Fried dough – Tia Maria's Blog

Desserts / Holiday Recipes / Recipes / Traditional customs

July 30, 2020

Festa Food – Filhos da Festa – Portuguese Fried Dough

Festa food recipes continue this month with these Filhos da Festa. This popular dessert is a favorite at every festa. Some people call them “Malasadas” some call them “Filhos”. Call them any name you want. Enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:

9 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 and ½ teaspoon salt

6 eggs

1 stick butter or margarine (8 tbsp)

1 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

2 cups milk

¼ cup fresh orange juice

oil for frying (corn oil or vegetable oil works best)

granulated sugar

cinnamon for dusting (optional)

Ingredients to make the starter yeast:

3 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon sugar

2 packages of dry yeast or 1 small cube yeast (0.6 oz, 17g)

½ cup warm water

First step:

Mix the ingredients in the starter yeast and set aside until bubbles form.

Second step:

Put the milk and butter in a pan on low until butter is melted

In a large bowl, mix eggs, salt, sugar, lemon zest, and orange juice. Beat with electric mixer for 2 minutes.

Add the milk and butter and mix for 30 seconds. Add yeast mix and flour and knead well until the dough is elastic and smooth.

Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Punch down the dough, cover and let it rise until doubled.

Your dough will look light, airy and elasticy .

In a deep fryer heat the oil to 375 degrees. Using your hands lightly greased with olive oil, stretch pieces of the dough into thin strips of desired sizes of about 3 by 4 inches.

Fry until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels. Dust with granulated sugar while still warm. Note: You can also dust with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

Desserts / Holiday Recipes / Photo Gallery / Portuguese Christmas / Recipes / Traditional customs

December 30, 2014

Coscorões – Angel Wings Fried Pastry

photo credits: narwencuisine.blogspot.com

Coscorões are fried dough often referred to as Angel wings, and similar to filhos. However, no yeast or other leavening agents are used to make the dough. They are usually made during the Christmas season.

This recipe is from the SaborIntenso.com website which has many Portuguese recipes in video. It’s a good resource for those of you that like to watch the process of cooking recipes. Watch the video below.

Ingredients:

5 cups flour (600 gr flour)
4 eggs
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
4 tablespoons melted butter (60 gr)
4 tablespoons sugar ( 60 gr)
2 oz. of whiskey (50 ml aguardente)
cinnamon
sugar
pinch of salt
oil for frying

Instructions:

Beat the sugar, eggs and butter. Add the pinch of salt, orange rind, orange juice, aguardente, and the flour and continue beating until the batter is smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, pour the batter onto a very floured counter. Knead the dough with enough flour until the batter is no longer sticky.

Roll out the dough into 3×5 inch rectangles 1/4 inch thick. Make cuts lengthwise in center of the rectangles.

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Place on paper towels to absorb any grease.

Blend sugar with cinnamin in a bowl and coat each Coscorões.

Desserts / Holiday Recipes / Portuguese Christmas / Recipes

December 22, 2010

Sonhos – Portuguese Choux Pastry Dreams!

Sonhos, are light and fluffy doughnut like pastries that melt in your mouth! Generally, they’re served around the Holidays but this popular fried pastry is a favorite at almost every Portuguese celebration. They are quite easy to make unlike filhos which are made out of risen dough and have a much longer process time.

Good luck to those of you are making these for the first time! Enjoy!

Sonhos

Ingredients:

6 extra large eggs

2 cups flour

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 slice lemon rind

Sugar and Cinnamon for topping

Instructions:

In a large heavy pan, place the water, milk, butter, lemon rind, and salt over medium heat and bring to boiling point. Stir in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour becomes a soft dough which turns into a ball shape that separates from the sides of the pan. This is similar to a basic Choux paste that is used for baking eclairs and cream puffs.

Remove the dough from heat and place into a medium bowl. Let the dough cool for a few minutes. Beat in one egg at a time making a smooth batter.

Heat the oil to 365 degrees. Shape the dough into round doughnuts by using 2 large tablespoons. Fry the dough by 4 or 5 pieces at time until golden brown while keeping the heat at a steady temperature. * NOTE. If you find the dough is turning brown too quickly reduce the heat to a lower setting. They should cook slowly.

**IMPORTANT**Pierce sonhos slightly with a fork all around as they cook. NOTE: If you find they are too dark and still raw in the middle, lower the heat so they cook through at a slower temperature.

Drain on a new clean brown paper lunch bags or on paper towels.

While still hot, roll sonhos in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

Watch this video for the demonstration. The recipe varies from mine.