Cake Balls

I saw a recipe for this when I was clipping grocery coupons. Here is the link to the Betty Crocker website and the full recipe.
Now I must admit I'm not very good at the decorating part of it, and I still haven't perfected the way to dip these in chocolate. I suppose putting a lollipop stick in them is the way to go!

1 box cake mix, any flavor (I used classic yellow)
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1 container  frosting

36 oz vanilla or chocolate-flavored candy coating

Bake cake as directed on box. Pour your frosting into a large bowl. Crumble warm cake into frosting.

Mix together with a fork until well blended. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or firm enough to shape. (I left it in overnight).

Use a tablespoon worth of mixture and shape into a ball. Repeat. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Line another cookie sheet with foil. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave 12 oz candy coating uncovered on High 1 minute 30 seconds; stir. Continue microwaving and stirring in 15-second intervals until melted and smooth. Remove one-third of the balls from the freezer. Using 2 forks, dip and roll each ball in coating. Place on foil-covered cookie sheet. Decorate as desired. Refrigerate cake balls about 10 minutes or until coating is set. Melt remaining candy coating in 12-oz batches; dip remaining balls. Serve at room temperature. Store in airtight container.

Dulce de Leche • Caramel Sauce

I've never made dulce de leche, but I like it in certain desserts, and since it's that time of the season for all things sweet, I thought.... what the heck! So, I googled it and came across this recipe. 

It's really quite simple to make, but you do need about half an hour to forty-five minutes of uninterrupted time to stir the sauce.

• 1 (14 ounce) can of condensed milk
• 1 (12 ounce) can of evaporated milk (I used regular milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Generous pinch of salt (optional)
• Cinnamon sticks (optional)
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the evaporated milk and the condensed milk in your heaviest pot. Add the cinnamon sticks, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
Adjust the temperature so that the mixture stays just barely at a simmer.

The mixture will begin to thicken and darken in color. The foamy bubbles on the surface will disappear. Keep stirring! Continue to stir until the mixture is making large bubbles, is very thick, and is a golden caramel color. It's very important to stir constantly at this point to prevent burning.

You can also check for doneness by dragging the spoon along the bottom of the pot. You should be able to see the bottom of the pot for a few seconds before the mixture closes in on itself and covers the bottom again.

Remove cinnamon sticks. Remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla and the corn syrup. Let cool completely.

Art-by-MSR: Flan de Calabaza (Pumpkin Flan)

Please check out this great Cuban Pumpkin Flan recipe by artist friend and fellow Cuban, Maria Soto Robbins.

Photo courtesy of Art-by-MSR

Art-by-MSR: Flan de Calabaza (Pumpkin Flan)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guest blogger today: my daughter, Frances. I love it when someone else does the baking!

 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 egg
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Place sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Turn to medium-low speed and mix about 30 seconds. Your mixture should be mostly combined at this point. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to medium speed and beat for about 30 more seconds. Stop and scrape bowl.

Turn to the lowest speed and gradually add in your flour, salt and baking soda into the bowl. Mix for about 2 minutes. Turn to medium-low speed and mix about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape the bowl. Add your chocolate chips. Turn to lowest speed and mix for about 15 seconds.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees (I did this at 350) for 10-12 minutes (mine took exactly 12 minutes). Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool on wire racks.

Should make 27 teaspoon sized cookies or 20 tablespoon sized cookies.

Enjoy!

Merengue Pie Crust

I came across this recipe here.  It seemed like such a wonderful idea! You can fill it with chocolate cream or vanilla custard or lemon curd or strawberries or just about anything that goes well with merengue, and it was so easy to do.

4 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup + 2 tbsp superfine sugar (I used powdered sugar)
3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.


Preheat the oven to 375F degrees the reduce it to 200F degrees. (I lowered it to 180F)

Line a baking sheet with parchment and draw a 10-inch circle on it. Turn paper over.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in a bowl until the whites form soft peaks. Add sugar 2 teaspoons at a time, while continuing to beat until the merengue is stiff and glossy. Beat in the vanilla.


Spoon meringue into the traced circle, smooth with a spatula and shape like a shallow bowl.
Place in the lower third of the oven, and bake for at least 5 hours (the longer it stays in, the surer you can be that the shell will arrive at crisp perfection). Then turn off the oven and leave the meringue in the turned-off oven to cool, preferably overnight.

 

Before placing it in the oven.

Fully cooked and cooled. I wished it had looked prettier, but it tasted great!

Oreo Truffles

I had never made this before, but it's really simple, only three ingredients: oreo cookies, cream cheese, and chocolate.

