Hojuelas Yucatecas con Miel de Anís

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy wooden rolling pin
• •Wide marble or wooden surface for rolling
• •Heavy 4-quart pot for frying
• •Candy or frying thermometer
• •Wire spider or slotted spoon
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Heavy 3-quart saucepan for the miel

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the miel de anís

   Place the chopped piloncillo, water, canela, the two tablespoons of whole anise seed, the orange peel, and the clove in a heavy saucepan. Set over medium heat and stir until the piloncillo dissolves. Once it dissolves, stop stirring. Let the syrup come to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until it darkens to the color of strong tea and coats the back of a spoon. The anise has to steep in the hot syrup. That is where the perfume comes from. Strain into a heatproof bowl and set aside. The syrup should be warm but not hot when you dress the hojuelas, so make it first.

   Use real piloncillo, the dark cones from the mercado. Brown sugar is a compromise and the syrup will taste flat. Piloncillo carries the molasses notes that make miel de anís taste like Yucatán and not like pancake syrup.
2. 2

   Mix the dough

   In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and the crushed anise seed. Add the room-temperature lard and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the orange juice, the aguardiente, and the orange zest. Pour the wet into the dry and bring it together with your hand until you have a shaggy mass.

3. 3

   Knead until smooth and elastic

   Turn the dough onto a clean counter and knead for eight to ten minutes. It will feel stiff at first. Keep working. You want a dough that is smooth, elastic, and dry to the touch, the kind of dough that pulls back when you stretch it. This is not a tender pastry dough. It needs gluten so the hojuelas roll out paper-thin without tearing. Wrap in a clean cloth and rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. The rest is not optional. Without it the dough fights you on the roller.

4. 4

   Roll the hojuelas paper-thin

   Divide the rested dough into 24 small balls, each about the size of a walnut. Cover with a cloth so they do not dry out. Lightly flour your counter and your rolling pin. Take one ball, flatten it with your palm, then roll it out in every direction until it is the thickness of a sheet of paper. You should almost see the grain of the counter through it. If it tears, the dough is too dry or it has not rested enough. Stack the rolled hojuelas on a floured cloth with a piece of parchment between each, so they do not stick. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo. The thinness is the whole point.

   In Yucatán the older cooks roll these out on a marble slab with a heavy wooden pin, and they do it by feel. If yours are not paper-thin, the hojuela will be bready and heavy. Keep rolling.
5. 5

   Heat the frying fat

   Pour the frying lard or oil into a wide heavy pot to a depth of about an inch and a half. Heat to 350°F over medium heat. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a small scrap of dough in. It should rise to the surface within three seconds and bubble vigorously without browning instantly. Lard is the Yucatecan choice and gives the cleanest, most savory result. Neutral oil works if you cannot get good lard, but la manteca es el sabor.

6. 6

   Fry one hojuela at a time

   Slide one hojuela into the hot fat. It will balloon and ripple within seconds. Press it gently under with the back of a slotted spoon so the top side cooks too, about 20 seconds. Flip it and fry the other side for another 15 to 20 seconds. You want pale gold with deeper amber blisters across the surface, never dark brown. Lift out with a spider and drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Work quickly. These cook in under a minute each.

   Fry one at a time. Two at a time and they stick together or one overcooks while you tend to the other. This is patient work and there is no shortcut. No me vengas con atajos.
7. 7

   Drown them in the miel

   While the hojuelas are still warm from the fryer, dip each one into the warm miel de anís or ladle the syrup generously over a platter of stacked hojuelas. They should be soaked, not glazed. The hojuela holds the syrup like a sponge and that contrast between the brittle fried dough and the dark anise-perfumed syrup is the whole reason this dish exists. Serve on a Yucatecan slipware platter, family-style, with the syrup pooling around the edges. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Real piloncillo, not brown sugar. Look for the dark cones at a Mexican mercado or grocery. Brown sugar is a compromise and the syrup will taste flat. The molasses depth in piloncillo is the whole foundation of the miel.
• •The dough has to rest. Skip the 30-minute rest and you will fight the rolling pin and tear the hojuelas every other one. The gluten needs to relax before you stretch it.
• •Roll them thinner than you think. Hold one up to the light. If you cannot see the window through it, keep rolling. A thick hojuela is a bready hojuela and that is not what this is.
• •Use Mexican canela, the soft true cinnamon, not cassia. Cassia is harsh and woody in a long-steeped syrup. Mexican canela gives a perfume that anise can dance with instead of fight against.
• •Hojuelas are best the day they are made, drowned in syrup right at serving time. If you must make ahead, fry them and store the syrup separately, then assemble at the table.

Advance Preparation

• •The miel de anís can be made up to four days ahead and refrigerated. Rewarm gently before serving so it pours but does not boil.
• •The dough can be made up to four hours ahead and kept wrapped at room temperature. Past that the lard starts to firm up and the dough resists the roller.
• •Fried hojuelas hold for one day at room temperature in a sealed tin if undressed. Once they meet the syrup, eat them within a couple of hours. The crackle is the point and it does not last.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 170g)