Gluten-Free Sopaipillas. Fluffy “pillows” of fried dough, drizzled with sweet honey…oh, how I never thought this day would come!! 😀
Why is this such a big deal to me, you ask? Well, I live in New Mexico, the birthplace of sopaipillas and they are as commonplace in New Mexican restaurants as bread baskets are in Italian restaurants! Sopapillas are typically served sweet with with honey; or savory, by stuffing them with various enchilada-type fillings.
I have spent the past several months trying to make my own gluten-free sopaipillas and I have tried numerous recipes and different flour blends, only to be disappointed with the end result: flat, hard “Tempur-Pedic pillows” of fried dough! 😉
Is it just me, or do you ever feel like some gluten-free flour blends may as well just “hit you over the head with a rolling pin?” 😀
I had to do some research on sopaipillas and I learned that the temperature of the oil plays a very important role in the desired “pillowy-ness” of the fried dough. If the oil is too cool or too hot there will be no “poof.” Of all the flour blends I’ve tried, the taste test winner belonged to my personal favorite: Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour. **Just to be clear, I am not affiliated with Better Batter in anyway, nor do they pay me to promote their product, nor do I earn a commission if someone buys their products because of my blog. I just really love it!
If you haven’t heard of or tried Better Batter yet, let me tell you a little bit about it. The following is from the Better Batter website (my emphasis added):
Approved for use in diet: GFCF, Kosher [OU-Pareve], Vegetarian/Vegan, Feingold Stages I and II
Ingredients: Rice and Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Potato Flour, Pectin*, Xanthan Gum
*Lemon Derivative
Allergen Advisory:
Shared Equipment with: tree nuts (but they are working hard to find a solution to this)
Better Batter Products are Free of: gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut, sesame, seafood (fish and shellfish), GMO
**ELISA Tested (batch AND third party lab) Free of : Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy**
I have been doing a little bit of math over the past couple of days to add to Tia’s (of Glügle Gluten Free) recent post on Gluten-Free Bisquick. I thought this was a great post and Tia made some very good points that personally hit home with me, and I will add my two cents in a moment. But first, let’s make some gluten-free sopaipillas!
I adapted the following recipe from one I found on allrecipes.com (I cut the recipe in half):
Gluten-Free Sopaipillas
2 cups Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder (I did not cut this amount in half, the extra baking powder can be quite helpful with gluten-free flours at times).
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 Tbs. Shortening (I used Spectrum)
3/4 cup Very Warm Water
Oil for Frying
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt then cut in the shortening.
- Stir in warm water; mix until dough is smooth.
- Cover and let stand for 20 minutes. This is a good time to start heating the oil.
- Roll out on floured board until 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut into 3 inch squares.
- Heat oil in deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). (Use a thermometer to make sure the temperature is EXACT. If the oil is too cool, the sopapillas will not puff up and they will turn out soggy. If the oil is too hot, they won’t puff up and they will turn out hard as a rock).
- Fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.
Photo Tutorial:
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
Cut in Shortening.
Add warm water.
Cover the dough with a towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
Roll out the dough to 1/8 – 1/4 inch thickness.
Cut dough into 3″ x 3″ squares.
Add dough to 375° F. oil.
Fry until golden brown on each side. It is SO COOL to watch them puff up!! 😀
Serve warm, drizzled with honey for a traditional New Mexican treat or add some flare with a dusting of powdered sugar, hot fudge sauce or make these a main meal and stuff them with your favorite fillings! Check out this video with Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives, for some inspiration!
Okay, so back to the topic that Tia at Glügle Gluten Free recently blogged on. Tia posed the following question:
With all of the talk about how expensive gluten-free products are, why are people choosing a more expensive one because of the name?
Tia was referring to the cost of Gluten-Free Bisquick. I mentioned something about the cost in my recent review, and while I paid less than Tia did for the GF Bisquick at my local Super Walmart ($3.98 for a 16-oz. box), I had to modify if it to make it more like the yellow box Bisquick (wanting to put the “quick” in the GF Bisquick, LOL!). While adding the shortening to the mix worked great for the products I tested it on (for my review), shortly thereafter I made biscuits and they came out flat and hard as a rock. I re-made the biscuits with the Better Batter Pancake and Baking mix, and just like I’ve always thought, they remind me much more of the Bisquick biscuits I grew up on (see my Better Batter Gluten-Free Biscuits post from February 2009).
