Picarones

Ingredients

Purée

• 400 gzapallo macre, or butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 300 gsweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1cinnamon stick
• 3cloves
• 1star anise

Dough

• 500 gplain flour
• 10 ginstant yeast
• 1 tspsalt
• 2 tbspsugar
• warm water, as needed

Chancaca syrup

• 400 gchancaca or panela
• 500 mlwater
• 1orange, quartered
• 1cinnamon stick
• 4cloves
• a few fig leaves, if you have them

To fry

• oil, for deep frying

Directions

1. Boil the squash and sweet potato with the cinnamon, cloves and star anise until completely soft, about 20 minutes. Cook them in the spiced water rather than plain, because the flesh takes the flavour up as it softens.
2. Drain them, keeping the cooking water, and mash or blend them until smooth. Hot purée kills the yeast outright and the dough will never rise, which is the commonest failure here. Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, then work in the cooled purée.
3. Add some of the reserved cooking water gradually until you have a very soft, sticky, wet batter. It should be far wetter than a bread dough, closer to a thick sticky batter that will just about hold a shape.
4. Beat it hard with your hand or a wooden spoon for 5 minutes, lifting and slapping it. Prove it in a warm place for 2 hours until it is visibly bubbly and roughly doubled. Simmer it 30 to 40 minutes until it has reduced to a thin pouring syrup.
5. Take it off while it is still pourable, remembering it thickens considerably as it cools. Strain the syrup and keep it warm until serving. Fig leaves are traditional in Lima and give a faint coconut-vanilla note, and they are worth using if you can find them.
6. Heat the oil to 180°C (355°F) in a wide pan. Now the shaping, which is done entirely by hand and takes practice. Keep your hand wet at all times, because the batter sticks to anything dry.
7. Make the hole bigger than seems right, because it closes as the ring puffs in the oil. Fry 2 to 3 minutes a side until deep golden and puffed. Turn them with chopsticks or a long fork, which is what the street vendors use. Drain them briefly on a rack rather than paper.
8. Serve hot, stacked in a bowl, with the warm chancaca syrup poured generously over them. They must be eaten within minutes, because they soften as they cool and the contrast of crisp ring and sticky syrup is the whole thing.

Technique

• Zapallo macre is a large orange Peruvian squash and butternut is the usual substitute.
• Chancaca is unrefined cane sugar and panela, piloncillo or rapadura all work.
• The syrup keeps a week refrigerated and thickens, so warm it before serving.

Substitutions

• Butternut squash for zapallo macre.
• Panela or dark muscovado for chancaca.

Variations

• Made with squash alone, which is common.
• With aniseed in the dough.
• Buñuelos, the Spanish ancestor.

History

Squash and sweet-potato rings fried and drenched in chancaca syrup, the colonial Lima replacement for Spanish bunuelos.

Frequently asked questions

What is Picarones?

Picarones is a dessert from Peru: squash and sweet-potato doughnut rings drenched in chancaca syrup. Squash and sweet-potato rings fried and drenched in chancaca syrup, the colonial Lima replacement for Spanish bunuelos.

How long does Picarones take to make?

Picarones takes 40 min plus 2 hr rising of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 20 rings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Picarones?

Yes, within limits. Butternut squash for zapallo macre. Panela or dark muscovado for chancaca.

What is the most important thing to get right in Picarones?

Boil the squash and sweet potato with the cinnamon, cloves and star anise until completely soft, about 20 minutes. Cook them in the spiced water rather than plain, because the flesh takes the flavour up as it softens.