These typical Girona fritters are the fritters that bring back the most memories and the ones I have eaten the most in my life. In my house, it was a tradition for all the brothers to get together for a day and prepare the dough from which we managed to prepare 10 kg of flour at once just for ourselves. We are 7 brothers and we love them. We had fritters for weeks and we ate them for breakfast, snacks, desserts, at all hours. The way to help the fritter pass better was and is, with a glass of very cold or hot fresh milk, that depends on taste.
During that long day we had a studied staging that was repeated every year on the same dates. There were the technicians who needed the exact amounts, the precise ones who remembered the mistakes of the previous year, the innovators who added information to improve, the kneaders who needed muscle and resistance, the creative ones who molded “different” shapes of the donut to be fried, the impatient who ate when the fritters came out burning from the pan, the charlatans who explained memories while they put the aniseed with the bay leaves, the delivery men who made bags to store and the esqueadores who only ate and did not collaborate. We provided ourselves with the best baker’s flour, we made a second fermentation and each one assigned a task to create a great line of perfect work. Without a doubt, we formed a good squad. As a result of all these punctual and Sunday gastronomic encounters, and the great cook and gourmet that is my mother, we are all very good cooks. The only one that I have dedicated myself to professionally is me.
The dough of this fritter is made up of a large number of ingredients that give it a perfect and soft touch of aniseed. It is a fermented dough so you have to knead and let it rise. Once fermented (covered in a warm place such as a stove or radiator is perfect if it is cold for 2-3 hours), it is shaped into a circular shape with a hole, oiling your hands each time. They are placed on trays to rest again and make a second fermentation for approximately 1 hour. They are fried in sunflower oil with a couple of lemon peels to flavor the oil and when they are golden on both sides they are placed on absorbent kitchen paper. They are sprinkled with sweet aniseed with the help of some laurel branches and passed through sugar while they are still hot.
The shape of the donut is circular and with a hole. If they are chubby it is much better because they do not dry out so much. They are fritters that last a long time and even if they harden, they are still just as good. They are arranged and are perfect later if they are placed in the microwave for a few seconds for the modern ones, in a wood-burning stove for the classic ones and for the cookers, on the grill. Also if they freeze they are perfect. Of course, you have to freeze them just made and cold so that they retain their moisture and initial aroma.
My mother’s original recipe is as follows. Next to it, I have put the changes that can be made in a recipe to adapt it to your type of diet. But I think it is important that the changes are known or understood by seeing where they come from. Normally the same quantities that are specified to the side are correct. I hope you like it and that you have a great afternoon in company to make or eat them.
Recipe
fritter dough
250 g all-purpose flour ____½ wholemeal flour, or other flours
25 g sugar _____________ brown sugar, coconut,
1 egg ________________chickpea flour (1 tbsp)
60 ml milk _____________soya vegetable smoothie
5 ml anise liqueur
5 m muscatel ___________must
5ml orange juice
5 g matalaúva
5g coriander
1 pinch salt
15 g pork fat_______ Olive oil, coconut fat
8 g paris yeast
½ lemon zest
½ orange zest
Frying
1 l sunflower oil
1 lemon peel
anise liqueur
100g sugar
Elaboration
- Sift the flour.
Prepare a volcano with the flour, salt, sugar, herbs and citrus zest. Mix dry.
Heat a little milk (about 30ºC) to dilute the oil or fat and the paris yeast.
We incorporate all the liquid ingredients into the volcano, juice, liquor and the milk mixture. Mix from the center and gradually add more flour from the sides.
Knead until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous.
Carry out a first fermentation of 2 h.
Shape into a fritter and place on trays for a second fermentation of 30′.
Fry the fritters in abundant oil at 180ºC.
Finish by sprinkling a little sugar on top of the fritters.