So, I decided to do a little cost analysis of my own and here are my calculations per ounce of gluten-free flour (store cost) to add to Tia’s list:
Gluten Free Bisquick (at $3.98 per 16-oz. box): $0.25/oz
Better Batter Gluten-Free Pancake and Baking Mix (at $6.37 per 20-oz. box): $0.31/oz BUT Better Batter is ready to use, no need to add shortening (which adds more to the cost of the GF Bisquick).
Here is another comparison:
King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour ($7.95 per 24-oz. box): $0.33/oz (FYI: The King Arthur GF Flour DOES NOT contain Xanthan Gum, so you will need to figure in the added cost for that.
I have to admit that I was a bit miffed at the cost of the King Arthur GF Flour the second I read the ingredient list: Specialty Flour Blend (Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour), Potato Starch, Whole Grain Brown Rice Flour.
Rice Flour, Tapioca Starch and Potato Starch.
I don’t know about you, but in my experience those are the least expensive gluten-free flours out there and with no Xanthan Gum added (which is not cheap mind you), why are they charging $7.95 for a 1lb. 8 oz box of flour? I will make an assumption here, but I think we are paying for the name brand King Arthur Flour. Doing the math, I figured out that 5 lbs. of King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour would cost $26.50, and you would still need to buy the xanthan gum!
Better Batter Gluten-Free Flour ($18.50 per 5-lb. bag [80 ounces] + $7.50 for shipping on Amazon): $0.32/oz AND it includes the Xanthan Gum.
**I personally buy Better Batter directly from them (by the 25-lb. bag) and it reduces my cost even more: $0.18/oz. (and that includes the flat shipping rate of $7.50 per order).
While I understand (and feel) the excitement about all the new gluten-free products coming to market (and I can’t ignore that there’s a sentimental factor for the name brands I grew up on); I think it is very important to remember the smaller companies that have been making safe gluten-free products out of sheer love and passion (and quite often because the entrepreneur has celiac disease or knows a close friend or relative with it), long before the gluten-free diet went mainstream.
These are the companies that were here before the bigger companies wanted a piece of the “gluten-free pie,” and these are the companies that will be hit hardest by the current economy.
Large companies can get loans from the bank, can raise money in the stock market, or even get a government bailout; but it is the small companies (who can’t do any of this right now), who need the most help (trust me, I know lots of small business owners in this very boat right now). In many instances, these folks have put their entire net worth on the line to develop these products for us and our families; and as far as I’m concerned, as long as the product works for me and the price is not much higher (if at all), I think I will be sticking with the products from companies that took the biggest risk early on. They were there when I needed them, and now I want to return the favor. 😉
Okay, I will step down off my own soap box now, but I would love to hear your personal thoughts about this too! 😀
Thank you to all who entered the “Summer Of Easy Gourmet Entertaining With Chavrie Goat Cheese” Giveaway!
I used the Random Number Generator to pick the lucky winner and that person is:
#9, Shirley!
Shirley said, “Now that’s a great giveaway! Can you believe I’ve only had homemade chevre? Our friends have goats and always bring goat cheese, yogurt, etc. to support group meetings. Lucky me, for sure, but at first, I thought you’d spelled the name wrong when I read the title. LOL I didn’t even know this product existed. Silly me. I’d go for the souffle I think … such a classic.”
Congratulations Shirley! I will email you for your shipping address and get your prize out to you. 😀
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, tomorrow is my sweet husband’s 37th birthday, so we are going to go have some fun!
xo
Okay, so I am pretty sure I have decided on your next venture. I think you need to do a cookbook on all of these amazing things that you are creating to be safe for the gluten-free, dairy-free, dye-free crowd. You have made things that many thought they would never be able to eat again! You are inspirational, to say the least.
And where you find the time in your day is still a conundrum to me. I think that I have some very poor time management going on over here.
Wish Mike a great big happy birthday from the Maes clan! Hope you guys have a great time celebrating!
