Since I don’t have access to homemade sopaipillas here in the Sarasota area, I’m going to learn to make my own and enjoy them as a Sunday morning breakfast treat. In her Grant Corner Inn cookbook, Louise Stewart (who ran a bed and breakfast in Santa Fe for nearly two decades and now lives on Siesta Key), provides an easy recipe. For anyone else who wants to try an authentic Southwestern doughnut, here it is.
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon lard
1 cup warm water
Vegetable oil for frying
Honey
In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in lard with the fingers or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few pea-sized lumps. Add I cup warm water. Stir to blend, then knead 20 times until dough is fairly smooth. Cover in bowl and let rest a few minutes. Roll out dough on floured surface into a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Cut into triangles or use a cookie cutter for other shapes. Heat about 1 inch of oil in large frying pan to a temperature of 375-degrees. Fry sopaipillas until golden brown on both sides, burning once. Drain on paper towels and serve at once with honey. Bet you can’t eat just one.
GRANT CORNER INN GRANOLA
Adapted from The Grant Corner Inn Breakfast & Brunch Cookbook by Louise Stewart. 1986.
Yield: 10 cups
Vegetable Oil ¾ cup
Honey ¼ cup
Brown Sugar, packed 1 cup
Vanilla 1 teaspoon
Kosher salt ½ teaspoon
Rolled oats (not quick) 8 cups
Almonds, slivered, toasted ¾ cup
Sunflower seeds, unsalted, roasted/toasted ½ cup
Coconut, flaked, dry ½ cup
Preheat oven: 325 F. Place rack on middle shelf.
Prepare two baking sheets: line with foil and then lightly grease with the same vegetable oil you are using for the recipe. I use just a tablespoon and spread it around with my hands.
Combine oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium (2 quart) saucepan. You can leave this on low to medium-low heat while you measure the other ingredients into a large bowl. Do NOT heat over high heat and walk away because you might overcook the sugar and have an undesirable clean-up situation on your hands. Stir occasionally until the sugar melts. This is not an emulsion so the oil and sugar will not combine.
While the sugar mixture is cooking, combine the other ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the sugar over and stir quickly for even distribution. Small clumps are fine, but large clumps should be broken up. At this point, the original recipe says you can use your hands to mix the sugar into the dry ingredients. DO NOT DO THIS if you value the skin on your hands. A large wooden spoon works fine. If the mixture sticks to the wooden spoon you can scrape it off with a regular silverware spoon.
Divide evenly the granola mixture between the two pans. I usually bake one at a time. Depending on your oven’s actual temperature (an oven thermometer is handy gadget) and even distribution of heat, it should take 10 to 15 minutes to bake. Every five minutes during baking, stir the granola by bringing all the mixture from the edges into the middle, incorporating it, and then leveling it off. The edges tend to cook faster than the middle section. Also, your oven may be hotter in back than in front, especially since you are opening the door every five minutes to stir, so rotate the pans once during baking. Once finished baking, place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once you have baked and cooled both batches, break up any large clumps, leave the little guys, and combine both batches together in an airtight container. Can be stored for up to 10 days.
Note: Do not make this on a humid day. You need the granola to completely dry out during the baking and cooling processes. When it is humid, this will not happen, and the granola ends up being sticky and a bit soft instead of crunchy. Further, it will not keep as long because of the undesired moisture content.
Sour Cream Ambrosia
Grant Corner Inn, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
Just two blocks from the historic Plaza, this exquisite Colonial manor was built in the early 1900s as a home for a wealthy New Mexico ranching family. The following recipe comes from the inn’s own breakfast and brunch cookbook by Louise Stewart. Serve in footed glass dishes or goblets.
3 oranges, peeled and sectioned
8 ounces seedless green grapes
1/2 cantaloupe (1 pound), peeled and cut in chunks
¼ pineapple (1 pound), peeled and cut in chunks
½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For garnish: pomegranate seeds
1. Mix all the fruits, the coconut and pecans in
a medium-size bowl.
2. In a small bowl stir the sour cream, honey
and vanilla until well blended. Add to fruit
mixture and toss to coat or spoon over each
serving. Garnish with pomegranate seeds.
• Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 245 cal, 3 g
pro, 31 gcar, 14g fat, 17 mg chol, 41 mgsod
