Picarones
Encyclopedia
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
dessert originated in the colonial
Viceroyalty of Peru
Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...
period. Its principal ingredients are squash and sweet potato. It is served in a doughnut form and covered with syrup, made from chancaca
Chancaca
Chancaca is a typical Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilean sweet sauce made of raw unrefined sugar crystallized with honey. It is often flavored with orange peel and is consumed on sopaipillas or picarones....
(solidified molasses). It is traditional to serve picarones when people prepare anticuchos
Anticuchos
Anticuchos are popular and inexpensive dishes that originated in Peru, and popular also in other Andean states consisting of small pieces of grilled skewered meat....
, another traditional Peruvian dish.
Picarones were created during the colonial period to replace Buñuelos
Buñuelos
A Buñuelo alternatively called bimuelo, birmuelo, bermuelo, burmuelo, bonuelo; ) is a fried dough ball. It is a popular snack in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Peru, the Philippines, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, and is a tradition at Christmas, Ramadan and among Sephardic Jews at...
as buñuelos were too expensive to make. People started replacing traditional ingredients with squash and sweet potato. Accidentally, they created a new dessert that rapidly increased in popularity throughout the country.
Picarones are also mentioned in the book of a famous Peruvian writer, Ricardo Palma
Ricardo Palma
Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician. His magnum opus is the Tradiciones peruanas.- Biography :...
. In his book, Tradiciones Peruanas, (lit. Peruvian traditions) he mentions this dessert. Picarones is also featured in traditional Peruvian music and poetry.
Recently a company has produced a Picarones mix.