Beginner
Brazilian
Pão de Queijo (Cheese Bread)
Source: Traditional
45 min690 kcal
VegetarianGluten-free
Buñuelos Colombianos
Balls of fresh cheese and cassava starch dropped into warm oil and cooked slowly until they turn themselves over and go round and golden — the Christmas fritter, and savoury, not sweet.
Source
Recipe by Colombian home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Six regions and six different larders — maize and cheese in the mountains, coconut and fish on the Caribbean coast, and a pot of soup on the stove almost everywhere.
Colombian · Christmas fritter — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article is the pan-Hispanic one and confirms the fried dough ball form and the regional variations, including the Colombian cheese version eaten at Christmas. That the article covers many countries is stated rather than glossed over. Quantities, the 150°C instruction and the rolls-itself test are this book's own.
Watch it being made · 3 videos
⏱ 50 min🍽 6 servings🔥 230 kcal🇨🇴 Colombia
HalalVegetarianGluten-freeNut-free
Steps
Mix the grated cheese, cassava starch, maize flour, sugar and baking powder, then work in the egg with your hands.
Knead 5 minutes until completely smooth. Add the milk only if it still cracks when you roll a ball.
💡 Smooth dough is everything. Any crack in the surface opens in the oil and the buñuelo bursts and drinks fat.
Roll into 18 balls, rolling each one for a good 30 seconds until the surface is glassy with no seams.
Heat the oil to 150°C — LOW. Lower in 4 or 5 balls at a time.
💡 150°C, not 180°C. Hot oil browns the outside in two minutes while the middle is still raw dough — the single most common buñuelo failure.
Cook 8 to 10 minutes. They will sink, rise, and then start rolling over by themselves — that is the sign they are cooking right.
Lift out when deep gold all over and drain on a rack. Eat warm, with natilla if it is December.
💡 Tips
- They turn themselves. If yours are not rolling over on their own, the oil is too hot or the balls are not round enough.
- Colombian buñuelos are savoury cheese balls, not the sweet dough fritters the same word means in Spain and Mexico.
- December is buñuelo month — eaten with natilla through the nine nights of the novena before Christmas.
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