flipSopaipillas pasadas
Sopaipillas pasadas
Why this dish? In Chile, as soon as rain falls on Santiago, sopaipilla vendors appear on street corners. Soaked in a fragrant chancaca syrup, these are the sweets of Isabel Allende's childhood, the comfort of gray afternoons — a simple pleasure she celebrates as a happiness of the senses.
Soft fried squash disks dipped in a hot spiced syrup of chancaca (raw sugar), orange peel, and cinnamon.
Ah, rainy days! In Santiago, when the sky cries, the streets start to smell of warm chancaca — and then, everything is forgiven. As a child, I would hand my coin to the corner vendor and receive a burning hot sopaipilla, coated in that dark syrup perfumed with orange and cinnamon. They are made with a bit of squash in the dough, that's what makes them tender like a kiss. Eat it with sticky fingers, no manners: pleasure, my dear, cannot stand ceremony.
- •Wheat flour — according to appetite (dough)
- •Cooked squash (zapallo) — one mashed piece (dough softness)
- •Lard — a little (frying and dough)
- •Chancaca (raw cane sugar) — one cake (syrup)
- •Orange peel, cinnamon, clove — to taste (syrup aroma)
Sopaipillas pasadas
Soft fried squash disks dipped in a hot spiced syrup of chancaca (raw sugar), orange peel, and cinnamon.
Why this dish? In Chile, as soon as rain falls on Santiago, sopaipilla vendors appear on street corners. Soaked in a fragrant chancaca syrup, these are the sweets of Isabel Allende's childhood, the comfort of gray afternoons — a simple pleasure she celebrates as a happiness of the senses.
Ah, rainy days! In Santiago, when the sky cries, the streets start to smell of warm chancaca — and then, everything is forgiven. As a child, I would hand my coin to the corner vendor and receive a burning hot sopaipilla, coated in that dark syrup perfumed with orange and cinnamon. They are made with a bit of squash in the dough, that's what makes them tender like a kiss. Eat it with sticky fingers, no manners: pleasure, my dear, cannot stand ceremony.
Ingredients (period version)
- Wheat flour — according to appetite (dough)
- Cooked squash (zapallo) — one mashed piece (dough softness)
- Lard — a little (frying and dough)
- Chancaca (raw cane sugar) — one cake (syrup)
- Orange peel, cinnamon, clove — to taste (syrup aroma)
Ingredients
- Flour — 300 g (dough)
- Mashed cooked squash — 200 g (softness)
- Melted butter — 50 g (dough)
- Baking powder — 1 tsp (lightness)
- Frying oil — 1 liter (cooking)
- Chancaca or dark brown sugar (panela) — 250 g (syrup)
- Orange peel, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves — — (aroma)
- Water — 400 ml (syrup)
Method
- Mix warm mashed squash, flour, melted butter, and baking powder into a soft dough; rest 20 min.
- Roll out to 0.5 cm, cut disks, prick with a fork.
- Fry in hot oil (170 °C) until puffed and golden; drain.
- Prepare syrup: dissolve chancaca in water with orange peel, cinnamon, and clove, simmer 15 min until syrupy.
- Dip sopaipillas in hot syrup and serve immediately, drizzled.
How it was made : The sopaipilla arrived with Spanish colonists (the word comes from Andalusian Arabic), but Chile adopted it with local squash in the dough. The 'pasada' version in chancaca syrup was born to warm bodies during rainy winters.
The contemporary twist : A sprinkle of fresh grated orange zest over the syrup just before serving to awaken the candied aroma.
Sources : Cuisine populaire chilienne, tradition des jours de pluie
Isabel Allende · Charactorium
