Carnival Ears are a typical sweet from Galicia, which is commonly prepared and enjoyed during these days of celebration. Discover how to make them at home with this original recipe.
The Ears are traditional sweets and very popular in the Carnivals of Galicia. As is the case in many parts of the geography of Spain, each of the regions has its traditional confectionery on these dates, as is the case with other wonderful sweets, such as the case of the casadielles or the popular Carnival pancakes.
Las Orellas, as they call these sweets in Galicia, are crunchy sweets that are given a shape similar to that of pigs’ ears. And that’s exactly where its name comes from.
These sweets are very popular with everyone, and especially with the little ones in the house. They are very easy to make, they are prepared with flour dough that is worked with eggs, butter, sugar, warm water, a pinch of salt, anise, the grated skin of a lemon, they are fried in plenty of very hot oil and then they are sprinkled with icing sugar.
The ears, as we have said before, are perhaps one of the most popular sweets in Galicia, although so are the Filloas de leche, and the Fried Stuffed Cañas.
Ear recipes from Galicia
Ingredients:
- 250 grams of flour.
- Egg.
- 60 grams of sugar.
- 50 grams of butter.
- 100ml of warm water.
- The grated skin of a small lemon.
- 30ml of anise
- Olive oil or sunflower oil for frying.
- A pinch of salt.
- Powdered sugar to sprinkle the ears.
Elaboration:
- Using a fine sieve or fine cloth, sift the flour.
- In a bowl we beat the egg, once well beaten we add the warm water, the anise, the softened butter, the sugar, the lemon zest, a pinch of salt, and with the help of the electric mixer we beat the dough well.
- We can also do it by hand with a wire whisk. While we are beating we gradually incorporate the sifted flour and beat until the dough is well linked.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest covered for an hour. On the kitchen counter or table we spread a little flour to spread the dough.
- We spread the dough with the help of a rolling pin. Once the dough is well spread, we take pieces of dough and shape it into triangles to give a similar shape to pig ears.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan to heat it. When it is very hot, we put the ears to fry them. Brown the ears on both sides, making sure they are not too brown.
- We are depositing the ears on absorbent paper or napkins that we have previously put on a plate to release the oil.
- We put the ears in a clean source to cool down. Once they are cold and we are going to take them to the table for tasting, sprinkle icing sugar over the ears.
We can taste the ears both for breakfast and for dessert or snacks, they are appetizing at any time.
