Sopapillas recipe: the honey-filled puff Casa Bonita made famous
This sopapillas recipe follows the yeasted, deep-fried square that Denver's Casa Bonita serves hollow, so diners can pour in their own honey.
Sopapillas are yeasted squares of dough, deep-fried until they puff into a hollow pillow, then served plain so whoever eats them pours in their own honey. Getting the hollow part right is the whole technical point.
The dish exists across the American Southwest and northern Mexico in different thicknesses and shapes, but the version diners travel for is the one at Casa Bonita, the Denver restaurant where a sopapilla the size of a small plate arrives at every table and the only job left is to poke a hole in the side and pour.
That puff comes from gluten, not baking powder: a well-worked, rested dough traps steam as it hits hot oil, and the steam is what blows the pocket open. Skip the rest and the dough fries flat.
Skip the hour of rest and the dough fries flat instead of hollow.
Ingredients
- 500g (4 cups) plain flour
- 7g (2¼ tsp) active dry yeast
- 10g (2 tsp) sugar
- 8g (1½ tsp) salt
- 30g (2 tbsp) butter, melted
- 300ml (1¼ cups) warm water
- Neutral oil, for deep-frying
- 120ml (½ cup) honey, to serve
Method
- Stir the sugar and yeast into the warm water and leave for 10 minutes, until foamy. This confirms the yeast is active before it goes anywhere near the flour.
- Mix the flour and salt, then work in the melted butter and the yeast mixture until a dough forms. Knead for 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic: this is the gluten structure that will hold the steam pocket later.
- Cover and rest for 1 hour, until roughly doubled. A short rest leaves the dough too tight to puff properly.
- Roll the dough to 1cm thickness and cut into 10cm squares or triangles.
- Heat the oil to 190°C (375°F). Fry one or two pieces at a time for 1-2 minutes per side, until puffed and golden. Overcrowding the oil drops the temperature and the dough sinks instead of blowing up.
- Drain on paper towels and serve warm. Poke a hole in the side of each one and pour in the honey just before eating, while the pocket is still hot enough to loosen it.
Why the honey goes in last
Pouring honey into a fried, hollow shell rather than drizzling it over the top keeps the outside crisp while the inside turns syrup-soft, the contrast that makes the dish work. Do it too far ahead and the shell collapses under its own filling.
The format has outlasted several owners, including at the Denver landmark now caught up in a separate labour dispute over its kitchen staff; the dessert itself has nothing to do with that fight and has been served the same way since long before it started.
Can sopapillas be made ahead? Fry them as close to serving as possible; they lose their puff and crisp shell within the hour, long before the honey even gets involved.