Okay, you know I can't eat this stuff, just looking at it makes me gain weight, so I'm going to make half the recipe. For about 16 truffles you will need:

21 oreo cookies (I actually counted)
4 oz cream cheese (half a package)
8 oz. chocolate morsels (more or less)

Put your Oreo cookies in a plastic bag and crumble them, you can bang them with a rolling pin, or if you wish, you can put them in a food processor. Small chunks are okay. Combine your crumbled cookies with the cream cheese, honestly, you'll have to use your hands to form a ball that sticks together. Place wax paper on a cookie sheet and take one tablespoon of the mixture into your hands and form a small ball. Place your truflles on the cookie sheet. Refrigerate them for one hour.

As for the chocolate, I had never melted chocolate for dipping before and I didn't do a very pretty job, but the instructions say to.... melt your chocolate over medium heat in a double boiler. When all the chocolate is melted turn the heat down to low. Use toothpick inserted into the truffles to dip them one by one into the chocolate. Place them back on the waxed paper and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

That's it, you can be creative with these and add sprinkles, or crumbled cookies, or whatever your heart fancies.

Empanadas de Manzana

If you want to learn something, teach it! It's immeasurable how much I've learned about ingredients and cooking since I started this blog. By showing you, my readers, what I cook, you have taught me how to become better at it, and have inspired me to investigate and plunge into new areas of cooking.

I have posted several recipes for empanadas this year, each time using a different recipe for the crust.  I felt I had enough confidence to venture off on my own without a recipe at hand and prepare an empanada dough. I managed to make these apple empanadas from scratch using the ingredients I had at hand and my new-found confidence.

For the Dough:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
4 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
2 tbsp Crisco shortening
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ice water

In a large bowl mix all your ingredients together using a fork. I know you may think there has to be a certain order to incorporating the ingredients, but that is really not the case, at least not for these. Work the dough as much as possible with the fork before putting your hands in there, gathering it and kneading it to form a large ball. Separate the dough into 2 balls, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour (more time would be better, even the next day).

For the Filling:
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces (I had one Granny Smith and 3 Red Delicious)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 squeeze of lemon juice

Mix all these ingredients in a bowl. Chop your apples finely. (Do as I say, not as I did) because large chunks will break through the dough.

To assemble:
1 egg, beaten


Heat oven to 350. Take out the refrigerated dough. Unwrap one ball and separate in half, then in half again and in half again so that you have 8 sections. From these into small bowls. Sprinkle flour a clean surface an roll out each small ball into a circular shape (sort of circular, it won't be exact). Place about 1 tablespoon of your apple filling in the center of your empanada. Fold over, press the sides together, then pinch and fold up as you go. (I'm not very good at this, it requires practice, do the best you can.) or you can press the edges together with a fork. Repeat. You will have a total of 16 empanadas (8 from each orginal ball). At this point you can freeze some for baking at another time.

Place your empanadas on a baking dish and brush on your egg wash. Pinch them on top a couple of with a toothpick.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.

Mariposas de Guayaba: Fried Guava Wontons

And for Dessert

Since I made Cuban Fried Rice, I figured I'd make Cuban Wontons for dessert. This is so simple, it's silly to show the steps, but here they are:

Wonton Wrappers
Guava Paste
Oil for frying

Lay out your wonton wrappers individually and place a small piece of guava paste in the center. Wet the edges of the wontons all around; fold over into triangles pressing down to seal. Heat oil in a skillet and fry your wontons until golden. That's it, and they go really fast. Everyone loves this.

Banana Walnut Bread

I was organizing the freezer this morning and out fell two bananas (once the bananas get too ripe I toss them in the freezer to use in baking).  They were trying to tell me something. This is a recipe that I adapted from my grandmother's recipe for panetela.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 very ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup milk
1 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
oatmeal (optional)

In a large bowl using a fork combine your softened butter with the sugar, add the eggs. Cut up your ripe bananas and add them to your mixture. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Chop 1 cup walnuts and stir into mixture. In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour,  baking powder and salt. Measure one cup of milk. Slowly add a little of the dry ingredients a bit of milk and stir. Continue until all the ingredients have been added.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 2 bread pans. Pour your mixture equally into each pan. Sprinkle the tops with oatmeal (optional) and bake for 45 minutes.

Dulce de Ciruela

I don't know why so many people turn up their noses at prunes. They are sweet and good for you. They provide potassium,  fiber,  antioxidants as well as iron and Vitamin A, and they promote good digestive health.

Growing up both my mother and my grandmother made this dessert. It is very simple and will keep in the refrigerator for a month or more.