LOL, Kim! I can't do a cookbook, they're not my original recipes! 😉
I just tweak recipes to my fit my needs and all I want to do is show people how I go about it, because knowledge is power, and once you learn how to do something, it's with you forever, no?
Besides, knowing you can still have old favorites (only in a healthier, new way), can do amazing things for one's emotional well-being, at least it did for me!
Mike says thank you very much and he's excited to pull me away from the kitchen and computer for the weekend, LOL! 😀
xo,
Heidi
Wonderful post! Great food for thought; I have the nostalgic feelings about Bisquick as well (I grew up eating it!), but I currently use Better Batter products and love them. Thank you for taking the time to break down the cost per ounce.
It is always a pleasure to visit your blog!
Best,
Cinde
Gluten Free Taste of Home ~ Author
http://www.glutenfreetasteofhome.blogspot.com
It's so funny to see these as I was really craving them and wished I had a gfdf recipe. I wish I could make these. They look so good. The reason I don't often make things with flour is I can't eat rice either and most flour mixes have rice in them. Some day I'll play with them and figure it out. But for now I'll just drool over yours. Love the cost analysis too.
I want to start off by saying "Congrats" on your accomplishment. It is huge. When I went gluten free 6 months ago I started a replacement list for all my favorites and said good bye to food that I so loved. I have slowly been able to fill that list in and love new food, and that is partly due to all the wonderful bloggers out there like yourself who put their heart and soul into sharing the knowledge they acquire. You give the gift of food and that to me is priceless. Thanks!
I also wanted to say thank you for the post about Bisquick, Better Batter and King Arthur and share my feelings on it. When you first go gluten free you are looking for some good old favorites and company names you trust so that you don't feel that the big chunk of money you plop down is going to be wasted. So a Bisquick or a Betty Crocker mix is perfect. Then after a while you get the ability to read a label and say exactly what you said "why am I paying all that money for rice flour, potato starch and tapioca when I can get that at my grocery store and mix it myself?" I tried the Bisquick biscuits with the modification you posted. They were okay, because they were the first biscuit I had in 6 months. I probably won't be buying the mix again because it is expensive and I have found recipes by you and others that look just as ever bit is good. Side note~ you holding the dough up on your doughnut recipe alone is a sell for Better Batter. I will be buying it soon! I hope you enjoy your weekend with your family!
Thanks Michelle! I have to admit that it's deeply gratifying when a recipe tweak works out, I dance my little jig and say "take that gluten!" 😀
I COMPLETELY understand about the "replacement list" (sounds kind of like a "bucket list," doesn't it? LOL!).
When I was first diagnosed 5 years ago, there weren't a lot of gluten-free bloggers out there. Shauna, from Gluten Free Girl and Karina, from Gluten Free Goddess were my heroes and I would spend hours reading their blogs, not only to get ideas and learn how to cook in a new way; but also just to feel "not so alone" on my new path in life.
It ended up taking me 3 years, more chronic celiac-related health conditions, my uncle dying from non-hodgkin's lymphoma, professional therapy and my son being diagnosed with celiac disease before I quit cheating on the gluten-free diet! I had a tough time embracing my diagnosis because I didn't feel sick (with classic GI symptoms) like so many people do, where the diagnosis/GF diet comes to them as a welcome relief (I have atypical celiac disease). It was nothing more that a thorn in my side at the time which left me angry, bitter and depressed.
Add to that, I did not completely understand celiac disease or the seriousness of it back then and I've only recently begun to understand non-celiac gluten sensitivity and the role gluten plays in MANY conditions/diseases, with or without celiac disease. The sheer magnitude is mind boggling.
What made it especially hard for me was that I could never seem to find many *good* recipes for what I really wanted at the time. Things like goldfish crackers, bagels, condensed soups, sopapillas, tortillas, etc. I missed the foods I grew up on and that left me feeling emotionally deprived which only compelled me more to cheat (just like with weight-loss diets). So, I began to look at regular recipes and that is when my tweaking obsession began!
