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Culinary Explorer
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Uruapan Buñuelos with Hawthorn Honey
Created by
Michoacán's Uruapan buñuelos are crisp fried-dough wheels served at Christmas with a dark miel de tejocote y guayaba, the kind of dulce that closes a Posada in the Meseta.
Desserts
Mexican
Christmas
Holiday
1 hr 10 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 55 min total
Yield18 to 20 buñuelos
Michoacán, Uruapan, edge of the Meseta Purépecha. These buñuelos live between the market stalls full of guayaba, tejocote, canela, and piloncillo, and the Christmas tables where the sweet things arrive after the tamales and atole. This is not a dessert from a restaurant plate. It belongs on a wicker tray, stacked high, with the miel in a clay jarrito so each person can bathe the buñuelo until it softens just at the edges.
The fruit defines this version. Tejocote, Mexican hawthorn, gives the syrup its tart body, and guayaba gives perfume. Piloncillo gives the dark mineral sweetness. Refined sugar has no business here. It makes a flat syrup. The women who taught me this in Uruapan cooked the miel until the fruit stained it amber-brown and the canela sat at the back of the throat. Not hot. Not chile. Complex. Learn the difference.
The dough is wheat flour, egg, a little manteca de cerdo, and enough rest to let it stretch thin without fighting you. You roll the discs until they are almost translucent, then fry them in clean lard or neutral oil until they blister and turn golden. If they are thick, they eat like bread. If they are thin, they crack under the teeth before the miel catches them. Así se hace y punto.
My mother did not write this one in her Jalisco notebook, but she wrote a line that applies: "la miel manda." The syrup commands the dish. Make it first, let it sit with the fruit, and fry the buñuelos when the table is ready. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Mexican buñuelos descend from Spanish fried-dough sweets brought during the colonial period, but regional cooks changed them with local syrups, fruits, and holiday rituals. In Michoacán, especially around Uruapan and the Purépecha Plateau, Christmas fruit syrups rely on piloncillo, tejocote, guayaba, canela, and clavo, ingredients also tied to ponche navideño. Tejocote, a native Mexican hawthorn used since pre-Columbian times, became a December fruit because it holds its shape in long cooking and gives syrup the tart backbone refined sugar cannot provide.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 cups, plus more for rolling
piloncillo
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely grated
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
baking powder
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
softened
large egg
Quantity
1
at room temperature
warm water
Quantity
1/2 cup, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more if needed
manteca de cerdo or neutral oil
Quantity
2 pounds
for frying
tejocotes
Quantity
1 pound
rinsed
ripe guavas
Quantity
6
trimmed and quartered
piloncillo
Quantity
12 ounces
chopped
water
Quantity
4 cups
Mexican canela sticks
Quantity
2
whole cloves
Quantity
4
orange peel
Quantity
1 strip
with no bitter white pith
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups, plus more for rolling |
| piloncillofinely grated | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| baking powder | 1/2 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdosoftened | 2 tablespoons |
| large eggat room temperature | 1 |
| warm water | 1/2 cup, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more if needed |
| manteca de cerdo or neutral oilfor frying | 2 pounds |
| tejocotesrinsed | 1 pound |
| ripe guavastrimmed and quartered | 6 |
| piloncillochopped | 12 ounces |
| water | 4 cups |
| Mexican canela sticks | 2 |
| whole cloves | 4 |
| orange peelwith no bitter white pith | 1 strip |
| fine sea salt | 1 pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Cazo de cobre or heavy enameled pot for the miel
- •Wide heavy pot for frying
- •Rolling pin
- •Clean cotton servilleta
- •Tongs
- •Wire rack or brown paper for draining
Instructions
- 1
Cook the tejocotes
Put the tejocotes in a small pot, cover with water, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the skins loosen. Drain, cool enough to handle, and peel them with your fingers or a small knife. Leave them whole. The skin is tough and does not belong in the miel.
- 2
Build the miel
In a cazo de cobre or heavy enameled pot, combine the peeled tejocotes, guavas, chopped piloncillo, 4 cups water, canela, cloves, orange peel, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat. Stir until the piloncillo dissolves, then lower the heat and cook 30 to 35 minutes, until the syrup turns amber-brown and lightly coats a spoon. The guava should perfume the pot and the tejocote should stay whole.
The cazo de cobre is the proper vessel for Michoacán sweets. An enameled pot works, but copper gives a cleaner, deeper browning. Aluminum gives the syrup a tired flavor. Do not use it. - 3
Mix the dough
In a wide bowl, whisk the flour, grated piloncillo, salt, and baking powder. Rub in the softened manteca with your fingertips until the flour feels sandy. Add the egg and 1/2 cup warm water. Knead in the bowl until the dough comes together, adding 1 tablespoon more water only if dry flour remains. You want a firm, smooth dough, not a sticky one.
- 4
Rest the dough
Turn the dough onto the counter and knead 6 to 8 minutes, until elastic and smooth. Divide into 18 to 20 small balls, each about the size of a large walnut. Rub them lightly with a film of manteca, cover with a clean servilleta, and rest 40 minutes. Resting is not laziness. It lets the dough stretch thin instead of snapping back.
- 5
Roll the wheels
Dust the counter lightly with flour. Roll each dough ball into a thin circle, 7 to 8 inches wide. Then stretch it gently over the back of your hands, turning as you go, until the center is almost translucent. Lay the discs on a floured cloth and keep them covered. Thin buñuelos blister. Thick ones sulk in the oil.
- 6
Heat the fat
Melt the manteca de cerdo or heat the oil in a wide heavy pot to 350F. The fat should be deep enough for the buñuelo to float. If you do not have a thermometer, drop in a small scrap of dough. It should bubble immediately and rise without darkening too fast. La manteca es el sabor, but clean neutral oil is acceptable when you are feeding people who cannot eat pork.
- 7
Fry until blistered
Fry one buñuelo at a time. Slide the disc into the hot fat and press the center gently with tongs so it stays mostly flat. Fry 45 to 60 seconds per side, until golden with pale blisters and darker freckles at the edges. Drain upright against a rack or on brown paper. Do not stack them while hot or they will soften before the miel ever touches them.
- 8
Serve with miel
Stack the buñuelos on a wicker tray or green-glazed Michoacán barro plate. Spoon the warm miel de tejocote y guayaba into a clay jarrito with a few pieces of fruit. At the table, pour the miel over each buñuelo just before eating. The center should soften and the rim should stay crisp. That contrast is the point.
Chef Tips
- •Buy tejocotes in December when the market has them for ponche. If the fruit is hard, cook it a little longer before peeling. If the market has no tejocote, make another sweet that day. The dish is tied to the season.
- •Use piloncillo, never refined sugar, for the miel. Piloncillo brings cane, mineral bitterness, and color. White sugar only makes sweet water.
- •The guavas should smell ripe before you cut them. If they smell like nothing, the syrup will taste like nothing. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
- •Do not dust these with powdered sugar. That is not the Uruapan table. The miel is the finish, and it carries the region.
- •If you fry ahead, keep the buñuelos uncovered in a dry place for a few hours. Covering traps moisture and ruins the crispness.
Advance Preparation
- •The miel de tejocote y guayaba can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated with the fruit in the syrup. Rewarm gently before serving.
- •The dough balls can rest, covered and lightly greased, for up to 4 hours at cool room temperature.
- •The buñuelos are best fried the day they are served. If needed, fry them up to 6 hours ahead and keep them in a dry place, uncovered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 115g)
Calories
220 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
20 mg
Sodium
90 mg
Total Carbohydrates
35 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
22 g
Protein
2 g
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