute, or until it feels soft and is no longer sticky.

Cover the dough with a damp cloth, and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into three balls, cover the balls with the damp cloth, and let them rest for another 15 to 30 minutes. (The dough can be refrigerated at this point for up to 4 hours, according to the recipe. I actually refrigerated one of the balls of dough overnight and made a fresh batch of sopaipillas with it that next night, and it worked just fine.)

Lightly dust countertop with flour again, and roll out each ball of dough into a circle approximately 1/8-inch thick.

Cut each circle of dough into 8 wedges.

In a heavy, high-sided saucepan or skillet, heat the oil to 400 degrees. Line a large plate with paper towels.

Transfer five or six wedges of dough to the oil. Spoon some oil over the tops of the sopaipillas. The tops will start to puff up.

When the bottoms are light-golden brown, turn the sopaipillas.

Let the bottom sides cook to a light golden brown, and then transfer the sopaipillas to the paper-towel-lined plate. Sprinkle them with cinnamon-sugar, flip them, and sprinkle them with a little more cinnamon-sugar.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Serve warm with room temperature honey butter.

Honey Butter

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey

Preparation

In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened. Pour in the honey, and continue mixing on medium speed until completely combined. Transfer to a small bowl. Keep at room temperature if using within a couple hours. Otherwise, refrigerate the honey butter, but bring it to room temperature before using.

The honey butter absolutely makes these. Jeff doesn't like honey, so he was happy with the cinnamon-sugared fried dough wedges on their own, but I used as much honey butter as possible on each little wedge -- as much as I could without making it seem like I was just trying to eat straight butter. I do have some limits. I suggest making these as soon as possible, but I warn you that once you try them, you'll be hooked.

Do you have a favorite Mexican dessert?

Shredded Beef And Cheese Flautas

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! I always have fun making themed foods for different holidays, and Cinco de Mayo is no exception. I thought about tacos, quesadillas, and fajitas, but I've done those before. Then I asked Jeff what he thought I should do and he suggested taquitos... which made me think of flautas. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the distinction is that taquitos are made with corn tortillas and flautas are made with flour tortillas. Both are crunchy, fried, and filled with something tasty...

We decided to fill them with beef and cheese, and because I can't pass up a reason to make guacamole, I whipped up a little guacamole as well as a little pico de gallo to serve on the side. I don't really use a recipe for guacamole, but when I'm just making it for myself, I mash an avocado, squeeze one-quarter or half a lime over it, and stir a little salt and pepper and garlic powder into it. Then I let it sit for about an hour so the flavors can meld.

I'd never made pico de gallo before, so I just went with my instincts and diced one-quarter of a large, white onion and four Campari tomatoes. I mixed these together with some lime juice, finely diced jalapeno, chopped cilantro, and salt and pepper. I also set the pico aside for a bit to marry all the flavors.

Do you have recipes for pico de gallo and guacamole, or do you just throw them together?

Shredded Beef And Cheese Flautas (adapted from Gourmet, December 1990)
Printable version

Ingredients

1 pound boneless beef chuck, cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt and pepper
1 white onion, half sliced and half diced
2 garlic cloves, 1 peeled and smashed and one minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1/2 jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped (wear gloves or cover your hands with plastic baggies)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
8 flour tortillas
Vegetable oil, for frying
1/2 cup shredded cheese (if desired)
Pico de gallo and guacamole, for serving (optional)

Preparation

Season beef with salt and pepper. Combine beef, sliced onion, smashed garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and enough water to cover the meat in a large saucepan.

Bring the water to a boil, and simmer the mixture, partially covered for 1 1/2 to 4 hours, or until beef is tender. (The recipe said 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but it took much closer to 4 hours for me, so just be prepared for the extra time that may be needed, and check the meat periodically.)

Let the beef cool in the broth. Scoop out the beef, and on a large plate, shred it using two forks. Reserve 1/3 cup of the broth, and discard the rest.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the diced onion and minced garlic clove, and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is softened.

Reduce heat to medium low, and add the shredded beef, tomato sauce, jalapeno chili, cumin, and reserved broth.

Season with salt and pepper. Simmer the mixture for 3 to 5 minutes, or until thickened, stirring frequently. Set filling aside to cool.

When ready to make the flautas, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stack the flour tortillas, and wrap them in foil. Place the stack in the middle of the oven, and heat for 15 minutes.

In a large skillet, heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

Remove one tortilla from the stack, and rewrap the rest and leave them in the oven. Spread about 3 tablespoons (you can even fit a little more) of the beef filling down the center of the tortilla.

Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese on top. (Also, feel free to add a little pico de gallo.)

Carefully roll up the tortilla, and cover it with plastic wrap. (You can secure the ends with toothpicks, but I found this unnecessary.) Repeat with the remaining tortillas. (If there's only two of you, you can just make four flautas one night and save the beef filling and four tortillas and make the rest the next night, which is what we did.)

Fry four flautas at a time in the hot oil. Place them seam side down first so the seam fuses a bit. Cook until golden brown on the bottom.

Then turn them over using tongs, and let the other side cook to a golden brown.

Transfer the flautas to a paper-towel-lined plate, and repeat with remaining ones.

Serve hot with guacamole and pico de gallo (if desired).

I loved these! The tortillas get incredibly crunchy, and the beef filling has some great flavor from the onions and tomato sauce. If you like spicy food, you'll have to add a bit of heat to these though. Neither of us really noticed the jalapeno in there. I consider most tortilla-based dishes vehicles for eating guacamole, and these flautas served me well. The cool avocado mixture and lively pico de gallo paired with the crisp, hot flautas hit the spot (two nights in a row).

I have a Cinco de Mayo dessert recipe coming tomorrow (as if you weren't already expecting that).

Are you going to make anything for Cinco de Mayo?