Sopapias became a favorite when a Mexican restaurant opened in Homer and started serving them. My mom discovered just how easy it was to make them and I have never loved her more.

1c flour
½tsp baking powder
¼tsp salt
1 Tbsp shortening
1/3c warm water

I halved the recipe because my boyfriend didn't want any. Which I think may be a cardinal sin. And even though I could really eat an entire recipe by myself, I have my new skinny pants to think of, so halvsies it is. I still only ate half of what I made.

Into a glass bowl, dump ½cup of flour, ¼tsp of baking powder, and 1/8 tsp of salt. Completely guess on what a half of ¼tsp looks like because you don't have a 1/8 tsp measuring spoon.

To the dry ingredients, add ½ Tbsp shortening and 1/6c of warm tap water.

Again, completely guess on ½Tbsp of shortening looks like in a 1Tbsp measuring spoon, but this time it's because you're too lazy to pull out a different set of measuring spoons.

Mush all of ingredients until they hold together, then knead for a few minutes until the dough is elastic-y.

Spray the bowl with cooking spray, or drizzle with olive oil, and rotate the dough a few times so it's coated. Set it aside while you dump all of the fishy-smelling oil from the deep fat fryer, wonder how long it's been since you've use the fryer, refill it with clean oil and heat that baby up. Curse God for making hot oil smell so heavenly.

Once the oil in the deep fryer is hot, roll out the dough until it is really quite thin. Slice the dough into squares or triangles or really whatever shape you like. I prefer squares because it's faster and that means I can have them in my belly sooner.

Drop the dough pieces into the hot oil for 20 seconds or so. The dough will puff up with a pocket of air inside. For crispier sopapias, fry them longer. But I like mine a little chewy. Remove them with a slotted spoon (is here where I admit to having a spoon specifically for deep-frying? no?) and place them on a paper towel lined plate.

While still hot, drop a bunch of sopapias into a bowl with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. Drizzle with honey and chocolate sauce, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Die a little bit inside.

≡ Click to see image ≡

I've done that with yeast dough, but these would be quicker.

For several years there was a food stand in the mall which mostly sold beignets, freshly fried on order. Quite addictive!

Cool photoset. I didn't know you could do stuff like that on flickr.

Oh, my husband will FLIP to see this.

When we were first married we went to this little Mexican restaurant in Pensacola and they served these with honey. You poked a hole in them and poured the honey in...no one here in F-ville serves them like that. It's a sin!

Oooo. OOOOO. Like little pillows sent from heaven! That last photo in the set is gorgeous, rhapsodie! I am so making this.

I LOVE sopapias! I've never tried chocolate on them, only honey and cinnamon. Your pics have me drooling, rhapsodie!

Now I want green chile, potato and beef stew with sopapillas.

/i miss new mexico

That. Looks yummy as hell.

Ah, memories. We used tortilla mix (the ingredients above match the recipe for tortillas, too) and would fry up tons of them. We put honey in them, too.

I have never seen it with ice cream and fudge. Time to get the fryer out!

And ooooh, roasted green chiles in cream on top of steak. Heaven.

mmm, fried dough. I'm such a heretic about sopaipillas though - honey makes them too sweet for me so usually it's just sugar and cinnamon.

Oh God, just seeing that picture this morning makes me want to make more. But there is strata to put into the oven!

Oh yum, those look beautiful. THey are delicious indeed - nice photo essay. These were one of the first desserts I was ever exposed to in life, as a little girl in Texas. The standard order for me at the neighborhood Mexican place was a bowl of Spanish rice + sopaipillas.

(I'm pretty sure that's how to spell them, sopaipillas - the Ls are silent).

We do something similar in Chile, call them sopaipillas like Miko (except the 'll' isn't silent), only add pumpkin to the ingredients. Heaven.
We eat them with just some salt, or dump them in a sort of syrup made of liquid dark brown sugar (chancaca, or panela in C.America & N.America). Heaven.
They sell them on street corners, too.

Oh man, that sounds good good good, signal.