Destination
Cuenca
The story
Pristiños are the Christmas dessert of Ecuador: small fluted rings of deep-fried wheat dough, drenched immediately in a warm syrup made from panela infused with cinnamon, cloves and orange peel. Served on 24 December alongside ponche quiteño and hot chocolate, or on New Year's Eve as part of the año viejo celebration. Sticky, warm, spiced with the exact combination of flavours (panela + cinnamon + cloves) that make Ecuadorian Christmas smell like Christmas.
Method
Combine the panela, water, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, orange peel and salt in a saucepan. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the panela dissolves. Bring to a simmer and cook 15 to 20 minutes until slightly thickened but still pourable (it will thicken more as it cools). Off the heat, keep warm.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the eggs, orange juice and aguardiente if using. Mix, adding warm milk a tablespoon at a time, until you have a soft dough. Turn out and knead 3 minutes until smooth. Wrap and rest 20 minutes.
Divide the dough into 20 pieces. Roll each into a rope about 15cm long and 1cm thick. Join the ends of each rope to form a ring, pressing to seal. Flatten each ring gently between two floured hands into a wider, thinner ring about 8cm across. Cut the outer edge with a fluted pastry wheel (or a fork) to create the classic ridged edge.
Heat the oil in a deep pot to 170°C (340°F). A small piece of dough dropped in should rise and turn deep gold within 60 seconds.
Fry the pristiños in batches of 3 or 4 for 2 to 3 minutes, turning gently, until deep golden and puffed. Don't crowd the pot; it drops the temperature.
Lift the pristiños onto a rack over kitchen paper. Immediately dip each one in the warm panela syrup, turning to coat completely, then lift out and set on a plate. Move to the next while the syrup is still warm.
Serve warm, ideally with hot chocolate or a small cup of coffee. Best eaten within a few hours of frying, while the syrup is still sticky and the dough is still soft.
Tips
- The fluted edge is functional, not decorative. The ridges catch and hold the syrup, giving pristiños their classic sticky glaze. Use a fluted pastry wheel or run a fork around the edge; a smooth cut gives you a shiny doughnut without character.
- Aguardiente in the dough is a small traditional touch. It doesn't add flavour so much as help the pastry blister and puff in the oil. Vodka or rum work; skip if you don't have any.
- Fry at 170°C, not hotter. Too hot and the outsides brown before the insides puff; 170°C gives you the classic deep gold with a soft, cake-like inside.
- Bathe while still hot, on both. The pristiños need to be hot when they meet the syrup, and the syrup needs to be warm too. Straight from fryer to syrup, so the ridges absorb the glaze.
- Best served the same day. Pristiños harden as they sit. Fry and glaze in the two hours before serving; leftover pristiños can be revived briefly in a warm oven.
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