Carnival crêpes or fritters

How to make Carnival crespillos or fritters .

In Galicia, during the Carnival, the stoves are lit with the desire for desserts, there is no shortage of  orellas ,  fried milk ,  pancakes ,  Carnival flowers ,  pumpkin chops … But obviously we are not the only ones who celebrate or enter with intensity.

Both outside and inside the stove, carnival is not only celebrated gastronomically in my land.

I love to discover the secrets of the gastronomy of our country on certain dates, so I continue with my particular carnival culinary journey.

This time it has touched the Huesca region , with its typical crespillos that are traditionally prepared on Carnival Saturday in all the houses.

Carnival crespillos are very similar in their preparation to fried fritters . As with almost all traditional and “old-fashioned” recipes, each maestro has his booklet, which means that in each family they are prepared with subtle differences.

In any case, the base is always the same: flour, eggs, sugar and milk, although there are those who add a splash of anise or cognac . With cognac are the ones we have prepared today, with a special touch that gives it even more flavor.

In Aragon there is another recipe for crespillos that has nothing to do with this one, they are crespillos de borage . It is a preparation of borage leaves in a kind of tempura, although they are also made with chard or spinach .

But the thing does not stop there, we should not confuse these recipes for carnival crespillos and borage with others very typical of some areas of the Murcia region , such as Cartagena or Lorca . There they prepare a type of flat and crunchy bread from a single fermentation with a particular touch of paprika. It was formerly cooked to take advantage of the remains of dough that remained from the preparation of the bread when it was still made in wood-fired ovens.

You see that the name goes a long way, not all recipes are from the carnival season but they all look like they are delicious. We will try as many as we can without dying in the attempt!

I leave you with these delicious crespillos, the recipe has given for 60 units at about € 0.06 each, quite cheap, right?

Riding egg whites until stiff

1. In a bowl s eparamos eggs , it is best to crack the egg with more care than usual.
2. Exactly through the center to make a hole between the two halves in which the thumb fits. Always helping us with a knife.
3. We hold the egg in a bowl and with the wider end down, carefully lift the smaller half of the shell. Part of the white will fall into the bowl, while the yolk will remain in the shell.
4. Carefully slide the yolk towards the small piece of the shell and then again towards the large one so that the rest of the white falls into the bowl.
5. We put the yolks in a separate bowl. It seems easy and it is, but it is best to do it several times, practice will make it super easy. We reserve the yolks and we are going to  mount the whites until stiff .
6. For the final result to be the best possible, we are going to put the bowl with the whites for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator, this trick will make them easier to assemble later.
7. It is recommended to do it with a “rod” utensil for the mixer or another specialized device such as a kitchen robot. If we do not have it, we must do it manually.
8. For this we must beat with the rods with enveloping, fast and continuous movements, making them catch “air”.
9. Once the whites are assembled, we gradually add half the sugar, at the same time that we continue beating until we get a spongy meringue with a spongy texture, taking care not to “lower” the mixture.

Preparation of the base of the crespillos

1. In another bowl we mix the yolks with the milk, the cognac and the rest of the sugar.
2. We beat until the ingredients are mixed very well, it should be left with a little foam.
3. Add the flour and sprinkle a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix well and reserve.
4. We add the whites already assembled to the mixture and stir carefully, airing the dough.
5. Let it rest for 30 minutes so that the flour “opens”.

Frying and final presentation of the crespillos

1. We heat a skillet over medium heat with plenty of neutral oil. Use sunflower or extra virgin olive oil, so that it does not add more flavor to the dough.
2. With the help of two spoons, we form the crespillos that we will fry.
3. The difficulty of this dessert is in the temperature of the oil. Since if it is not hot, the dough falls to the bottom and must float. But if it is too hot, a dry wrap forms around the crepe that prevents it from growing.
4. Also if the oil is very hot, they will brown very quickly and will be raw inside.
5. The first batch will serve us to try the following ones and they will be delicious.
6. We throw the skillet a few at a time as they will increase in size, do not panic.
7. When they are golden we remove the crespillos to an absorbent paper to remove the excess oil.
8. We serve sprinkled with ground sugar.

We already have our curls for Carnival-Entroido or Easter.

On these dates, fritters are sweet or salty like cod ones are very typical. You have double chocolate fritters   or carnival crespillos .

Be sure to enjoy all the yummy sweets in our dessert recipes. I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to spend the sweetest Carnival with your favorite donuts.