[Recipe + Video] Bollitos de Maíz (Boiled Cornmeal Dumplings)

Step 1

Mix dry ingredients: Mix cornmeal, salt, and sugar, salt. Stir to mix well.

Step 2

Make the dough: Add the boiling hot water and proceed to mix well right away using a spatula. Add butter to the mix and combine.

Step 3

Make the bollitos: Let the dough cool enough that you can handle it. Take two tablespoons of the mix and form into dumplings, about 3/4" (2 cm) in diameter, squeezing to compress them well. Repeat with the remaining dough. You should obtain around 16.

Step 4

Cook the bollitos: Heat broth over medium heat until it breaks into a gentle boil. Place the dumplings gently into the broth one by one (careful with splatters!). Do not initially stir or disturb them, once they've been boiling for at least 10 minutes you can stir to make sure they cook evenly.Cook for 1 hour, or until cooked-through (you can cut one in half to check for doneness at the 45-minute mark, cook for an extra 15 mins if needed). Add water as needed to maintain the same level. If you are going to use them for sancocho, skip this step and just add them uncooked to the preparation at the point in which the water in the sancocho starts to boil.

Step 5

Serve: Serve the bollitos freshly out of the pot, and serve with any of our guisados, some top choices are salami, arenque, pollo, or bacalao (omit the potatoes in that recipe).