When I stumbled across Roben Ryberg's recipe for cheese crackers, I knew I had to tell every gluten-free mom out there about it! In fact, I had stumbled across many recipes that turned out great with just a few minor tweaks and I thought to myself, "I need to find a way to tell people about these recipes so they can enjoy them too," (especially if they are struggling to accept the gluten-free lifestyle the way I once did), and that is when my blog was born.
Discovering many of the recipes that I've shared on my blog made all the difference in getting me to enthusiastically embrace and commit to a gluten-free diet for life. Knowing I can have certain treats if I want them, has also lessened my desire for them, which has allowed my diet to evolve to a primarily naturally gluten-free (and healthier) diet…and I've lost 65 pounds in the process!! 😀
I just want other people to be as happy as I am today (and hopefully healthier by learning from my experience with cheating). Just because one does not experience GI symptoms when eating gluten, does not mean that something potentially deadly is lying within.
xo,
Heidi
Oh my gosh! The Sopaipillas look yummy! I'm going to have to try and make these. Every recipe I've gotten from your site has been easy and taste great. I like the cookbook idea!!! You have such a great ability to tweek a recipe that I know I'm going to like whatever you post.
Hi there, Thanks for sharing this recipe. I have such amazing memories of sopapillas from a trip to New Mexico a good 10 years ago and I would love to share those delicious moments with my 7 year old daughter Ruthie. I've been pondering how one would make a gf version, so thanks for the heads up. We do not have the batter you refer to in your post here in England, so I shall have a go with just the normal gf flour that I use for all my baking. Would you recommend adding a bit of xanthan gum to the flour? Completely get your "oil must be the exact temperature". For most fried or battered things this is always the case. Thanks again and look forward to hearing from you again. Please look out the window and send my love to New Mexico. I love it there!
My two cents – I like to buy local when possible and from smaller companies when possible – for gluten-free the local is hard but I try the brands that my health food store offers first and if I don't like those then I have to look elsewhere. I have tried Better Batter and King Arthur and like them both for different things. In fact, I was just trying to justify buying both at the same time but couldn't rationalize all the money. Perhaps I'll go back and forth whenever I run out. Funny how we have all these options for gluten free now, so many flours and brands to choose from; gluten eaters just buy plain old wheat or white flour – how boring for them. I am working on some treats to enter into our local fair's gluten-free competition – tried making palmiers from puff pastry (with an assortment of Bob Redmills flours I had on hand) and they turned out great. Think I'll do those and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, peanut butter cookies and a peach/blueberry crostata for my entries. Before being gluten free I'd never even baked a pie. P.S.I loaned out the Dangerous Grains book I won on your site – hope it helps my friend find the cause to some of her mysterious symptoms.
Yay! We get what this means for NM residents. =0) This is huge!!! thanks for sharing. =0) You are awesome!
Another absolutely outstanding post, Heidi! Just the sopapilla recipe alone would have made it fabulous, but you always give us more … much more. 🙂 Those sopailillas would taste so good with honey from our bees! A little research and you make it all look so easy!
The whole gluten-free flour mix discussion makes me wish folks would just come up with their own mix (or follow someone else's they trust) and just rely on that. It couldn't be easier to make a big batch of flour mix and have it on hand. The ingredients mentioned in all of these mixes are easy to find (I recommend the ones from the Asian store because they are so finely ground and so inexpensive, too). Many folks share their gf flour mix recipes like Pete and Kelli at No Gluten, No Problem and Kate at Gluten Free Gobsmacked. Another reason I'm not for the big guys necessarily is that I don't trust all of their products. I have gotten sick every time I try the General Mills products (I have no interest in trying the Bisquick, but tried the Chex mix several times and the baking mixes). If they are in fact less than 20 ppm, that's too much for me. Or is there cross contamination? What type of testing do they do? A question, not for you, but for GM.
I like that the Better Batter is Elisa tested and independently tested, but to what level? Less than 20 ppm? Or less than 10 ppm like GFCO requires? I do like the fact that King Arthur flours/mixes are less than 10 ppm–GFCO certified. I don't get sick from products certified by the GFCO. But none of these products are carried locally and I can easily mix up an inexpensive gf flour mix.
