Valparaíso Fritters -- a Pinedo recipe

Internationalliving.com tells us that 

The seaside city of Valparaíso, Chile has historically been the major port linking the country to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. ...

Valparaíso is known as the "Jewel of the Pacific" and is one of Chile's most romantic cities.  Before Spanish and European settlers arrived on the continent, Chile was inhabited by the Chango and Picunche Indigenous people.  After the arrival of Spanish settlers, Valparaíso became known for its fishing industry and served as a stop-over port for travelers and Spanish explorers traveling along the coast.

Chile.travel adds

Bohemian and colorful, Valparaíso's maze of hills has long inspired poets and writers.  You'll discover something new at every turn:  a gem of a building, a remarkable art gallery or some little gastronomic 'find'.

During Miss Pinedo's lifetime, Valparaíso was an important stopover port for people traveling to California for the Gold Rush, so it is reasonable for her to have knowledge of it and to possibly have known people who had been there.  She includes a recipe for Valparaíso Fritters on page 39.

(If you are not familiar with my collection of Pinedo recipes, search this blog and the California Food Project for the keyword "Pinedo" to view them.)

My Translation:

Valparaiso Fritters

         Make a dough with two egg yolks and a half tablespoon of salt. The hard dough is made and spread with the rolling pin, immediately cutting it into half-inch squares. These squares will go into very hot fat.

         White sugar syrup will be prepared; an extract or a glass of sherry or marasquino will be added, cinnamon or the juice of a lemon, cleaned and toasted walnuts, and the fritters.

         It is all placed in the confectionery, and it is served.

(Note:  Marasquino is a sweet liqueur made from marasca cherries.)

My Redaction

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

flavoring (I used 2 tablespoons orange blossom water)

2 egg yolks

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 cups flour

oil for frying

walnuts (I used almonds), toasted

My Notes

First I made the syrup by mixing the sugar into the water, bringing it to a boil, then simmering it and stirring it until the liquid was clear (about 2 minutes of simmering).  I added the lemon juice and orange blossom water while it was still hot, then let it cool.

Simmering syrup

I didn't have walnuts available so I substituted almonds.  I toasted them in a hot, dry frypan, stirring them constantly.  They were done when they had some spots of browning, they smelled good, and I heard some popping sounds.  They went into a bowl to cool.

Miss Pinedo does not list flour as a dough ingredient, but I think it is obvious.  What concerned me was how much flour to use, and if I needed any other ingredients to go with it.  I decided that she probably mixed in flour as she saw fit, and my only clue was to make a "hard dough."  I used about 2 cups flour, into which I put the salt and egg yolks.

This the egg yolks were absorbed quickly by the flour, so I kept adding water until I had a "hard dough."  It was a bit dry but not so much that it fell apart when I rolled it.

At this point, I put a vegetable oil in a frypan and started heating it.

Pre-dough

Hard dough

The next challenge was to determine how thick to roll the dough.  My instinct said to make them thin.  I tried about 1/4 inch thick first, and was not surprised that this was too thick.  That is, I rolled the dough, cut off a few little squares, and fried them.  They were too chewy and hard to eat.

1/4 inch is too thick

So I tried about 1/8 inch, and that worked out well.  At least while I was cooking them because they were tender and crisp.  But see my notes at the end of the post.

I found that putting a small handful of squares into the hot oil was a good amount:  they first clumped when cooking, then I stirred them to separate them, which also helped to cook both sides.  Once they were golden brown, I removed and drained them, then placed them on absorbent paper.  

Clumped

Stirred and nearly done

Draining

Once I had the thickness and frying time worked out, I was able to get a routine going of rolling the dough, cutting it into strips then squares, then frying.

Rolled, then cut into strips

Little squares.

The key was to put in just a small handful of squares to cook in each batch.  The time it took for them to cook was about the time it took to cut another batch.

The amount of dough I made turned into a good quantity of little fritters.  I mixed them with the toasted almonds.

I was serving them later, so I didn't pour the syrup over them.  I kept that separate until serving time.

The Verdict

This is what it looked like upon serving:

I included a slotted spoon to drain off the excess syrup.  We ate it approximately 2 hours after I finished frying the fritters.

They sure looked cute.  However, they were tough and no longer crispy.  I could eat them but they weren't enjoyable.  Another problem:  the 1/2 tablespoon of salt was too much.  I could taste the salt and one of my guest tasters, YT, noticed it, too.  

Perhaps the almonds should have been slivered.  But the fritters themselves were not entirely pleasant to eat so it was hard to tell if the almonds should have changed.

The syrup was very tasty, although I think I would use less orange blossom water, like one tablespoon instead of two.  YT commented that it tasted a lot like jasmine tea and enjoyed it.  

So I would call this a failure.  I'm not sure how to make the fritters better unless it means serving them as soon as they were out of the hot oil.  Maybe there is a tweak I could make to the dough to make it stay crispy after they cooled?  

I wondered if letting the fritters soak in the syrup would help.  I let them soak for several days, trying them several times to see if they would soften:  no, they did not.  

By the way, the amount of syrup I made could easily been cut in half and still had plenty to put over the fritters.  However, having extra syrup was wonderful to put on a blueberry Dutch baby pancake for breakfast and sometimes to sweeten a cup of tea.  That part was a success!