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São Miguel Malassadas (Carnival Fried Dough)
Recipe for São Miguel malassadas, the Azorean Carnival fried dough: a soft yeasted batter with eggs and orange juice, rolled in sugar and cinnamon.
- 18 pieces
- 30 min
- 30 min
- 2h30
- Medium
Malassadas are pieces of yeasted dough, stretched by hand and fried, then tossed in sugar and cinnamon while still hot. They are a traditional sweet from São Miguel, made mainly between New Year and Carnival, when they are eaten the most.
The very soft dough is made with eggs, orange juice and a splash of aguardente (grape brandy), and is left to rise until full of bubbles before frying.
Method
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk.
Sift the flour with the sugar and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
Pour the dissolved yeast into the well and start mixing. Add the orange juice and aguardente.
Add the eggs one at a time, working the dough by hand after each, until it is very soft and elastic, somewhere between a thick batter and a bread dough. If it is stiff, add a little more warm milk.
Cover with a cloth and a blanket and leave to rise somewhere warm for 2 to 3 hours, until the dough has risen and is full of bubbles.
Heat the oil well in a deep pan.
With oiled hands, pull off egg-sized pieces of dough and stretch them with your fingers so that the centre is thinner.
Fry the malassadas a few at a time until golden on one side, then turn and brown the other side.
Drain on kitchen paper and toss in the sugar and cinnamon mixture while still warm.
Tips
- The dough should be very soft, almost a thick batter. Oil your hands so you can stretch it without sticking.
- It is easier with two people: one stretches the dough while the other fries.
- The oil must be well heated (about 175 °C); if it is too cool, the malassadas soak up fat.
- You can swap the 15 g of fresh yeast for about 5 g of dried yeast. Some families add a little melted butter to the dough.
- Serve straight away: malassadas are best freshly made.
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