Santa Fe Sopapillas with Vanilla Bean Honey and Chili papaya Compote
Ingredients
- 4 cups AP flour
- 2 Tbsp Baking Powder
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 1 1/2 cup Milk
- 2 Tbsp Coconut oil
- Neutral oil to fry in (canola or similar) (at least 2 inches deep in a large heavy pot)
- Powdered sugar to sprinkle
- For Topping:
- 1.5 cups Honey
- 1 oz tequila
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1/2 pod vanilla bean scraped
- 1/2 stick cinnamon
- For Papaya:
- 2 cup Peeled, seeded, and diced papaya
- 1 large Mango, Peeled, seed removed, and diced
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup Turbinado Sugar
- 1 each cinnamon stick
- 1 Tbsp Orange zest
- 1/2 cup Sweet white wine
- 2 each mini chilis or the flesh of 1 large jalapeno
- Ice cream or sorbet (Optional)
- Berries and/or mint for garnish
Instructions
- make the sopapilla dough: Mix the dry ingredients. Melt the coconut oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients and put the wet ingredients in. Fold to incorporate. Then knead, either by hand or with a dough hook on a mixer. Sprinkle the dough with flour. Then allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- make the honey drizzle: put all ingredients in a pot over high heat, bring to a simmer. Then drop heat back to medium low and allow to steep 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and put in a squeeze bottle or bowl. Allow to cool.
- Make the compote: Put all ingredients except papaya and mango in a pot. Whisk together over high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce the liquid by 50%. Strain and cool the liquid. Then, toss the fruit in the liquid. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Heat frying oil in a heavy pot or fryer to 375 degrees. Do not overheat. You can hold the temp lower until you are ready to fry, then turn it up to save time.
- Flour a surface and roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into approximately 3 inch pieces.
- Fry the dough until golden brown. Flip them 1/2 way through to cook evenly. The high heat of the oil should make them puff up. Remove from oil onto paper towels to absorb extra oil.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Plate the sopapillas. Drizzle with vanilla honey and serve with the fruit compote. If desired, you can serve with ice cream or sorbet. A colorful fruit garnish is also nice.
Notes
The temperature for frying and the thickness of the dough are important for these. If they are thin enough and the oil is at a high temperature, they will puff up like a pouri.
When choosing an oil to fry in, pick something with a high smoke point since this recipe calls for a higher heat than normal. Most frying is done between 300 and 350. Canola, soy, safflower, or corn oil all have smoke points over 400.
The infused honey can be made days in advance.