Tortas Fritas Fried Sweet Dough Recipes

TORTA FRITA (URUGUAYAN FRIED SWEET BREAD)

Steps:

• In a big bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder, and beef tallow. Use a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut the fat into the flour. (Alternately, mix the ingredients together in a stand mixer, with a dough hook.)
• Add water and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Knead it for a couple of minutes. Cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• After resting, knead the dough for 5 minutes, or until soft.
• Separate the dough into 8 portions. Roll each portion between the palm of your hand and a flat surface to create a ball. Cover with a slightly damp kitchen towel and let them rest for 10 minutes.
• In a deep and wide pot, heat the oil to 375F, over medium-low heat.
• After the last resting of the dough, you should be able to stretch the dough by hand into about a 7 inch circle. If this is not possible, just flour a flat surface, and use a rolling pin to make a 7-inch circle. Cut a line in the middle.
• Fry the breads, one at a time. Fry for a few seconds and then flip. Let it brown on that side, then flip again and brown the other side.
• Remove from the oil and place on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Dust with sugar and serve. (Best served immediately.)

TORTA FRITTA (FRIED DOUGH ITALIAN STYLE)

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, combine milk and 1 1/3 cups water. Heat to 110F or until warm to touch; remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, combine 5 cups of the flour, yeast and salt; make a well. Add olive oil and warm milk mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir until dough just starts to form.
• Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead until soft and elastic, adding more flour by the tablespoon as needed to keep dough from being too sticky, about 15 minutes.
• Transfer dough to a clean bowl, cover with a clean dishtowel, and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
• Punch down dough and turn out onto a lightly-floured surface. Roll out to a ¼ inch thick rectangle, and cut into (about 50) 2 by 3 inch rectangles, transferring cut pieces to a sheet of parchment paper with space between each piece.
• Fill a deep saucepan with 1½ inches peanut oil and heat to 365F Fry dough pieces in batches, turning them before they are halfway done, until puffed and golden brown on both sides, about 1½ minutes total.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer torta frittas to paper towels in order to drain. Serve immediately.

FRIED SWEET DOUGH

Steps:

• Heat the vegetable oil in a wide saucepan to 350 degrees F. (The oil should be an inch or two deep.)
• For the filling: Whisk together the ricotta, mascarpone, amaretto, and confectioners' sugar in a bowl until smooth. Stir in the candied peel and chocolate. Refrigerate the filling while you make the zeppole.
• Combine 1 cup water, the butter, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to melt the butter. While stirring, add the flour and zest all at once. Cook, stirring constantly, until the dough dries out and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat, and add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously to incorporate one before adding the next, until the dough is completely smooth.
• Drop a batch of zeppole in 2-tablespoon dollops (a small ice-cream scoop is perfect for this) into the oil, making sure you don't crowd them in the pan, because they will grow in size. Fry the zeppole, turning on all sides, until light and golden brown all over, about 5 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels, and repeat with the remaining dough.
• To serve, when cold cut the zeppole in half with a serrated knife and with a pastry bag pipe the filling onto the bottom half. Cover and dust with additional confectioners' sugar if desired.

AREPAS DE QUESO FRITAS

Steps:

• Mix the water and the egg yolk.
• In a large bowl mix the flour and the egg/water mixture.
• Mix and kneed the dough for about 5 minutes until it is compact.
• Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile heat a deep fryer to 170ºC, or fill a frying pan with lots of oil and heat.
• Take a small ball of the dough, the size of an egg and mold into a flat circle, about 1 cm thick.
• Fry until golden brown, turning regularly.
• Turn out onto crumpled absorbent paper and leave to cool slightly.
• Split them open (like a pita bread) and fill with cheese, ham, butter, honey or whatever you wish. (If there is too much "fluff" inside, you can remove it with a spoon, leaving only the outer shell).
• Serve immediately--they don't keep and don't re-heat.