Sopaipillas pasadas
Sopaipillas are Chilean fried rounds of pumpkin dough, and “pasadas” is the dessert version — soaked in hot syrup of chancaca, unrefined cane sugar, simmered with orange peel, cinnamon and cloves. Chileans make them on rainy winter days: by custom, when it rains, sopaipillas are fried at home. The pumpkin gives the dough colour and softness, and the syrup soaks in, making something between a doughnut and gingerbread. Cook and drain the pumpkin well so the dough is not too wet.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Cooking the pumpkin 30 min
- Dough 15 min
- Syrup (dough resting) 20 min
- Cutting and frying 35 min
- Soaking in syrup 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook the pumpkin
Peel and dice the pumpkin and cook in a little water for 15–20 minutes until soft. Drain thoroughly, mash to a smooth purée and cool — you should have about 250 g.
Ingredients: 350 g pumpkin (butternut or hokkaido) · 400 g plain flour · 60 g lard or butter, melted · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp salt · 1000 ml oil for frying
Make the dough
Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the cooled purée and melted lard and knead 5 minutes until smooth and soft but not sticky. Add a spoonful of flour if it sticks.
Ingredients: 350 g pumpkin (butternut or hokkaido) · 400 g plain flour · 60 g lard or butter, melted · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp salt · 1000 ml oil for frying
Rest the dough
Cover with cling film and rest 15 minutes so it rolls more easily.
Ingredients: 350 g pumpkin (butternut or hokkaido) · 400 g plain flour · 60 g lard or butter, melted · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp salt · 1000 ml oil for frying
Make the syrup
Bring the sugar to the boil with the water, orange peel, cinnamon and cloves and simmer 15 minutes. Mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of cold water, stir it into the syrup and cook 2 minutes until slightly thickened.
Ingredients: 250 g chancaca, panela or dark brown sugar · 500 ml water · 1 pcs strips of orange peel · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 3 pcs cloves · 1 tbsp cornflour
Cut the rounds
Roll the dough 5 mm thick and cut 10 cm rounds — about 720 g of dough, with the scraps re-rolled, makes about 16. Prick each a few times with a fork so they do not balloon.
Ingredients: 350 g pumpkin (butternut or hokkaido) · 400 g plain flour · 60 g lard or butter, melted · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp salt · 1000 ml oil for frying
Pricked with a fork — no balloons.Fry
Heat the oil in a wide pot to 175°C (ideally check with a thermometer) — no more than a third of the way up. Fry 3–4 rounds at a time, 2 minutes per side, until golden — in batches, about 25 minutes in total. Drain on paper.
Ingredients: 350 g pumpkin (butternut or hokkaido) · 400 g plain flour · 60 g lard or butter, melted · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp salt · 1000 ml oil for frying
Golden on both sides, not brown.Soak in syrup
Drop the fried rounds in batches into the hot syrup for 1–2 minutes, turning, until soaked and soft.
Ingredients: 250 g chancaca, panela or dark brown sugar · 500 ml water · 1 pcs strips of orange peel · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 3 pcs cloves · 1 tbsp cornflour
A minute or two in syrup — they soak and soften.Serve
Transfer to bowls, pour over the rest of the syrup with the orange peel and serve warm.
Ingredients: 250 g chancaca, panela or dark brown sugar · 500 ml water · 1 pcs strips of orange peel · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 3 pcs cloves · 1 tbsp cornflour
Before you start
Chancaca
Chancaca is unrefined cane sugar sold in cones or blocks, like Latin American panela. It is hard to find in Poland; panela or rapadura are sold in health food shops and online, and dark muscovado sugar from the supermarket gives a very similar caramel taste.
Without syrup
The same rounds without syrup are savoury sopaipillas — in Chile they are eaten with mustard, pebre (tomato and coriander salsa) or avocado as a snack.
Storage
Fried rounds without syrup keep a day in a container; warm them in the oven and only then soak in syrup. The syrup keeps a week in the fridge.