As far as the cost, I think these companies are doing it because they CAN. Many gf folks have accepted the high cost of these products as the norm and think it's too hard to do anything else or that they don't have an alternative because those products are labeled gf, etc. Aaah, it all riles me up … obviously.
Finally, I'm so excited I won the giveaway! I'll put that set to good use for entertaining and now I'm thinking of what recipes I can make with the Chavrie. The souffle for sure, but hmmm, what else? 😉 So much fun … thank you and Chavrie, my dear!
xoxo,
Shirley
Yes! I am *jealous* about your bee hive! My father-in-law just put one up this year and I am tempted to do one too (although I am scared to death, especially with small kids, but they haven't been stung at their papa's house yet).
I will ask the folks at Better Batter about what level they test to for the presence of gluten, that's a good question and I've never actually asked!
I've never personally purchased gluten-free flours from my local Asian store because I've worried about cross-contamination with those (are they tested for the presence of gluten?).
Tricia Thompson's recent report about the contamination of naturally gluten-free grains really concerned me and I've had to throw out a lot of products that I assumed were "safe" because they didn't contain any gluten ingredients (like Quaker's Corn Meal). Because I can't tell when I've been glutened by experiencing obvious symptoms, I depend a lot on my sensitive gluten-free friends for guidance. 😉
Thought I'd chime in here –
First, thanks for the great post! I love your pictorials!
Second: I can answer your question, Shirley. We test to less than 10ppm and can verify the level at every stage. The test we use in house is accurate to 5ppm according to the literature. The third party testing is some of the most serious in the business, and, in addition, we have the highest certification for our HAACP protocol and our AIB certification.
Why do we do this? Because my son Caedon reacts violently at less than 5ppm, so you can imagine this is a serious concern for me! At Better Batter, my rule is… if I can't or wouldn't feed it to my children, I'll never allow it to hit the market.
Hope this Helps!
Naomi
Thanks for taking the time to clear that up Naomi! 😀
Oh, happy birthday to your hubby! Have a great day with him and your family!
And, please submit your amazing photo to Jenn's new site glutenfreefeed.com. Folks need to see it, find your site, and get the recipe!
Okay, that's all … xo,
Shirley
Thanks Shirley! I am giving my hubby the day off from yard work and we are going to have a leisurely afternoon in the mountains (then we are going to a local Italian restaurant, Paisanos for some safe gluten-free treats. The owner has celiac disease, so that is the only place in town I truly feel relatively safe eating and I can relax!).
I will definitely send Jenn the link…I am so excited about Gluten Free Feed, what a great resource she is providing us, all in one spot!! 😀
xo,
Heidi
Maybe I think this way only because I'm still a GF Newbie…
One thing I really appreciated about having a box of GF Bisquick on my countertop is that the whole body of old school Bisquick recipes suddenly opened up and became available to me. Of course I could have made those old recipes with my own flour blend, but before I saw the yellow box *I hadn't considered those recipes as options.* When I bought the yellow box I didn't feel like I was just paying for the flour mix, I was also paying for the *possibilities* that a box of GF Bisquick implied in my kitchen. Sure, it's expensive, and yes, I will probably move on to a homemade mix. But I think people need a stepping stone in the "going GF" process, and a familiar product label can be that stepping stone.
Here is one more thing I have found. Having a "mainstream" product like Bisquick available in a GF version has helped "legitimize" my GF diet in the minds of friends and family members. So my mother-in-law sees GF Bisquick on her mass merchant store shelf, and she thinks, "Oh right, my daughter-in-law eats gluten free too." Before, when I'd show up at her house with some (in her mind) "obscure" GF mix, somehow in her mind it implied that I was just being "picky" or "extreme" in my food choices. I think the General Mills products are doing a _ton_ for GF awareness, even if they don't happen to be doing Shirley's stomach a favor.
Now, sopapillas…. *that's* a food I thought I'd never be able to eat again. As usual, Heidi, You Rock!
Lisa,
I absolutely agree with you about what having GF Bisquick has done for our community, no doubt about it. My mom is the perfect example, she has had a difficult time adapting to my gluten-free lifestyle (well, at least from the aspect of eating gluten-free meals with me on occasion) and for her to see Gluten-Free Bisquick and Gluten-Free Snyder's Pretzels on the grocery store shelves has done A LOT to positively influence her view of gluten-free foods.
