A Recipe with Video: Buñuelos de Viento

It’s Christmas time and in my family we like to celebrate with special Spanish treats.  Polvorones, mantecados, turron, rosquillas, and buñuelos de viento.

Buñuelos de Viento, or puffs of air, were traditionally made to celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st.  Today, you’ll find them in pastry shops from November through the Christmas Season.

I like to think of them as the Spanish version of funnel cakes.  Actually, that comparison came from my mami when she had her first funnel cake at the Iowa State Fair.

However, these are more special as lemon zest is added to the batter for an additional hint of sweet citrus in each pillowy bite.

Buñuelos de Viento are made of a simple batter consisting of whole milk, lemon zest, flour and eggs.  Once the batter is made, they are fried and puff before your eyes.  Although the recipe is easy enough to make, the process can be difficult to understand.

In order to show you the process for perfect buñuelos every time I decided to make a video post sponsored by Star Fine Foods.

Easy enough right?!

Just remember to cook that batter for a good five minutes to make sure to get that perfect puff ball every time.

Buñuelos de Viento

These pillowy balls of dough with a hint of lemon are finished by either rolling them in granulated sugar, topped with powdered sugar or as I like to eat them, drizzled with raw honey.  They tasted phenomenal drizzled with my chamomile infused raw honey.  I’d like to make an anise infused raw honey and see how that tastes.

In order to make these even more special, you can also fill them with any variation of cream.  Experiment, have fun!

Ingredients:

• 150grams (1 1/3 cups) of whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all purpose flour
• 250ml (1 cup) whole milk
• zest of 1 lemon (preferably organic)
• pinch of salt
• 30grams (2tbl) butter
• 4 eggs
• Star Fine Foods, Extra Light Olive Oil

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, bring milk, lemon zest, salt and butter to a soft boil.

2. Once the milk has come to a boil, turn the range off and whisk in the flour.

3. Turn the range onto medium low and cook the dough for 5-8 minutes.  Constantly turning.  This is an important step to make sure that your final batter will puff once fried.  Refer to video.

4. Once the dough has been cooked, set aside and allow to cool.

5. Once the dough has cooled, incorporate the eggs into the dough, one at a time.  Your final dough should be the consistency of a thick pancake batter.

6. Once your batter has been made, heat up the olive oil in a small sauce pan at least 2″ tall.

7. Drop a half spoonful of batter at a time into the oil and watch them puff. Refer to video.

8. Once the buñuelos are browned all around and puffed, allow to drain on a towel.

8. Finish by filling with cream, rolling in granulated sugar, topping with powdered sugar or drizzling with raw honey.

Buen Provecho!