20oz bag of dried plums (I guess they don't like to call them prunes anymore, whatever)
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
large slice of orange peel (optional)

Wash your prunes and place in a pot with enough water to cover twice the height of the prune. Cover and let sit for a few hours or overnight to rehydrate the prunes. Stir in your sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium low let it cook uncovered until much of the water has evaporated or until it reaches the consistency of your desired syrup (about an hour or more).  Turn off the burner and let it cool completely. Remove the orange peel and cinnamon stick. Store in glass containers and refrigerate. My grandmother used to serve it with cream cheese, but cottage cheese works well too.

Chocolate Amaretto Bread Pudding: What??

Oops, I did it again. I made another one. I had to clear out the freezer, and I didn't want to keep making the same bread pudding, so I decided to be inventive. My cousin left behind a package of Hershey's dark cocoa powder and I had the remains of a bottle of Amaretto DiSarono from two Christmases ago, so I thought … what the heck. I checked the pantry to make sure I had the necessary ingredients for the basic bread pudding and to my dismay I had no sweetend condensed milk. I remembered that when my mother used to run out, she would use regular milk and add sugar. Seeing as this dessert did turn out pretty darn good, I'm going to write down exactly what I did and not what I think I shoud have done. Makes sense? I'm a little confused. LOL.

For caramelizing:
1 cup sugar

For the pudding:
about 6 cups worth of bread cut into 1/2" cubes.
1 can evaporated milk (1 cup)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
2 heaping tablespoon Hershey's dark chocolate powder.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In an aluminum bread pan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully tilt the pan to evenly coat the bottom and sides.

Cut your leftover bread into cubes and place into a large mixing bowl.
In a blender beat the evaporated milk, milk, sugar, eggs, amaretto and chocolate powder. Pour this mixture into the bowl with the cut up bread and stir. Let sit for a few minutes for the bread to absorb some of the liquid. If it appears too dry you may add a little more milk.
Place this mixture into the caramelized bread pan.
Place this pan into a larger rectangular pan that is at least 2 inches deep.
Place both of these into the oven and pour hot water into the larger pan to about half way full.
Bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours, until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of the pudding
Let cool and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
Use a knife to separate the sides of the pudding from the pan. Invert onto a serving plate. The caramel syrup will cover the pudding.

Jenny's Homemade Brownies with Raspberry Syrup

 Jenny's brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and raspberry syrup.

I have two of my wonderful cousins from Miami visiting me this week. Jenny was gracious enough to cook for ten of us yesterday, and Steph managed to snap some pictures. These were the best brownies I've ever had, and I was barely able to salvage a last little square to take the photo above.

For the brownies:

1/2 cup butter (2 sticks)
4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 cup flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x11 glass pan.

Melt your butter in a saucepan set over low heat. Add the cocoa powder and the sugar. Dissolve completely. Add the vanilla and the salt. Carefully stir in your eggs – one at a time ***If the heat is too high or you take too long your eggs will scramble*** Add your flour; mix until creamy. Remove from heat. (If desired, at this point you can adds nuts, marshmallow sauce, chocolate chips, etc.)

Pour your mixture into your greased pan and place in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.

For the raspberry syrup:

1/2 pint fresh raspberries
1 tbsp sugar

Crush your raspberries in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add your sugar and stir until dissolved. Strain. That's it. The tartness of the raspberries really complements the sweetness of the brownies.

Coquitos: Mini Coconut Balls

I had about 8 oz of grated coconut in syrup leftover from when I made the pastelitos de coco, so I decided to make coconut balls or coquitos.  I've never made these before, and I had a hard time finding a recipe.  (Coquitos are better known as an eggnog like beverage from Puerto Rico.)  Either way I found a recipe for coco quemado but that is not what I wanted, so I combined a couple of different suggestions from different recipes and this is what I came up with. It's very simple. And they tasted very good.

Strain your coconut. Put the syrup in a sauce pan and the grated coconut in another. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the grated coconut and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir these ingredients over medium heat until most of the liquid has reduced. With a melon baller form your coconut balls and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Place them in a 375 preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes until they start to brown on the bottom. I later turned on the broiler for just about 3 minutes to brown the tops.

While your coconut balls are in the oven, add a teaspoon of sugar to your syrup and cook on medium heat to thicken. (I know it's syrup, it's already thick... thicken it more.) Sprinkle the syrup with a spoon over your baked coquitos and let cool.

