Picarones

Submitted by Miss Oregon

"A great Peruvian desert that I love and miss. If you wet your hands in salted water frequently--it makes the dough more manageable:)"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 18
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 1 lb sweet potato, peeled
• 1 lb squash, peeled
• 1 lb flour
• 3 tablespoons fresh yeast
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cloves
• 2 tablespoons anise seed
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• oil, necessary amount for frying

• Syrup

• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 allspice
• 1 orange peel, cut into thick large strips
• 4 cups water

directions

1. Fill water in a large pan with cinnamon, clove, and aniseed. Boil for 10 min, and strain reserving water.
2. Cook sweet potatoes and squash in the reserved water until tender.
3. Remove pan and force through a strainer.
4. Reserve 2 cups of cooking liquid and allow to cool.
5. In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar and reserved cooking liquid.
6. Set aside for 15 minutes.
7. Place strained sweet potatoes and squash in a large bowl. add salt, yeast mixture and eggs; stir until combined.
8. Fold in flour and continue stirring until soft and smooth and elastic dough is formed.
9. Cover with a damp cloth and leave dough to rise for 1 hour.
10. Heat oil in a large skillet until hot. Take a small quantity of dough and form a ring.
11. Fry in hot oil until golden on both sides. Repeat until all is used.
12. Drain on paper napkins.

13. Syrup:

14. combine sugar, clove, cinnamon, orange peel, allspice and water in a medium saucepan.
15. Bring to boil over low heat until mixture thickens to a syrup.
16. It will take around 20-25 minutes.

Reviews

[HafizSteve]

The syrup came out well and tasted good. The picarrones themselves were quite a different story. The dough remained a sticky unformable mass no matter how much flour I added. When I went to fry them they burned quickly on the outside while barely cooking on the inside. I reduced the size of the globs I put in the pan to fry as much as possible. The end result had little flavor, basically tasting like fried, flavorless, sponges. The syrup makes them palatable to some extent. Not sure if I will keep them or just write it off as a loss. The only part of the recipe that I may have done wrong could have been the "force through a strainer" step. I am not sure what I am supposed to be forcing through the strainer and the recipe does not specify so I assumed it meant to shove the mushy sweet potato and squash through so it would be pulverized which I did. That enigmatic line may have meant to say "strain the water out of the sweet potato and squash". If it had I would have done that, but it didn't. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty bad recipe. Maybe I missed something.

 

[Darkhunter]

How very interesting. I've never had anything Peruvian before, and am glad this was what I started with. It seems like an awful lot of ingredients, but nothing stuck out as too over-riding. I did love the anise in this. I don't know how often I will make this, but I will make again. Went very well with out Mexican menu. Thnx for sharing your recipe, Miss Oregon. Made for PAC Spring 2010. You've been adopted! http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=327498&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0