Picarones (Peruvian Sweet Potato Doughnuts)
Light, crispy ring doughnuts made from sweet potato and squash dough, flavoured with anise, fried until golden and drizzled with warm chancaca syrup spiced with cinnamon, cloves and orange.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Cook the sweet potato and squash
Put the sweet potato, squash, anise seeds and cinnamon stick in a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes until the vegetables are very soft. Strain, keeping the cooking water, remove the cinnamon, and press the vegetables through a sieve into a large bowl.
- 250 g sweet potato
- 250 g butternut squash
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 litre water
✅ Done when: a knife slides easily into the vegetables
Activate the yeast
Once the cooking water is just warm (not hot), measure out 125 ml and mix it with the yeast and sugar in a cup. Leave for 10 minutes until foamy on top.
- 125 ml reserved cooking water
- 7 g dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
✅ Done when: the mixture is foamy and has risen slightly
Make the dough
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Make the syrup
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Shape and fry
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Serve
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Cook the sweet potato and squash
Put the sweet potato, squash, anise seeds and cinnamon stick in a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes until the vegetables are very soft. Strain, keeping the cooking water, remove the cinnamon, and press the vegetables through a sieve into a large bowl.
- 250 g sweet potato
- 250 g butternut squash
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 litre water
✅ Done when: a knife slides easily into the vegetables
Activate the yeast
Once the cooking water is just warm (not hot), measure out 125 ml and mix it with the yeast and sugar in a cup. Leave for 10 minutes until foamy on top.
- 125 ml reserved cooking water
- 7 g dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
✅ Done when: the mixture is foamy and has risen slightly
Make the dough
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
Make the syrup
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
Shape and fry
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Serve
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The Story Behind the Dish
Picarones were created in colonial Lima as a local version of Spanish buñuelos. Because wheat was expensive, Afro-Peruvian cooks stretched the dough with native sweet potato and squash, creating a lighter, more flavourful doughnut.
The skill of shaping the rings by hand and dropping them into hot oil in one movement is passed down in families, and picaroneras still fry them to order on Lima's streets.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Crisp, airy and drenched in spiced syrup, they're the street dessert every Peruvian grows up with.
💡 Fun Fact
Expert picaroneras can shape and fry a ring in about two seconds, flipping them with a long stick called a punzón.
Lima
-12.05°S, -77.04°W
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