What is the best recipe for Puetro Rican Sorullitos de Maiz recipe? How do I make perfect Puetro Rican corn fritters? Check out our 2021 updated recipe…
We’re going to start this recipe article off with a simple question for you.
Is there anything more delicious than a perfect batch of Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz?
The answer, of course, is a big, fat no.
Amazingly crisp on the outside but so soft behind their exterior, these corn fritter delights are simply spectacular. One of the most versatile dishes you can make, they offer a delicious appetizer and can be thrown together with only five ingredients.
Either savory or sweet, these fritters are fantastic.
The best part about them is how simple they are to prepare. Indeed, even the beginner cook can whip up a batch at home with ease and, because of the blank canvas they are offering you, they can be filled with all manner of amazing ingredients.
My favorite is filling them with cheese. I cannot claim to boast a huge amount of knowledge about Puerto Rican culture but, my oh my, I make these as a tribute to their proud culinary tradition on an all too regular basis.
What I do know about the history of their cuisine, however, is the fact it has Spanish and African influence mixed with the age-old traditions of the native population. Thrown together, the fritters must have been delighting people in Puerto Rico and beyond for hundreds and hundreds of years.
So, for our more American audience, we’re going to draw up a quick comparison. Imagine a batch of hush puppies but remove the egg and buttermilk, replacing those with an added degree of sweetness.
Then, you’ll have something like Sorullitos de Maiz but even that would be doing them a disservice.
With all that in mind, here’s a look at the recipe.
Table of Contents
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz : The Recipe
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz : Cooking Time
- Cooking time: Fifteen minutes
- Preparation time: Five minutes
- Total: Twenty minutes
- Servings: Eight fritters (split however you’d like! In my view, however, each guest will want more than one!)
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz : The Ingredients
- One and a half a cup of yellow corn flour
- One and a quarter cup of water
- A quarter cup of sugar
- Two tablespoons of unsalted butter
- One cup of shredded cheese (your choice)
- One teaspoon of salt
- Sunflower oil for frying process
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz: Step-By-Step Guide
- Take a saucepan on your kitchen hob
- Pour in water and bring to a gentle boil (making sure the water isn’t bubbling too quickly)
- Add the sugar, salt and the butter
- Stir so the butter starts to melt
- Add the corn flour
- Bring down the temperature of the water to low
- Keep stirring to avoid clumps
- Add half of your selected cheese
- Keep stirring
- Remove mixture from the saucepan
- Allow to partially cool
- Place parchment paper on a clean surface
- Shape dough mixture into eight even size balls
- Flatten those balls into an oval tortilla shape
- Add the remaining cheese into the center
- Fold the dough over into a cylinder shape
- Roll around so the dough covers the cheese, keeping the cylinder shape
- Repeat with all flattened dough balls
- Heat oil in a frying pan
- Fry dough until it’s golden brown and the cheese melts (roughly five minutes)
- Serve
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz: Pro Tips
- Shape the fritters while the dough is WARM. That way, it is far more flexible and easier to manipulate.
- Use a mix of cheeses! Never feel afraid to experiment, it’s all good!
- Serve alongside a simple salsa as part of an appetizer
- Make sure to use sunflower oil or vegetable oil. Indeed, these have a much higher smoking point than olive oil, allowing you to deep fry with ease.
- Use a crunchy rock salt rather than regular old kosher salt. Offering a far more rustic feel, they are so much better to bite into.
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz: Other Filings
So, as you can probably guess, you can use this dough for pretty much anything. Getting the dough mixture right (a fairly easy process) offers you a platform to develop all manner of flavors.
While filling them with cheese is always a good idea, never feel limited. Here’s a list of a number of other fillings.
- Milk
- Melted chocolate (yes, it really does work)
- Cooked bacon
- Chopped chillis
- Fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley)
Frequently Asked Questions
So, let’s get to some questions.
- Are they similar to Polenta?
Yes! That would be a good way of describing these fritters but, to be perfectly honest, I much prefer them. Indeed, they are much sweeter in flavor and get even crispier when fried.
- What should I serve Sorullitos with?
A simple salsa or a nice garlic dipping sauce can never be a bad side dish to these. Obviously, they’re best used with savory fillings so things like chocolate sauce or caster sugar might be better for sweeter insides.
- Can you use olive oil for deep frying?
Definitely not.
Olive oil has a much lower smoke point than things like vegetable oil or groundnut oil, so don’t go burning your good quality olive-based products on deep frying.
- What cheeses can I use for Sorullitos?
Again, you’re the artist here. The fun part about these kind of dishes is, there’s really no right or wrong cheese to include.
What we’d recommend is a mix of a sharp mature cheddar and some fiery Monterrey Jack cheese to really get the best balance.
Recommended Cookware
As you can see, the beauty of these is that you really don’t need much in the way of cookware to whip up an amazing batch of fritters.
The crucial things worth investing in are, firstly, a decent saucepan. Personally, I prefer the ones with a metal handle – giving you much more control when it’s on the hob – and bigger ones in order to incorporate more surface area.
And if we’re really honest, what’s better than that?
Alternatively, get yourself a set which will generally work out cheaper than buying each piece individually. After all, once you’ve mastered these fritters, you’ll be desperate to try out some more dishes!
Other than that, you’ll need to arm yourself with a large bowl. Yeah, it’s not exactly the most exciting purchase in the world but one of the biggest risks you can take when it comes to making these kind of dishes is to think you can make do with a bowl not suited to mixing dough.
If you stick with that old one at the back of your cupboard, you’re really not giving yourself the best platform in which to work. Would a top-class painter really risk using rubbish brushes? You’ve got to ask yourself the hard questions in life!
The best way to buy these is probably in a set again. Available at an affordable price, they offer you so many different sizes, so it’s definitely worth stocking your kitchen with some.
With these being a pretty simple recipe too, the only other thing to recommend is buying parchment paper in bulk. So unbelievably useful to have around, there’s nothing worse than running out when you need it, so stock up while you can. Again, it’s cheaper than constantly running to the grocery store!
Puerto Rican Sorullitos de Maíz: Final Thoughts and Conclusions
A truly versatile dish and something easily whipped up in minutes, the fact you don’t need to be buying lots and lots of expensive cookware should make these corn fritters one of your priorities.
So delicious and so easy to make, it’s definitely worth making sure you’ve got everything in place before attempting to make them, so you don’t ruin them the first time around and get put off making them!
An absolute delight, once you’ve mastered the initial process, these corn fritters will become an absolute staple in your household.