Published Feb. 22, 2024
- Total Time
- About 2 hours
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 1 hour resting
- Rating
- 3(64)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Crispy, golden-brown pillows that are sweet or savory, sopapillas are a traditional New Mexican fried dough made with only five ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and shortening. The dish is rooted in the American Southwest, where Hispanic, Spanish and Native American cultures converge. Sopapillas, also spelled sopaipillas, can be stuffed with braised meat, New Mexican chiles or cheese and served as a meal or snack, or the entire pastry can be drizzled with honey for dessert, as it is here. To ensure maximum puffiness, roll the dough out thinly, and the oil should be very hot. Sopapillas are best served right after frying.
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Ingredients
Yield:About 18 sopapillas
- 4cups/480 grams all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon baking powder
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 4tablespoons/56 grams shortening or lard, softened
- Vegetable oil, for frying (about 4 cups)
- Honey, for serving
Nutritional analysis per serving (18 servings)
173 calories; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 3 grams protein; 86 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt until combined. Using your fingers, mix in the shortening until there are pea-sized crumbles. Add 1 cup room temperature water, then knead the mixture in the bowl until it comes together. (If the dough feels dry, add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Turn the dough onto a clean surface and continue kneading until it’s smooth and slightly elastic, 6 to 8 minutes. Divide the dough into two balls and return them to the bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
Step
2
In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat 3 inches of oil over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 375 degrees. Working with one ball of dough at a time on a clean work surface, roll it into a 13-inch circle (about ⅛-inch-thick). Cut the circle into 9 (4-inch) squares; some of the squares will have rounded corners, and that’s OK. Cover the squares with a clean, damp cloth, then repeat rolling and cutting the remaining dough.
Step
3
Line a plate with paper towels. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry the dough, about 2 at a time, flipping once with a slotted spoon, until golden and puffed, 2 to 3 minutes total. Transfer to the paper towel-lined plate and repeat with the remaining dough, adjusting the heat as necessary to maintain the temperature. Serve hot, drizzled with honey.
Ratings
3
out of 5
64
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
Syd
Pro tip- bite the corner off and drizzle the honey inside
Kalpana
Can the shortening or lard be substituted with butter?
LoriB, NM
Good sopapillas are shatteringly thin. They should not be bready. And they must be served piping hot. The first one is for sopping up the chile sauce from whatever you're eating, the second, with honey (inside, not on top!) is dessert.It takes a lot of practice to make a good sopa. Even a lot of restaurants don't get it right.
Laurie
I was taught as a child to bite the corner, drizzle the honey in and enjoy. My husband makes a mess so he drizzles on top so he can see the honey. My nephew, does both! My mother also taught me how to dip your napkin in your drinking water to make a little honey clean up towel. Necessary for all techniques. Crazy how there is so much to say about a recipe. Food is family memories.
Average Jose
Stuff it, no really like they offer at Stufy’s. Sopaipillas with green chile, refried beans and ground beef.
Tom
Drizzle with honey?! Never. Bite off a corner and drip some honey inside.
JP
That's the way us New Mexican's do it!
JJ
Sopapillas are eaten with the meal, offered instead of bread or tortilla, not after. At a meal with sopapillas you will be asked if you want dessert after. Honey is a handy way to take the temperature of a hot chili down. Plus you get that sweet, hot thing going. I prefer mine doughy (not bready) never heard of the thin thing, each to their own I guess. They are also eaten stuffed like a burrito.
Amanda
Must be very thin, not bready, and definitely bite off the corner and drizzle the honey inside. If they are thin and crisp enough they crack and the honey still gets everywhere. You can always tell a restaurant that serves excellent sopaipillas buy the sticky bathroom doorknob. Love my home state!
High Desert Rat
I prefer to use sopaipillas to mop up the green or red (or both) chile from my plate, though I’ve been known to indulge in one for dessert. I like sopas that are slightly doughy. I don’t like them “shatteringly thin”. In the 70s and early 80s, Pete’s Restaurant on Highway 14 in Sandia Park made yeast-raised sopaipillas and they were so delicious. He also made green chiles rellenos by wrapping them in an omelet. So good…
Mark
These are made in Argentina, minus the sugar and baking powder. Great with maté in the afternoon! Excited to try this.
hinjnoiz
I remember as a four or five year old in the 1950's dining with my family when we lived in Albuquerque. We went to a restaurant in the Old Town. Sopaipillas were the delicious treat I always looked forward to. Yup, you bite off a corner and squeeze in the honey! It's pretty much the only food I remember from when we went there...
NMSkylover
I don't make sopapillas at home. I let the restaurants do the work. Sopapillas are now included with the main meal, like bread. Formerly, sopapillas were offered at the end of the meal, with honey, as a dessert. So if you want them with honey, be sure to tell the waitstaff when you order your meal that you want the sopapillas at the end.
Ole
Santa Fean here. I like my sopaipillas with honey during the meal if the chile is especially hot, like they serve it at the hard-core New Mexican cafe Horseman's Haven. I tried making sopaipillas at home once and swore never again, but if I lived somewhere else I might. ; )
JJ
Sopapillas are eaten with the meal, offered instead of bread or tortilla, not after. At a meal with sopapillas you will be asked if you want dessert after. Honey is a handy way to take the temperature of a hot chili down. Plus you get that sweet, hot thing going. I prefer mine doughy (not bready) never heard of the thin thing, each to their own I guess. They are also eaten stuffed like a burrito.
Sharon Walthew
From El Paso: the honey goes *inside* not on the outside. Bite corner, pour honey. Eat.
M M Petersen
Or just deep fry flour tortillas! Same end result.
K/Y
Got puffier results with 425 F oil. Making sure the dough was no more than 1/8-inch thick was also key to a nice puff.
Bill
Would two teaspoons of kosher salt such as Morton's work?
Kathy Bucher BHGREGG
Morton's is much saltier than Diamond Crystal. You will end up with over-salted sopapillas.
Froon
I prefer to drain fried food on a kitchen cloth, not terry.
C Maria
New Mexican here, I don't add sugar to the dough. Just loads of honey where it will fit!
Little Bird
Born/raised in Albuquerque but now live in Southern California. My experience has been that sopapillas need the altitude of the Southwest to puff up to those glorious, tall pillows to be drizzled with honey. Here in SoCal, I get mildly puffy soft bread, no height at all.
JD Chavez
I'm in Berkeley and your sopapillas should puff just fine if you press down on them gently to hold them under the surface for a few seconds right after dropping them in the oil. Of course they 'taste' more delicious if you can look out your window and see New Mexico blue sky whilst eating them.
Laurie
I was taught as a child to bite the corner, drizzle the honey in and enjoy. My husband makes a mess so he drizzles on top so he can see the honey. My nephew, does both! My mother also taught me how to dip your napkin in your drinking water to make a little honey clean up towel. Necessary for all techniques. Crazy how there is so much to say about a recipe. Food is family memories.
melanie
When I make flour tortillas, I save a few back and fry for dessert.
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