Pastelitos de Coco

This is so simple, I'm almost embarrased to post it. I love coconut, but my husband won't eat it and neither will my daughter, so when I bought a 17 oz can of Grated Coconut in syrup I had to think up ideas. Pastelitos de coco are readily available in Cuban bakeries which means I'm out of luck.  It was difficult just finding the coconut in syrup. Anyway, I still have at least 1/2 of the coconut in the fridge now, so I'll soon be making something else.

For these pastelitos:
1 box Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets
grated coconut in syrup
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Spread out one defrosted pastry sheet and cut in three along the folds. Cut those in half. You should have 6 pieces. Brush your sheet pieces along the edges with your egg. With a slotted spoon (you don't want much of the syrup) scoop about three tablespoons worth of the coconut onto the center of  3 of the pieces. Top with the remaing pieces. Press along the edges.  Repeat these steps with the second pastry sheet. Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with a non-stick spray. Brush more egg on the tops and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes (I really didn't time it, so keep an eye on it). In the meantime, melt the sugar in the water on low. Brush this atop the pastelitos when you take them out of the oven. Decadent!

Panetela: Pound Cake

 Panetela with whipped cream topping for the picture's sake. I like it plain or with ice cream.

I remember helping my grandmother make this panetela when I was barely four years old. She was very strict about how it was done, down to whether to stir to the left or to right, back and forth or all around. No electric mixers for her. The flour needed to be sifted three times. Everything was done very precisely.

As the years passed and my adult life became complicated, I pulled out the electric mixer, skipped the sifting, and hoped for the best, but the end result is not the same. So here it is as my grandmother instructed down to the triple sifting.

2 cups flour, sifted three times
2 tbsp baking powder (incorporate this into the flour)

1/2 cup (1 stick butter, not margarine)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract (the real thing)
pinch of salt

Let your butter sit at room temperature until soft. Let your eggs sit at room temperature so they are not cold straight from the refrigerator.

Using a fork, in a large bowl combine your butter with 1 cup sugar until creamy. Beat your eggs in a separate bowl and drop them into your mixture. Mix. Add your tsp of vanilla. Now switch over to a spoon. Slowly add a little bit of your flour (mixed with the baking soda) into your mixture and blend by  moving your spoon back and forth only (folding the batter), not circular (I know it's obsessive compulsive, what can I say?) dribble a little milk... back and forth, pour a little flour...back and forth, dribble a little milk...back and forth . . .  you get the picture. Somewhere in the middle of this routine add a pinch of salt. Back and forth. Once all your ingredients are combined into a smooth batter, pour this into a large baking pan or two smaller pans that have been greased.

Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Do not open the door until you've seen through the oven window that it is golden on top. Check for doneness by sticking a toothpick in the middle. You know the routine. To store it, you can cover the pan and refrigerate it.

Note: This is a basic recipe for panetela, from here you can elaborate. More to come in future postings. 

Treeco Tree: Empanaditas de Guayaba

Since I learned this recipe directly from my mother, and today is Mother's Day, I thought I would share this story with you.

We arrived in this country in the summer of 1962. One night in late October there was a knock at our door. My mother opened the door to find two boys, dirty and shoeless with their begging hands extended. She quickly ran into the kitchen and retrieved some slices of bread which she tearfully handed to them, blessing them in Spanish and explaining it was all she had to give. Then she sat at the kitchen table to cry.

—What's wrong with you, my teenage uncle asked?

—I didn't know that in this country there was such misery and hunger. Those poor boys!, my mother bawled.

—What? …  They're in costume. It's Halloween!

This was new information to absorb. What concept was this? Children going door to door begging for food? The holiday was explained to her by those who had come years earlier. The next year, my mother was prepared. She baked for several hours the night before and wrapped each Empanadita de Guayaba in aluminum foil.

A couple years later when my sister and I were old enough, my grandmother would walk us from house to house,  Now remember, she taught us,  when the door opens you say the magic words "Treeco Tree Alloween!" Years later we realized the magic words were "Trick or Treat Halloween;" nevertheless, be they in English or Spanglish, we never got a treat as good as our mother's Empanaditas de Guayaba.

The ingredients for this recipe are few, but it is time consuming. You have been warned.

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter or margarine (please note, I had erroneous written 1 cup and have fixed it to 1/2, sorry for those of you who may have tried this with the wrong measurement, if it worked then yay! The picture is correct)
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
guava paste
1 egg beaten

Let the cream cheese and butter soften. Add the flour and mix together. Use your hands to knead into a ball and refrigerate for a couple of hours. It will be crumbly at first and you will think that I was off my rocker with the measurements, but keep kneading it, it will come together.
Cut up the guava paste into small pieces. (If you've never heard of it or cannot find it where you are, then you can Americanize this recipe with any other kind of fruit paste or jam).

