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The picarones are a sweet, ring-shaped fritter with a squash base served and sweetened with miel de chancaca (chancaca honey), a sweet sauce made of raw cane sugar and flavored with orange. They are eaten during El Señor de los Milagros celebrations (october) and has its origin in the colonial period. In Arequipa, they’re called buñuelos (but it’s not the same than the spanish ones). This recipe will sweeten the life of 8 - 10 people.

Ingredients for picarones:

• 1/2 kg (1 lb) of peeled sweet potatoes
• 1/2 kg (1 lb) of peeled buttercup squash
• 1/2 kg (1 lb) of flour
• 3 tablespoons of yeast
• 2 stick cinnamons
• 4 cloves
• 2 tablespoons of aniseed
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• Vegetable oil

Ingredients for the chancaca honey:

• 1/2 kg (1 lb) of chancaca
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 4 cloves
• 2 stick cinnamons
• 2 pieces of orange peel
• 4 cups of water

Preparation:

Chancaca honey: Cut the chancaca in pieces, put them in a pot and add sugar, cloves, cinnamon, orange peel and water. Boil until it gets a little thick (200º F, 110º C), more or less for 20-25 minutes. Strain.

Picarones: Boil in a pot a lot of water with the cinnamon, cloves and aniseeds for 10 minutes. Strain. In this water, cook the sweet potatoes and the squash. When they’re ready, take them out from the pot and strain. Keep back 2 cups of water and let it cool down.

In a bowl, mix the yeast with this 2 cups of water and the sugar. Go down for 15 minutes.

Mix the sweet potatoes and the squash making a purée. Add the salt, the yeast mix and the eggs, beating and mixing good. Add the flour while you continue beating with energy. You must get a soft and elastic pastry and it mustn’t get stuck to your fingers. Go down for 1 hour or until the preparation doubles its volume.

Heat a lot of vegetable oil in a big frying pan. Moisten your hand in water with salt, take the pastry and let it fall in the hot oil forming a ring. Let them get brown and turn over.

Usually, the portion is 3 picarones topped with miel de chancaca.

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