How to make authentic chilean sopaipillas

Cook 1/4 of a pumpkin with a pinch of salt until it's soft enough to mash in a bowl

Mix 2kgs of plain flour with 2 heaped tablespoons of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of salt

Add your pumpkin to the flour mix

Add 1 cup of vegetable oil and mix well

Warm your water in a kettle and continue adding gradually to the mix to form a dough.

Knead your dough until it is just held together

Cover the dough with cling wrap and leave for about 15 minutes to let it rise

Break off a handful of dough and roll it until it's about a centimetre thick

The traditional sopaipillas are round like this (either use a knife or a cookie cutter) but you can cut them into squares as well. Once you have your shapes, poke 2 holes per sopaipilla.

After you've used up all your dough, heat approx 1L of oil in a deep pan. Sopaipillas are deep fried, so as long as they are covered in the oil, they will turn out like they are supposed to.

When the oil is ready (tip: drop a sopaipilla into the oil. If it rises to the top immediately, your oil is hot enough) add as many Sopaipillas as you can without overcrowding the pan.

Cook the sopaipillas until they're golden, making sure to keep turning them so they brown on both sides

All done! Sopaipillas are much nicer when hot. You can eat them sweet with manjar, ketchup or mustard, but we like them best with pebre, a mix of tomato, onion, garlic & fresh herbs! Enjoy :)