🍩 Picarones

Name: Picarones
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Peru · Lima
Ingredients: 250 g pumpkin or squash, peeled; 250 g sweet potato, peeled; 300 g flour; 7 g dried yeast; 2 tbsp sugar; Oil for deep-frying; Syrup: 250 g chancaca or dark brown sugar, 250 ml water, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, orange peel

Origin: Peru · Lima

435kcal

per serving · 150 g

290kcal

per 100 g

5 gProtein3.5 g / 100 g

18 gFat12 g / 100 g

63 gCarbs42 g / 100 g

Picarones are Peruvian doughnut-like rings made from a yeasted dough of mashed pumpkin (squash) and sweet potato with flour. Deep-fried until crisp outside and airy inside, they are served hot, drenched in chancaca syrup — a dark syrup of unrefined cane sugar simmered with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and orange peel.

Diets

✓

Vegetarianno meat or fish in a typical recipe

✓

Veganno meat, fish or animal products in a typical recipe

✓

No pork

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

Contains glutenbecause of: flour

Not keto42 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten

What it is made of

pumpkinsweet potatoflouryeastchancaca syrup

Recipe

6 servings120 min

Ingredients

250 g pumpkin or squash, peeled
250 g sweet potato, peeled
300 g flour
7 g dried yeast
2 tbsp sugar
Oil for deep-frying
Syrup: 250 g chancaca or dark brown sugar, 250 ml water, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, orange peel

Method

Boil the pumpkin and sweet potato until soft, reserve 200 ml cooking water, and purée.
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm cooking water, mix with the purée and flour into a soft sticky dough.
Cover and let rise for about 1–2 hours until doubled.
Simmer the syrup ingredients until slightly thick.
With wet fingers, shape rings and deep-fry at 180 °C until golden. Drain and serve hot with syrup.

How to make it lighter

Drain on paper towels well — 1 tbsp of oil adds about 120 kcal.
Serve 2–3 rings and drizzle a little syrup instead of drenching them.
Make the rings thin with a big hole: they cook faster and absorb less oil.

History

Picarones are generally traced to colonial Lima, where they are thought to have replaced the Spanish buñuelo by using local squash and sweet potato. They remain a popular street sweet in Peru, especially during the October Señor de los Milagros festivities in Lima.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →