| Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters | Hippocrene Books, 2001 | Makes 24
These cakes are quite popular during Carnival in Portugal’s Azorean Islands. The traditional method of preparation calls for the dough to rest for 6 hours. Pieces of the rested dough are well stretched before frying. Some women stretch the dough over their knees to get the desired triangle shape. Others use a linen napkin folded diagonally as a template.—Cherie Hamilton
LC Puffy, Crispy, Fried Dough Goodness Note: Whatever you call this recipe for Portuguese fried dough, we think you’ll be woo’d by is puffy, crispy, fried dough goodness. We certainly were.
Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes, not including resting.
Azorean Doughnut | Malassadas Recipe
Ingredients
- 7 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup clear brandy or aguardente, a Portuguese distilled spirit
- 5 large eggs
- 2 ounces baker’s yeast
- 1/4 cup warm milk [110°F to 115°F (43°C to 46°C)]
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Directions
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1. Pour the flour into a large bowl; add the melted butter, sugar, and the brandy and mix well. Then add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating the egg after each addition.
2. Mix the baker’s yeast with the warm milk and add to the flour mixture. If the mixture is too dry add a little more warm milk. Knead the dough briefly and place in a large bowl. Let rise in a warm place for 6 hours.
3. Grease hands with some oil. Tear off a small piece of dough and stretch it out by hand into the shape of a triangle. Fry in small batches of in 1 or 2 inches of hot oil 350°F (176°C). Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over warm malassadas. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Spanish Donuts with Spiced Chocolate from Citrus and Candy
- Pinisi a la Art from Market Manila
- Dreams from Leite’s Culinaria
- Bomboloni con Crema di Vaniglia from Leite’s Culinaria
Azorean doughnuts | malassadas recipe © 2001 Cherie Y. Hamilton. Photo © aptronym. All rights reserved.
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I want to make these for my daughter’s wedding. Can they be cooked ahead of time and frozen? And if so, do I put the sugar on them before freezing or after i take them out? Thanks.
Tracy, some cooks do fry then freeze malassadas, but, to me, they never taste same. Any fried dough is best eaten right then and there. Obviously, it would be hard to make a whole raft of malassadas on the spot at a wedding. My advice is to fry up a batch, sugar half of the doughnuts, let them all cool, then freeze them. Defrost them and see if either version works for you.
My family is from the Azores and we would freeze these all the time. When I was in college my mother would make these in large batches and freeze them so I could take ziploc bags full to school with me. They freeze very well and last months in the freezer. The key is to sugar them first, let them cool and then wrap them in aluminum foil and put in a freezer-proof ziploc bag before freezing. We would do 2-3 malassadas per foil wrap so you had serving size portions ready. When you want one, pull it out of the freezer still wrapped in foil, let them sit for a few minutes then pop them into a toaster oven or regular oven at about 300-350 still in the foil. They come out just as crispy on the outside and soft and tasty on the inside. I usually sprinkle with a bit more sugar and cinnamon after since much of the original sugar will melt in. Nothing compares to freshly made malassadas, but this is not a bad substitute when you can’t have them fresh!