First recipe... and family memories

I start this blog as a way to make the food culture of Spain available for all the non-Spanish speakers around. During my years living outside of Spain, I have realized how little is known about the culinary experiences from my country (besides the paella and sangria, of course!), and how difficult it is to find good recipes in English. 

Also, many of the Spanish recipes call for very local products, so for the last years I had to adapt my recipes to whatever I could find in local markets, or find a way to get the original ingredients wherever I was (without spending a fortune!). This blog also has a commitment to ease up the elaboration of Spanish recipes outside of Spain, providing local alternatives to specific products, or pointing on where to find them.

For my first post/recipe, I chose something very special for me, probably the first thing that I ever cooked (or helped cook at least!), back when I was a child in Madrid. We were very close with my mother's family, and I spend many Saturdays and Sundays in my grandparents' house, enjoying the company and stories they had for me. 

During Fall/Winter, in very special occasions, my grandma would tell me, let's do some rosquillas! Rosquillas are sweet treats that can be baked or fried, that can range from a fluffy-doughnut style treat to a harder-crunchier one (similar to an Italian biscotti).

My grandma's recipe had that wonderful anise and orange aroma that would feel the kitchen for hours... I still can smell it!  

Don't worry for the alcohol, it will be burnt during the cooking process, this is child friendly.

Anise and orange rosquillas - Rosquillas de anis y naranja

Ingredients

• All purpose wheat flour: 500 grams / 4 cups 
• 1 large egg (beaten)
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil (see note)
• 4 tablespoons of milk
• 4 tablespoons of sugar (or honey)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoons of anise liquor (see note)
• 2 tablespoons of anise seeds
• 1/2 orange (peel finely grated - without the white part)
• Olive oil (see note)

  

Preparation

Sift the flour with the baking powder in a medium size bowl. Make a well in the middle, and place there the egg, olive oil, milk, sugar, seeds, orange peel and liquor. Start mixing from the inside to the outside, it will be easier if you use first a wooden spoon. 

Once it has some consistency, continue mixing with your hands. You want the ingredients to get together but not to overwork the dough. Once everything is well incorporated, wrap it in plastic and let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours (this will ease up working with the dough and develop the flavor).

Remove the dough from the fridge and start shaping the rosquillas. I typically work with them in small batches, first rolling the dough in the counter until I have a long string, and then I cut them and roll them up, closing the edges with my fingers. The size will be up to you, I prefer to make them on the small side so they will be more of a bite treat, but you can definitely make them larger for breakfast!

Once you have all the rosquillas formed, heat up the olive oil in a deep pan or a dutch oven. Once it is hot, start frying them by batches (leave some space between them!). Adjust the heat, so you have a slow frying point, enough to cook the dough without burning it. Look at the picture below, this pastry cooks up really fast outside, but you have to give it time to cook on the inside.

Once they're cooked move them to a bowl with kitchen towels to eliminate the excess oil, then you can cover them with sugar if you want (I prefer mine plain).

Enjoy them once cooled down, they are really good with coffee or tea!

Notes:

Olive oil

In Spain we typically use two types or grades of olive oil, the extra virgin for salads and some cooking preparations, and the refined for frying. We typically distinguish them by the acidity level: extra virgin (or virgin) oils will be noted with an acidity level of 1º or more, while the refined one will have an acidity level around 0.4º

When you fry something with extra virgin olive oil it keeps the taste of the oil, so many people prefer to use the "softer" 0.4º oil for frying, specially soft flavor food, as sweets or veggies.

In the US, I have found that Costco has a refined olive oil that is really affordable and good, we always have one of those big bottles in the pantry!

Anise liquor

In some places you can find Spanish anise liquor, such as Anis del mono or similar. I have used French pastis or Italian sambuca with very good results, just be sure it does not have any extra ingredients such as licorice.

Don't be worry for the alcohol, it will be burnt during the cooking process, this is child friendly.

How to store them

Keep them in an air tight container up to 5 days, preferably with a paper towel base (to eliminate excess moisture).