Coscorões (Thin, Crisp Portuguese Christmas Fritters)
- Prep
- 1 h
- Total
- 1 h 25 min
- pieces
- 24
- Calories
- 145 kcal
- Difficulty
- Easy
Coscorões are the thinnest, crispest fritters on the Christmas table in Estremadura, the Ribatejo, the Alentejo and the Algarve. Unlike filhoses, which use baker’s yeast and puff up soft at the edges, coscorões are made with an unleavened dough enriched with orange juice, egg yolks, lard or butter and brandy, rolled out almost as thin as paper.
When beaten and rested properly, they snap at the first bite and fill with golden bubbles. They’re traditionally fried on December 22 or 23 to last through Christmas week to New Year.
Recipe
Coscorões de Natal
The classic Christmas coscorões of the Ribatejo, Alentejo and Estremadura: rectangles of unleavened dough beaten with orange juice, lard or butter, eggs and brandy, rolled until see-through and fried until they puff up.
Ingredients
For the dough
For frying and dusting
Method
Kneading and resting the dough
- 1Sift the flour with the fine salt into a large bowl, add the orange zest and make a well in the middle.
- 2Add the beaten eggs and yolks, the melted butter (or lard), the olive oil, the brandy and the warm orange juice.
- 3Bring it together, then knead hard on the counter for 10 to 12 minutes, slapping the dough against the surface until it's silky, elastic and has small air bubbles on the surface.
- 4Shape into a ball, brush with a little olive oil, cover with cling film and a cloth and let it rest for 1 hour at room temperature (there's no yeast; the rest relaxes the gluten).
Rolling, cutting and frying
- 5Divide the dough into 8 small balls. With a rolling pin (or a pasta machine), roll each one out on the counter until it's so thin you can see the grain of the wood through it (about 1 mm).
- 6With a pastry wheel, cut rectangles of about 14 cm by 8 cm and make 2 or 3 lengthwise slits in the middle of each, without reaching the ends.
- 7Heat the oil to 170 °C (350 °F) in a wide frying pan. Fry 2 coscorões at a time for 30 to 40 seconds per side: as soon as they go into the oil, spoon hot oil over the top so the dough puffs up.
- 8Lift them out while pale golden, drain them upright on paper towels and dust generously with the cinnamon sugar while still warm.
Thin and not greasy
Knead and beat the dough for 10 minutes: it develops the gluten so the sheet doesn’t tear when you stretch it to 1 mm. Don’t skip the hour’s rest, or the dough shrinks back every time you roll it and the coscorões come out thick and hard.
Keep the oil hot, around 170 °C (350 °F); cooler oil makes them cook slowly instead of puffing. Take them out while still pale, because such thin dough keeps coloring for a few seconds out of the pan.
Dust them with cinnamon sugar 1 to 2 minutes after frying: warm enough for the sugar to stick, but drained so it doesn’t turn to paste.
