Making Ojalda aka Panamanian Fried Bread

so yesterday me and my family went out to just "look around"but as we all know that never really works out that well. we ended up buying a Kitchen aid mixer,(silver). ITS AMAZING! I fell in love with it. :D.  I just had to make something with it. so i did.

with my parents coming from a Panamanian background and teaching me cooking techniques from making platanos (fried bananas) to sancocho ( a type of soup), i decided to make ojaldas. :) ojaldas are plain and simple fried bread. they are crunchy and golden on the outside and chewy, moist and bread like in the center.


what you will need to make this will be -
-2 1/2 cup all purpose flour -1 teaspoon salt 
-1 tablespoon sugar 
-1 teaspoon baking powder 
-2/3 cups of milk  
-and 1/3 cups of oil 








also the equipment you will be needed is 
 - a measuring cup 
- a spoon 
- tablespoon and teaspoon measurings 
- bowl ( i used three but you can use as many as you would like) 
- a mixer ( you do not need this but the reason for me making ojalda was because of the mixer so i used it.) 

 once you have all of your ingredients you can combine the flour, salt ,sugar and baking powder. there is no need to shift anything. its an easy recipe :)

 the next step is to just add the milk and the oil. mix everything together until it forms a dough. i took this picture before i measured out the oil. the oil you see in the picture is just where i store my oil. ( picture below

 it should come out looking like this :)

 now you can kneed it for a few minutes. i try to keep it to a minimum because i lovveee to touch things. i could play with dough all day. 5 minutes would pass by like 1 sec to me.

once you are done kneading it, just let it rest for about one hour . you could washed the dirty dishes , watch your favorite soaps or just take a nap.

So after you it rest, i just use my handy little tool and cut them into little triangle. then i cut the triangle into two equal pieces and rolled them into a ball. then i rolled them out into circles with a rolling pin. (the picture got deleted sorry guys!)

so start to heat up your oil. i just choose a small pan where i didnt have to fill it all the up to the top but still cover up an ojalda. i have no clue what the temp. was but aslong as it bubbles up when you drop it in is when you know it it is perfect. 

start to drop the ojalda into the hot oil. you should not leave them unattended because they do cook up pretty quick. 

when you start to notice that the bottom layer is starting to get cooked just turn them over and cook the other side. they should not take long.

this is what they are supposed to look like when they are done. aren't they pretty? :D they were delicious too 

i ate them for lunch served with beef, onions and green bell peppers and beans. its not a really tradiotional meal but it was pretty darn good.