These Gluten Free Sopaipillas Pasadas are an allergy friendly recreation of a Chilean favourite. Fried pumpkin pastries served with a thick, dark sauce that's flavoured with orange peel and cloves. YUM!
When I was first toying with the idea of developing a second "Beyond Flour" book, my friend Samantha suggested the inclusion of sopaipillas pasadas.
Samantha travels a LOT with her Eurovision blogging - ESC Insight - but as "worldly" as my own culinary experience has been (growing up in Canada!)... I'd never heard of them.
Her description sounded amazing though, so here we are.
What are Sopaipillas Pasadas?
These are a deep fried pastry from Chile - a street food that is especially popular on cold, rainy days.
These Chilean pumpkin fritters are served with a thick, dark sauce that's flavoured with orange peel and clove.
YUM!
I had to do a ton of research on these, not being able to replicate from my own experience: Descriptions and photos of the sauce and pastry, traditional methods of making it, etc.
I had to figure out the closest equivalent to chancaca - lumps of unrefined sugar - that would be easily accessible in North American grocery stores.
In the end, I had developed something that got the seal of approval from Samantha.
It's always great to watch someone's face as they indulge in a treat they haven't been able to get in years!
Gluten Free Sopaipillas Ingredients
There are two parts to this gluten-free sopaipillas pasadas recipe: the pumpkin fritter pastries, and the (modified!) chancaca syrup.
The Pumpkin Fritters:
As with all of my gluten free dough recipes, I use several gluten free flour types in specific proportions for the recipe I’m developing.
Doing it this way gives me a lot of control over the final product, ensuring the absolute best flavour, texture, and behaviour for whatever I’m aiming to make.
It also ensures you the most consistent results - “Gluten free all purpose flour” varies wildly from brand to brand, and won’t all work exactly the same.
Masa Harina
Light Buckwheat Flour
Potato Starch
White Rice Flour
Sweet Rice Flour
... and some Corn Starch for rolling. (You can use potato starch, I’m just too frugal to use it for rolling dough, when corn starch is so much cheaper!)
You will also need:
Pumpkin puree*
Cold butter
Large egg
Baking Powder
Salt
Frying Oil - Vegetable oil, Canola oil, Sunflower, or Peanut oil
* A Note on the Pumpkin
You want plain, pure pumpkin puree, NOT pie filling!
Traditionally, this is done with ground pumpkin that’s been cooked for the recipe specifically, with the cooking water also incorporated.
I’ll be honest, I’m too lazy to go that far for fried fritters in sauce, when canned is so much cheaper, easier, and more available.
If you have leftover home cooked pumpkin, feel free to use it in this recipe, though.
Modified Chancaca Sauce
While this sauce has a ton of flavour, there are only a few sauce ingredients needed:
1 Large orange
Light Brown Sugar
Water
Ground Cinnamon
Whole Cloves
Equipment
You’ll want the following:
- Either a food processor (recommended), or bowl and a pastry blender.
- A rolling pin. I use this Rolling pin with adjustable thickness guides to ensure perfectly consistent thickness to my rolled dough, HIGHLY recommend it!
- A deep fryer, or a large, heavy bottomed pot.
More Gluten-Free International Recipes
Looking for more gluten free recipes with an international flair? I’ve got you covered...
Gluten Free Banana Nutella Ebelskivers
Gluten-Free Beef Stroganoff
Gluten-Free Chicken Pakora
Gluten Free Chicken Satay
Gluten-Free Gougeres
Gluten Free Mixed Vegetable Pakora
Gluten-Free Paneer Pakora
Gluten Free Paska
Gluten-Free Perogies
Gluten Free Piroshki
Gluten-Free Ramen Recipe
Gluten Free Samosa Recipe
Gluten-Free Tempura
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Gluten Free Sopaipillas Pasadas
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Vegetable peeler
Ingredients
Dough:
- ¾ cup Masa flour
- ¾ cup Buckwheat flour
- ½ cup Potato starch
- ¼ cup White rice flour
- ¼ cup Sweet rice flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ¼ cup Cold butter
- 1 Large egg
- 1 cup Pumpkin puree Not pie filling!
- ¼ cup Water
- Corn starch for rolling
- Oil for frying
Sauce:
- 1 Large orange
- 2 cup Light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup Water
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 3 Whole cloves
Instructions
The Dough:
- Measure flours, starch, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of your food processor, blitz to combine.
- Add butter and egg, blitz a few times until mixture resembles gravel. Add pumpkin, pulse just to combine.
- Stream in a little bit of cold water - as you run the food processor - to bring it together as a soft dough. You may need to use a little more or less water. Do NOT over-process it! It will be a little sticky, that’s fine.
- Remove dough from processor, knead lightly to bring it together as a ball. Wrap in plastic film, rest on counter for 30 minutes.
- While dough is resting, make your sauce:
Sauce:
- Use a vegetable peeler to peel the orange - you want just the outer, orange peel, with no white pith.
- Place orange peel - along with remaining sauce ingredients- into a medium pot, bring just to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium, simmer for 20 minutes or so, until sauce is nice and thick.
- Strain off orange peel and cloves.
To Assemble:
- Start heating your oil to 350 F (180 C) – you’ll want to fry these in plenty of hot oil - about 2" deep in your pot or deep fryer.
- Scatter some corn starch over your - clean! - work surface.
- Roll dough out to about ¼" thick (About ½ centimeter thick).
- Use a glass to cut rounds of dough that are about 2.5" in diameter. Use a fork to prick holes in the top surface of each round.
- Fry a few at a time for a minute or two per side, until a nicely golden colour - not brown.
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer fried cakes to platter lined with absorbent paper towels, to drain the excess oil.
- Place drained sopaipillas in the sauce for a minute before serving, or arrange on a plate and drizzle generously with sauce.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
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