Take a small portion of your dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about  1/8 of an inch or thinner. I know you don't have a ruler in the kitchen and it is ridiculous to try to figure out, so thinner than pie dough will suffice. You can use a cookie cutter or a drinking glass will work well also to form round shapes. Place one piece of guava in the center and fold over. Press the edges closed with a fork. Repeat this process. Put a layer of egg wash over the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes (check on them, I don't use a timer and ovens are temperamental). Warning: Filling is hot! Let them cool before you try them.

Pineapple Upside Down Bread Pudding

It was time to clear out my freezer, and this is what I found.

Bags of pieces of bread. Time to make bread pudding. About a month ago I posted a recipe for bread pudding. I can't do that again, I thought. Unless, I make it a little different. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, remember?

So I had some leftover canned pineapple from the Ensalada Guacamola, and I thought, how about a pineapple upside down bread pudding? Doesn't sound right does it, but I did it anyway.

To make this pudding we will need:

about 6 cups worth of bread cut into 1/2" cubes.

1 can evaporated milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup sugar for caramelizing

1/2 cup of the liquid from the pineapple can

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. In an aluminum bread pan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully tilt the pan to evenly coat the bottom and sides.
3. Place 3 rings of pineapple atop the caramel side by side. Set aside to cool.
4. Cut your leftover bread into cubes and place into a large mixing bowl.
5. In a blender beat the evaporated milk, condensed milk, 4 eggs, and vanilla extract
6. Pour this mixture into bowl with the cut up bread and stir. Let sit for a few minutes for the bread to absorb some of the liquid. If it appears too dry you may more of the pineapple liquid, if it's too wet, add bread.
7. Place this mixture into the bread pan.
8. Place this pan into a larger rectangular pan that is at least 2 inches deep.
9. Place both of these into the oven and pour hot water into the larger pan to about half way full.
10. Bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours, until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of the pudding
11. Let cool and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
12. Use a knife to separate the sides of the pudding from the pan. Invert onto a serving plate. The caramel syrup will cover the pudding.

Cuban Buñuelos

Cubans will  make dessert out of anything.  My grandmother used to make a tomato dessert, my mom was famous for making dessert with grapefruit rind, dulce de toronjas, what a chore that was! But what dazzles me the most is making dessert out of yuca and malanga. I adjusted this recipe from Three Guys in Miami to fit my available midwestern ingredients....you can click here


Ingredients
2 cups ground yuca (one large yuca root)
2 cups ground potatoes (2 large potatoes)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
2 cups flour sifted
1 tsp baking soda
vegetable oil for frying

Bring about five quarts of water to a boil. Peel the yuca and the potatoes and place in boiling water. Add lemon juice. Reduce heat to medium and cook until soft, but not mushy. Drain. Remove woody parts from the center of the yuca. In a food processor or food mill grind the cooked yuca and malanga until very fine a pasty. Remove any chunks.

Beat the egg yolks and blend in the salt, flour and baking soda. Add the ground yuca and potato. The dough should be thick enough to roll. Take about a tablespoon of the dough and roll on a l.ightly floured surface making a long strand. Twist it into a figure 8 or a small circle. See picture. (makes about 2 dozen, I refrigerated a batch for the next day)

Deep fry the dough pieces in hot oil until golden brown, light and fluffy.

Traditionally these are served with an anise syrup or they can be sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I sprinked some with powdered sugar, and the rest we ate straight out of the fryer.

CRD's: Fried Donuts

Let me tell you about the birds and the bees
and the Cuban refugees.

I have coined these fried donuts CRD's – Cuban Refugee Donuts.  Donuts were a novelty to newly arrived Cubans.  Back in the sixties we couldn't afford to buy donuts at donut shops (or anywhere else for that matter), but that didn't stop us from attempting to make them at home.  We had a great aunt whom everyone affectionately called Tia Nena, and she was the one who taught me how to make donuts from what were then 9¢ Pillsbury dough rolls.

Separate your dinner rolls and knead them a bit with your fingers. Poke a hole in the middle. (or you can elongate and twist the dough). Bring a skillet with 1/2" of vegetable oil to medium high heat. Place your donuts in the oil 2 or 3 at a time. The donuts will inflate. If they brown too quickly lower the heat, we want the dough to cook through. Flip your donut and remove when golden brown to a paper-towel-lined plate.

Who doesn't like fried dough? Dust your CRD's with powdered sugar. You may enhance your donut experience by dipping into sweetened condensed milk.