What are the solteritas?
If you still do not know them and have the intrigue of doing so, I must tell you that the solteritas or rosettes are sweet cookies of orange color and very crispy, that when they eat, they accompanied by a cream of the same color.
They are some cookies that can be found almost anywhere in Colombia, when leaving school, in the parks, and in the small town where I live, there is a man who spends every day selling them, and that is the one I remember most in my childhood.
I remember every time I heard the sound of the solteritas there I was, asking my mother to please buy me a solterita.
From the first moment I read it, I never thought it was so easy and so simple, its ingredients are not strange to us and believe me that when you do, you will also be surprised.
Is the cream of the solteritas cream pastry?
For some time, I thought that the cream used was pastry or something complicated in its preparation until I discovered that this cream made with flour, a touch of vanilla extract, coloring, and that is responsible for giving a delicious flavor. Simple ingredients that provide a delightful taste.
There are no words to decipher this wonderful delicacy, which reminds me of my childhood and how I enjoyed them every time I ate them. So I hope that, like me, you will also be encouraged to prepare delicious solteritas.
Remember that you can add condensed milk to solteritas.
Receta original en EspañolSolteritas FAQ
Thin, crisp orange cookies fried in the shape of a flower and eaten with a sweet cream of the same colour. They are sold at street stalls and bakeries all over Colombia, usually two cookies sandwiching the cream, and they are as much a texture as a flavour: they shatter when you bite them.
Yes, and there is no way around it. Solteritas are made with a rosette iron: a flower-shaped metal head on a long handle. You heat it in the oil, dip it into the batter, and return it to the oil so the batter cooks around the shape. Without it there is no solterita, only fried batter.
Same technique and same iron, different dessert. Rosettes are a Scandinavian Christmas cookie, usually dusted with powdered sugar and left plain. Colombia took the method and made it its own: tinted orange, served with sweet cream, and eaten year round rather than at Christmas.
Around 350 °F (180 °C). The iron itself needs to be hot before it touches the batter, so heat it in the oil first, then tap off the excess against paper towels. A cold iron makes the batter slide off; oil that is too cool makes the cookie greasy instead of brittle.
The iron was not hot enough, or you dipped it too deep. Heat it in the oil first, and when you dip, stop just short of the top edge: if the batter covers the rim, the cookie welds itself to the iron and will not release. Never grease the iron, which sounds helpful and makes it worse.
It happens, especially with the first one or two while the iron is still finding its temperature. Ease it off with a knife or fork rather than forcing it, since they break easily. The first cookie of a batch is often a write-off and that is normal.
Several days in an airtight tin, but only unfilled. They lose their snap fast once the cream touches them, so fill them just before serving. If they soften, a few minutes in a low oven brings the crispness back.
Food colouring, in both the cookie and the cream, and it is purely visual: it adds no flavour. The colour is part of what makes a solterita recognisable in Colombia, but you can leave it out entirely and the recipe works the same.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g wheat flour (about 2 cups, sifted)
- ½ cup water
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon orange food colouring (purely visual; the recipe works without it)
- Oil, for deep frying (enough depth to submerge the rosette iron)
For the cream
- 1 cup water
- 100 g sugar (about ½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon orange food colouring
Notas
Instructions
- Sift the flour.
- In a bowl, mix the water, vanilla extract, orange colouring, sugar and salt.
- Add the flour and beat until you have a smooth batter, slightly thick but still pourable, closer to pancake batter than to dough.
- Heat a deep pot of oil to 350 °F (180 °C) and put the rosette iron in it to heat up. The iron must be hot before it touches the batter, or the batter will not stick to it.
- Lift the iron out of the oil and tap it on paper towels to shed the excess.
- Dip the hot iron into the batter, stopping just short of the top edge. If the batter covers the rim, the cookie will weld itself to the iron and will not release.
- Lower the iron back into the oil, keeping it submerged without letting it rest on the bottom of the pot.
- The cookie is done in 1 to 2 minutes, when it is set and pale gold. It should slide off the iron on its own.
- Lift the cookies onto a plate lined with paper towels.
- If a cookie will not come away from the iron, ease it off with a knife or fork rather than forcing it. The first one of a batch often sticks while the iron settles at temperature.
- For the cream, put the water, orange colouring, sugar and vanilla extract in a medium pan.
- Set it over medium heat and bring it to a boil.
- Dissolve the cornstarch in 50 ml of water and add it to the pan, stirring constantly. As soon as it comes back to a boil, take it off the heat and let it cool completely.
- Serve the cookies with the cream, filling them just before eating so they stay crisp. A drizzle of condensed milk on top is common.
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