Picarones
Squash-and-sweet-potato rings fried until lacy and drenched in spiced syrup. The traditional dough proves with yeast for hours, so this baking-powder batter is the impatient cousin and honestly nobody minds.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 4
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 4 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Simmer the brown sugar, orange zest strips, orange juice and 100ml water in a small pan for 8 minutes until syrupy enough to coat a spoon, then set aside.
Whisk the pumpkin puree, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, caster sugar, salt and water into a thick, sticky batter that just falls from a spoon.
Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170-180C, filling it no more than a third full and never leaving it unattended.
Wet your hands, take a golf-ball of batter, poke a hole through the middle with a finger and lower the ring gently into the oil.
Fry 3 at a time for 3 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and cooked through with no raw batter in the centre, then drain on kitchen paper.
Pile them up and pour the warm syrup over just before serving.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Picarones is sitting in the Peruvian kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Peruvian kitchen
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