This recipe for Pristinos was shared by my podcast guest Melissa Sampedro. In Episode 009 Melissa shares memories of gathering with her cousins in the cold room of her grandmother's house with a brick oven. Together in that room, they would talk and laugh and roll batches of these Pristinos. After forming the pristinos into a ring, they cut slits through the edges. This way, the pastry resembles a crown. The crown is in celebration of the kings that brought gifts to the baby Jesus. This is why pristinos are made for Christmas and New Year in Ecuador. Melissa and her cousins would load the pristinos onto a tray, then give them to her grandmother to deep fry in the kitchen.
Pristino dough is a very simple dough. Even better, Melissa assured me that there is no right or wrong way to make Pristinos. In fact, she says that you may receive a different version of Pristinos from every home in Ecuador!
When sharing her recipe with me, Melissa also shared a recipe for a mango dipping sauce. She says her grandmother would be very upset to hear she makes a mango sauce to go with her pristinos. A more traditional sauce is simply made with panela, a South American black sugar.
Episodes Related to this Pristinos Recipe
The Storied Recipe Podcast, Episode 009 "Festive EcuadorianPastries"
Follow The Storied Recipe in Your Favorite Player
Melissa and I laughed a lot as she shared many stories of her life in Ecuador, from chewing on sugar cane to making pristinos to going to Nationals as a triathlete! She also educates us on the processing of sugar. I was grateful for some of her best frying tips. We also learn from Melissa how her grandmother raised 9 children on very little money and Melissa's mother taught her how to do with less. Finally, Melissa discusses the experience of living in America as a second culture and the very simple thing we can do to welcome others to our home culture.
One note on this recipe
Melissa observes a mostly vegan lifestyle, which she also discusses in the episode. However, she mentioned that pristinos are usually made with eggs. I included the recipe that Melissa gave me exactly as she shared it, which is without eggs. However, when making the recipe to take these photos, I did include one egg in the mixture.
Pristinos with Mango Black Sugar Sauce
Difficulty: Easy (with a deep fryer), Moderate (in a pan)15
servings1
hour30
minutes1
hour30
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- Dough
2 Cups 2 Flour
½ teaspoon ½ baking powder
¼ cup ¼ lemon juice and lukewarm water. (No specific amount of each.)
½ teaspoon ½ salt
2 tablespoon 2 sugar
1 tablespoon 1 butter at room temp
- Mango with Black Sugar Sauce
1 1 ripe mango (since they are rarely ripe, buy in advance and let ripe covered in news paper)
Cone dark sugar known as Piloncillo (mostly found at latin markets)
3 tablespoon 3 sugar
2 tablespoon 2 water
A stick of cinnamon
Directions
- Dough
- In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients with butter.
- Add the lemon juice little by little. You should have a cohesive dough a little more moist than a bread dough.
- Let rest for 5-10 minutes
- Grab a small ping-pong size ball, roll it as a snake, form a ring and flatten it.
- Then with a knife make 3 small diagonal cuts (don’t cut too much because as they fry they can break).
- To Make the Sauce
- Peel, dice and puree the mango.
- Add everything to a pot, let boil and bring down to simmer and let simmer until thick and sort of saucy.
Notes
- Make sure to listen to Melissa on The Storied Recipe Podcast, Festive Ecuadorian Pastries while you make her Pristinos recipe!
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @thestoriedrecipe.podcast on Instagram and hashtag it #thestoriedrecipe
Like this recipe?
Follow us @thestoriedrecipe on Pinterest
Would love to hear from you!