The origin of the word Bunyol or Buñuelo, is not really clear but is belived that it comes from the word "puñuelo", type of balls that the romans were kneading with their "puños" (fists).
Bunyols (catalan), Buñuelos (spanish) or Fritters and Elephant Ears (english), are done with a basic flour dough fried in oil. There are many types of Bunyols or Buñuelos around Spain and also some countries of South America, but first let me give you a brief history.
The first found recipe, was by Marco Gavio Apicio, a roman gastronome in the I century a.C. in his work "De re coquinaria", ... can you believe it? But in reality the first society in which they are introduced to the Iberic Peninsula (Spain) is the Moorish one. Since the XIV century, Bunyols or Buñuelos recipes have been found in Spain.
Bunyols or Buñuelos are a typical desert of many areas of Spain and are popular to eat them in some regional holidays such as La Cuaresma in Catalonia, Las Fallas in Valencia or Las Vírgenes, Todos los Santos and Cuaresma also in Balearic Islands, most all these holidays have a religion meaning.
In Catalonia the most popular Bunyols are the Bunyols de Vent (wind fritters), the Bunyols de Crema (confectioner's custard) and the Bunyols de l'Empordà (Empordà fritters).
Catalan people typically eat them after lunch with a cup of coffee or in the middle of the day as a snack.
In Valencia, the Buñuelos de Calabaza (pumpkin fritters) are very popular and valencian people typically eat them with a cup of hot chocolate.
In the Balearic Islands you can find a different assortment of sweet Buñuelos done with potato, cheese or figs during their regional holidays.
In Madrid and Andalucia they eat them on Easter.
BUNYOLS or BUNYOLS DE VENT - RECIPE
Ingredients
125gr. milk
125gr. water
110gr. butter
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of sugar
150gr. flour
3 eggs
oil to fry (prereable sunflower oil or anyone that it is soft and doesn't have a strong flavor)
sugar to coat
Preparation
In a small saucepan bring the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar to boil.
When it starts to boil add in the flour and stir well and constantly for 2 or 3 minutes.
After this, remove the saucepan from heat and add one by one every egg (it is very important that you don't add a egg until the first one is absorbed by the dough).
Heat the oil at medium temperature and put in small amounts of dought (about the amount result between 2 soup spoons at a time). If you want to make sure that the oil has the right temperature, you can put in first a small amount of dought and if you see that it boubble, that means that the oil is ready.
When the dought becomes a nice golden brown color it will mean that they are ready and it's time to take them of the saucepan and put them on a plate with a kitchen towel to absorb the oil.
Before the cool down, roll them on sugar until they are all sugar coated.
Now the only thing left to do is to eat them and enjoy them as I do!!!!!
* In future posts, I will put the recipes of some of the most popular spanish Bunyols or Buñuelos.
