Traditional Canary Islands cooking: truchas

With the arrival of the Christmas festival, Canarian homes are filled with families willing to spend the holidays in company, well surrounded by dishes full of flavor and tradition. In this sense, there is a dessert that never fails at this time and that is a sure option to succeed, the Canarian truchas.

In the Canary Islands, it is very typical to eat this type of Christmas sweet. Although to be honest, we must say that it is a dessert that is eaten perfectly throughout the year and that you can find in establishments such as restaurants throughout the island.
 

One recipe is for Canarian truchas that is passed from generation to generation. With basic ingredients such as sweet potatoes or hair and that, over the years, other ingredients have been introduced, such as almonds or raisins.
 

Today in this post, we want to show you the true Canarian truchas, those of a lifetime, the ones that are present on the tables and are eaten every Christmas in Canarian homes. We will teach you how to do them step by step so that you can taste this sweet piece of the Canary Islands.

What are Canarian truchas?

Canarian truchas, so you can have a reference, are very similar to the pestiños or the Borrachuelos of Malaga.
 

For its preparation, the typical wafers are used with which savory dumplings are prepared, in this case they will be sweet and you can easily find them in any supermarket. 
 

The best thing you can do if you want to make the recipe for Canarian truchas is to ask someone on the island how they are made and what are the steps to follow, although we can already anticipate that it is quite simple to do.

How to make Canarian truchas in 5 easy steps

Canarian truchas are made every Christmas. In each of the islands, the ways of making and the ingredients changes, such as the introduction of  spaghetti squash preserve or even other nuts such as raisins or walnuts, they give it that special touch that they have and that everyone, adults and children like.
 

However, to make your Canarian truchas, you must get these ingredients:
 

• 1/2 of flour.
• 1 kg of sweet potato yellow.
• 3/4 kg of sugar.
• 100 GR of peeled almonds.
• Lemon zest.
• 3 tablespoons of margarine for puff pastry.
• Olive oil.
• Ground cinnamon.
• Get out.

Do you have them? Perfect! Now pay close attention because we are going to teach you in 5 simple steps how to make real Canarian truchas, those that every Christmas give us sweetness and flavor on such endearing dates.

Prepare the dough

The first thing you should do is mix the flour with water, with the puff pastry margarine, a small cup with the olive oil and a pinch of salt.
 

When you have made the mass of the Canarian truchas and it is completely compact, you should let it rest for about 30 minutes. This mass will be the protagonist to form the truchas.

You can skip this step directly if you wish, since as you know there are the dumplings that perfectly fulfill the function of the dough.

Sweet potatoes cook the

Peel sweet potatoes and place in salted water. You can cut them or put them directly whole, we leave it to your choice.
 

The moment they are soft, it is time to remove them from the water. We don't want them to brown and overcook, we just want them to be soft so that we can crush them and make a paste.

Mix the ingredients

We already have the dough for the dumplings or wafers, failing that, so the next step will be to mix all the ingredients.

We are going to take the batatas, the peeled and crushed almonds, the sugar, the lemon zest and the ground cinnamon and we are going to mix everything well. When everything is well integrated and a compact paste has been formed, we will put it aside.

Placing the filling

It is the turn to put a little flour on the table or the chicken in the kitchen. We are going to stretch the dough of the Canarian truchas that we have made with a kitchen roller and we will form circles of approximately 10 centimeters.

When you finish shaping the dough for the truchas, you place the filling on top of the dough, fold them carefully joining each edge and squashing with a fork that you have on hand.
 

At this precise moment you must be careful and do it gently, otherwise the dough may break when we fry them in the pan.

Fry and serve

When you have all your truchas finished and very beautiful, it is time to repair a pan with plenty of oil. We will let the oil be very hot and we will introduce them.

We suggest that, when they are frying, add icing sugar on top of the truchas to give it that final sweet touch.
 

We only have to remove them from the fire, let them cool down and enjoy this Christmas delicacy so characteristic of the Canary Islands.

Canarian truchas: island Christmas tradition

We are immersed in a time when food is the main protagonist. We are living a few festive weeks in which we meet our loved ones enjoying magnificent dishes, always accompanied by traditional sweets.
 

In the Canary Islands, as you have seen, the queen of these traditional Christmas sweets are truchas. However, they go far beyond being a simple Christmas sweet, it is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation.
 

It is also the perfect opportunity to bring different generations together and pass on this recipe, that affection and that love that is later reflected in the truchas. It is the perfect time to gather around a kitchen and enjoy the creation process.
 

In summary, we hope that you have been able to learn a little better about the history and everything that surrounds this traditional Canarian sweet. If you come to visit Gran Canaria, you cannot leave without trying or taking the Canarian truchas with you because we are sure that you will repeat and want to do it at home.