Sopaipillas Norteñas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy deep pot or cazuela for frying, at least 4 quarts
• •Deep-fry or candy thermometer
• •Rolling pin
• •Bench scraper or sharp knife for cutting the dough
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan for draining

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Warm the milk until it feels like bathwater on the inside of your wrist. Not hot. Hot milk kills yeast and you start over. Stir in the yeast and the sugar and let it sit for ten minutes until the surface foams and the kitchen smells faintly of bread. If it does not foam, your yeast is dead. Throw it out and use a fresh packet.

2. 2

   Cut the lard into the flour

   In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold lard. Work it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal with some pea-sized pieces still visible. La manteca es el sabor. This is what makes a sopaipilla puff hollow. Vegetable shortening will work and the senoras in Saltillo will not arrest you for it, but the flavor is not the same.

   The lard must be cold. Warm lard disappears into the flour and you lose the layered texture inside the sopaipilla. If your kitchen is hot, put the lard in the freezer for ten minutes before you start.
3. 3

   Bring the dough together

   Pour the foamy milk and yeast into the flour. Mix with your hand until the dough comes together in a shaggy mass. Turn it out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for five to seven minutes. The dough should go from rough to smooth, soft but not sticky, with a faint elastic snap when you press it. Do not add more flour unless the dough is genuinely tacky on your hands.

4. 4

   Rest the dough

   Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean cotton servilleta, and leave it on the counter for one to one and a half hours. It should roughly double. In a cool northern Mexican kitchen in December, this can take longer. Be patient. The rest is what gives the inside its open crumb.

5. 5

   Make the piloncillo syrup

   While the dough rests, combine the chopped piloncillo, water, canela, and orange peel in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat until the piloncillo dissolves and the syrup thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about fifteen minutes. Strain out the canela and orange peel. Set aside to cool. This syrup is what northern Mexico drizzles over sopaipillas at Christmas. It is not optional if you are serving them sweet.

6. 6

   Roll and cut the dough

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it in half. Roll each half into a rectangle about one-quarter inch thick. Not thinner. A thin sopaipilla will fry crisp and flat like a tostada and will not puff. Cut each rectangle into triangles or squares roughly three inches across. Cover the cut pieces with a clean servilleta while you heat the oil. Do not let them dry out.

7. 7

   Heat the frying fat

   Pour enough lard or oil into a deep heavy pot or cazuela to come three inches up the sides. Heat over medium-high to 375F. Use a thermometer. If you do not have one, a small piece of dough dropped in should bubble immediately and rise to the surface within two seconds. Below 375F, the sopaipillas absorb fat and stay flat. Above 400F, the outside burns before the inside cooks. The temperature is the recipe.

   If you want the real norteno flavor, fry in pork lard, not oil. The sopaipillas will taste like the ones your tia in Monclova makes. Manteca and wheat is the signature of the north.
8. 8

   Fry until they puff

   Slide two or three pieces of dough into the hot fat. Do not crowd the pot. As soon as they hit the fat, press the top of each piece gently down into the oil with the back of a slotted spoon for a couple of seconds. That push forces the steam inside the dough to do its work and makes the sopaipilla puff hollow. Fry for about 30 seconds per side until they balloon up and turn deep golden. Flip with a slotted spoon. Lift them out and drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan.

9. 9

   Serve immediately

   Sopaipillas are at their best in the first ten minutes off the fat. Pile them in a basket lined with a cotton servilleta. Serve them alongside a pot of frijoles charros, asado de puerco, or carne con chile colorado so the diner can tear one open and use it to mop the broth. Or set out the piloncillo syrup and let everyone drizzle their own. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Fry in manteca de cerdo if you want the authentic norteno flavor. Lard has a high smoke point and gives the sopaipillas a depth that vegetable oil cannot match. Save the lard after frying, strain it, and use it again. It only gets better with use.
• •The thickness of the rolled dough is non-negotiable. A quarter inch puffs. Thinner fries crisp like a chip. Thicker stays raw in the middle. Use a ruler the first few times if you have to. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Do not skip the gentle press into the oil with the back of a spoon. That is the trick the senoras in Coahuila will not write down because they assume you know it. Two seconds of pressure, then let them rise on their own.
• •Sopaipillas do not keep. They go from glorious to leathery within an hour. Fry them when your guests are at the table, not before. If you must hold them, keep them in a 200F oven on a wire rack for no more than ten minutes.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made through the first rise, then refrigerated overnight covered with plastic. Let it come back to room temperature for thirty minutes before rolling and cutting.
• •The piloncillo syrup keeps in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for two weeks. Rewarm gently before serving.
• •The frying itself cannot be done in advance. A reheated sopaipilla is not a sopaipilla.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 195g)