Sopaipillas
Chile's rainy-day flatbread: pumpkin-and-flour discs deep-fried golden and puffed. Eaten warm with pebre, mustard or a smear of butter.
Overview
Chile's rainy-day flatbread, the pumpkin-and-flour disc that turns up at street stalls on cold winter afternoons and gets dunked in mustard or pebre by every passer-by. You boil pumpkin (or butternut) cubes until soft, drain and mash, then mix the warm purée with flour, melted butter, baking powder and salt to a soft pliable dough. Rest for thirty minutes, roll to five millimetres thick, stamp out eight-centimetre rounds, pierce each one twice with a fork (which keeps them from puffing into balloons), and fry at 170°C for ninety seconds per side until deep gold. Eaten warm with pebre, mustard, or a smear of butter, ideally while the rain is still falling.
Ingredients
- 500 g pumpkin (or butternut squash, peeled, cut into 3 cm chunks)
- 1 teaspoon salt (for boil)
- 450 g plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 60 g unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 litre vegetable oil for deep frying
Method
Stage 1 - Pumpkin
- Place pumpkin in a pot with salted water to cover; bring to a boil.
- Cook 15 minutes until very tender.
- Drain very thoroughly; return to the dry pot; mash to a smooth purée.
- Cool to lukewarm - too hot melts the butter unevenly.
Stage 2 - Dough
- Whisk flour, baking powder, salt in a wide bowl.
- Add 400 g of the warm pumpkin purée and the melted butter; mix to a soft dough.
- Knead 3-4 minutes on a lightly floured surface - the dough should be soft and slightly sticky but workable.
- Cover; rest 30 minutes.
Stage 3 - Shape
- Roll the dough on a floured surface to 5 mm thick.
- Stamp out 8 cm rounds with a cutter or glass.
- Pierce each round twice through the centre with a fork - this prevents puffing too dramatically.
Stage 4 - Fry
- Heat oil to 170°C in a deep pan.
- Fry in batches of 4-5, 90 seconds per side, until deep gold.
- Drain on kitchen paper.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Eat warm. Plain with butter, dipped in pebre, or spread with mustard.
- For sweet sopaipillas pasadas, dunk in a hot chancaca syrup (brown sugar boiled with orange peel and cinnamon).
Notes
- Dry pumpkin: Drain very well after boiling - wet pumpkin gives wet dough that won't fry crisp.
- Don't roll too thin: 5 mm is right. Thinner gives crispy crackers; thicker gives doughy centres.
- Pierce them: Without the fork holes, they balloon then collapse to leathery flatbreads. With the holes, they stay flat-ish and crisp.
Storage
- Best eaten warm same day. Refresh briefly in a 200°C oven 3 minutes.
- The dough keeps 24 hours refrigerated; fry fresh.
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