Picarones With Fig Chancaca Syrup

Name: Picarones With Fig Chancaca Syrup
Yield: Makes about 12
Ingredients: 1 small apple, halved; ½ medium orange, zest removed in wide strips with a vegetable peeler; 1 3" cinnamon stick; 2 whole cloves; 8 oz. chancaca (piloncillo) or 1 (packed) cup light brown sugar; ½ cup dried figs; ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. (125 g) granulated sugar; 1 tsp. aniseed; 1 Tbsp. cardamom pods; 2 tsp. aniseed; 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 lb.), peeled, coarsely chopped; 2 tsp. active dry yeast; 1½ tsp. granulated sugar; 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour; 1¼ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt, divided; Vegetable oil (for frying); A layer of cheesecloth; a deep-fry thermometer; a wooden chopstick or skewer

By Hender Gonzales

September 14, 2021

Picarones With Fig Chancaca Syrup recipe

Photo by Emma Fishman

“You could say that picarones are like a sweet potato-and-squash doughnut, but that doesn’t pay enough respect,” says Hender Gonzales. “Doughnuts are, what, Dutch? This is something we Peruvians came up with ourselves.” Gonzales’s version, which they doled out during their pop-up at Ursula in Brooklyn, is made of a sweet potato–based dough that’s fried until crispy and soaked in spiced syrup. The syrup is sweetened with chancaca (also known as piloncillo and panela), which is a type of unrefined whole cane sugar that you can find in most Latinx grocery stores, in the Latinx section of supermarkets, and online.