And like I said in my post, I won't deny that there was a positive emotional aspect for me to be able to buy the name brand "Bisquick" again.
That all being said, there are many different levels of sensitivity to gluten. I personally do not experience any GI problems when I ingest gluten (and I have full-blown celiac disease), but that doesn't mean that the gluten I accidentally ingest is not creating an severe immune response internally, which can take months to fully recover from (and putting me at risk for more autoimmune diseases and I already have 3!).
There are also a lot of folks on the other end of the sensitivity spectrum who have a severe physical reaction to foods that have been tested down to 3ppm of gluten (the proposed FDA rule for the definition of "gluten-free" is anything containing less than 20ppm of gluten).
So as you can see, a "Gluten-Free" label is not synonymous with "free of gluten," and there lies the rub for each and everyone of us. 😉
Can you believe I've never eaten a sopaipilla, ever?? This post is making me think that I need to correct that, stat! oooh yum.
…Okay, I think this might be what will drive me to try Better Batter. Which is sad because it's been on my list since I realized that there was a fry bread recipe that worked with Better Batter.
(I am frugal. I have very little free time. But. Sopaipillas. And fry bread.)
Heidi-
These look yummy. Just like Church Street in Old Town. I am looking forward to trying them as I just got some better batter at Whole Foods today. I was wondering if you have attempted GF "flour" tortillas. The batter is similar to sopaipillas so I wonder if the better batter would work for those as well? I miss flour tortillas and bacon so bad! Also I wonder if this would work for a navajo like fry bread to make indian tacos? I will have to look for a recipe of indian fry bread and see if the proportions are similar. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Julie
Great recipe! The family just polished of my first batch. They are really delicious!
Sorry if this was said or commented but I would love to do this with flours I have. Do you think it could turn out as good if I don't have the better batter mix.
Also, I'm not a fan of shortening, could I use butter or an oil maybe??
Thanks for this awesome recipe. This is the first time I've been to your site and love it!
…off to check out more! 🙂
Hi,
I have been perusing many of your recipes and would love to try this and many others that call for Pamela's or Better Batter mixes. My only problem is that they both have xanthan gum and my son is incredibly intolerant of corn so try to avoid it at all costs. Is there a good way or ratio to take a recipe that calls for Pamelas or Better Batter and use King Arthur's (I chose it because its similar to Better Batter w/o the xanthan and pectin) instead?
I am attempting to create a gluten/wheat, dairy/casein, corn, yeast, soy free lifestyle for both my 2 1/2 yr old son and myself. Those are the major allergens/intolerances. I also need to avoid these other common baking ingredients: sorghum, almond, cashew, cinnamon, peanuts, vanilla.
Help! 🙂
I am so bummed about Xanthan Gum and Tapioca starch in the Better Batter brand. I have food sensitivities to corn and tapioca! Is there anything out there for me and my family? By the way, your website is so encouraging, insightful and fun. You are a Hoot!! I look forward to your posts. Thank you!!
I am from New Mexico and was diagnosed 5 months ago. YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER! The mourning I did for my love of these was now all for nothing. Thank you so much!
Are sopaipillas and sopapillas the same food? I did not know if the extra "i" noted a distinction between the two (translation from one language to another?). Thank you for your insightful blog. Gluten free cooking is not for the faint of heart. ♥
Heidi,
My husband and I just returned home from a weekend in ABQ. We always go to El Pinto while we are there because we LOVE mexican food and they have a great selection of gluten free dinners. This trip in particular I found myself REALLY wishing I could have a sopaipilla, still hot and slathered in honey! So I now wish to thank you for this recipe. I am looking forward to trying it very soon!!!!!!!
So glad to find this recipe. I was just diagnosed as gluten intolerant, and the first thing I started to ‘mourn’ about was no more sopapillas! I grew up in New Mexico, but currently live in California where we make sopapillas once a year on Christmas. Perhaps we can still enjoy a Southwestern Christmas menu after all. Thanks so much!
I love using Better Batter flour which I purchase in bulk to keep costs down.