Nenguanitos en Miel de Piloncillo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart saucepan for the syrup
• •Deep heavy pot for frying
• •Frying or candy thermometer
• •Slotted spoon or wooden spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Wooden spoon for glazing
• •Banana leaf or wide clay plate for setting

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the dough

   On a wide work surface or in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ground canela. Make a well in the center. Add the manteca, sugar, eggs, milk, and crushed anise seed. Work the wet ingredients into the flour with your fingertips, drawing in flour from the edges of the well, until you have a soft, slightly tacky dough. La manteca es el sabor. The fat is what gives nenguanitos their tender bite, do not skimp on it.

   If the dough feels dry, add milk one tablespoon at a time. If it feels wet, add a dusting of flour. You want it to hold its shape but still feel soft when you press it. Like an earlobe, as my mother used to say.
2. 2

   Rest the dough

   Cover the dough with a clean cotton servilleta and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. The flour needs time to hydrate and the lard needs to relax into the dough. Skip the rest and the biscuits will be tough. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Build the piloncillo syrup

   While the dough rests, make the miel. In a heavy saucepan, combine the piloncillo, water, canela sticks, cloves, orange peel, and guava if using. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir until the piloncillo dissolves completely, then lower the heat and let it reduce for about 25 minutes, until the syrup coats the back of a spoon and pulls a thin thread when you lift the spoon out. The color should be dark amber, almost the color of strong coffee.

   Do not use brown sugar. Piloncillo carries a smoky, mineral note from the way the cane is reduced in open kettles. Brown sugar is sweet and flat. Piloncillo is sweet and complicated. Asi se hace y punto.
4. 4

   Shape the nenguanitos

   Divide the rested dough into walnut-sized pieces, about 1 tablespoon each. Roll each piece between your palms into a smooth ball. Press each ball lightly so it is a fat little disc, about 3/4 inch thick. The senoras at Jardin Socrates make them small. A nenguanito the size of your thumb, three or four pressed together at the moment of glazing. That is the cluster. Set the shaped pieces on a flour-dusted tray as you go.

5. 5

   Fry until golden

   Heat the frying oil in a deep, heavy pot to 325F. Use a thermometer or test with a small piece of dough, it should sizzle steadily and float to the surface within a few seconds. Fry the nenguanitos in batches of six or seven, never crowding the pot. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, until they are deep golden and the surface looks crackled and dry. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Do not drain on paper. The bottom turns soggy and they will not glaze right.

6. 6

   Glaze in clusters

   Strain the warm piloncillo syrup. Working in small batches, drop three or four fried nenguanitos into the warm syrup. Use a wooden spoon to roll them around so every surface is coated, then press them gently against each other in the syrup so they fuse into a small cluster. Lift the cluster out with the spoon and set it on a banana leaf or a wide clay plate to set. The syrup should pool slightly underneath. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

7. 7

   Let the glaze set

   Leave the clusters to set at room temperature for at least 20 minutes. The syrup will thicken into a glossy, almost lacquered coat as it cools. Eat them with strong cafe de olla or a glass of cold milk. They keep at room temperature, lightly covered, for two days, the third day they begin to soften and the syrup weeps. Eat them before that.

Chef Tips

• •Buy real piloncillo, the dark cone-shaped sugar, from a Mexican grocer or mercado. The darker the cone, the more complex the flavor. Light piloncillo is closer to brown sugar. Dark piloncillo, the kind from Oaxaca or Veracruz, is what you want. Brown sugar is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The manteca de cerdo is non-negotiable. If you cannot find it from a Mexican butcher, render your own from pork fatback. Vegetable shortening will give you a flat, plastic-tasting biscuit and the dulceras of Oaxaca would not recognize what you made.
• •Canela means Mexican cinnamon, the soft Ceylon-style bark that crumbles between your fingers. The hard cassia bark sold as cinnamon in most American supermarkets is a different spice and it gives the syrup a sharper, more medicinal note. Look for canela at a Mexican market or a Latin grocer.

Advance Preparation

• •The piloncillo syrup can be made up to one week ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently before glazing so it pours easily and coats the biscuits evenly.
• •The shaped, unfried dough can be prepared up to four hours ahead, covered with a damp servilleta, and held at room temperature.
• •Glazed nenguanitos keep at room temperature, lightly covered, for two days. They do not freeze well, the syrup separates and weeps as the biscuit thaws.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)