Carioca or Karioka is a popular Filipino dessert street food that can be described as fried rice balls usually coated with sugar or caramel.
Have you ever had those moments when you see a particular food and you’re reminded of your childhood or your teenage years? For most of us, I think, eating and trying out street food with your friend are one of the most cherished moments in our lives.
And what better way to relive those moments than to try some of the best street food you experienced at home? Check out this recipe of the carioca below!
What is Carioca?
Carioca, also called carioca balls, are sweet and soft balls almost looking like a squid ball or buchi. This is made of glutinous rice mixed with either water or coconut milk to make a dough, and is partnered with a caramelized syrup coating.
This is quite a popular street food and an afternoon snack after school or after work here in the country.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Rice Flour
For this dish, you will be using glutinous rice flour or malagkit rice flour. This is usually available in supermarkets or baking goods stores. Alternatively, you can also use sweet rice flour.
Aside from the above-mentioned ingredients, you will also need sugar and cooking oil for frying. If you are filling up your pantry, here’s a handy shopping guide:
Equipment You’ll Need
- Deep Fryer/ Frying Pan- Carioca are traditionally deep-fried and you will be needing a deep fryer or deep frying pan to accommodate enough cooking oil. The size doesn’t have to be large since you will be cooking in batches.
- Saucepan- You will also need a saucepan to cook caramel sauce for the coating.
In need of kitchen tools and equipment? Read this before you buy:
How to Make Carioca
This is one easy merienda you can quickly whip up for your family in only a couple of minutes so let’s get right to it. All you need to have for this recipe are four ingredients: glutinous rice flour, water, sugar, and some cooking oil.
The only real trouble here is trying to adjust the right amount of ratio for the glutinous rice flour and water. You have to make sure that the dough will neither be too dry nor too wet so you can enjoy soft and chewy carioca.
This recipe has equal proportions and is a little bit on the softer side but you can adjust according to what you want.
Once you’re done with the dough, just shape them to 1-inch balls and proceed to deep fry them until golden brown.
Caramel Syrup
The carioca balls are nothing without its signature caramelized sugar syrup, so you best don’t forget this! Luckily, this is really super easy to make and is just made of everyday items such as granulated sugar—you can use white or brown—and water.
- You can simply just mix them and boil them in a saucepan. Make sure that you don’t stir to ensure a smooth texture for the syrup.
- Another method you can do this is to use a microwave instead of bringing it to a boil in the saucepan. This is much easier to handle and safer if you plan to do this with your family with kids.
- This is best used as a coating for the carioca balls when still hot because it gets to be thick and sticky really quickly, so make sure to generously coat the carioca as soon as you’re done with boiling it.
Carioca Cooking Tips
- For this recipe, we are just using the plain old ingredients for the carioca such as water. If you find this a little bit boring to your liking, you can swap the water with grated coconut and one cup of coconut milk and you will have much more flavorful carioca balls.
- Take note that you must remember to poke holes through the dough balls you made from the mixture because this gives more airflow for the balls as you deep fry them, and will prevent heat from building up inside, causing the balls to explode or the oil to splatter all around.
- Just try to fit enough balls in the pan when frying to avoid overcrowding. This is because it can affect the oil temperature and will make for lesser quality when it comes to the texture and the overall flavor.
How to Serve and Store Carioca
Carioca is usually served as a quick sweet snack or dessert. It is usually served warm or at room temperature. To store carioca, transfer into a clean food container with lid and refrigerate up to 3 days. You can use a conventional oven or oven toaster to reheat and restore its texture.
Other Filipino Street Food Recipes
- 3-Ingredient Kamote Buchi (Kamoteng Butsi) Recipe
- Homemade Kwek Kwek Recipe
- Filipino Hotdog Twister Recipe
For a quick reference about this recipe, see the recipe table below:
Easy Carioca With Caramel Coating Recipe
Equipment
- Deep Fryer or Frying Pan
- Saucepan
Ingredients
Carioca Ingredients
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour, or sweet rice flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups cooking oil
Coating Ingredients
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
Carioca Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add in the glutinous rice flour and pour in the water. Stir until well-blended. The consistency should be neither too dry nor too wet.
- Scoop a portion of the dough (about 1 tsp) and shape into balls. Repeat for the rest of the mixture and poke the carioca balls using bamboo skewers.
- In a cooking pan or frying pan, pour in and heat oil over medium heat.
- Add in the ball gently into the pan. Stir occasionally until the balls float on top. Cook until golden and crispy.
- Coat the carioca balls with the sugar syrup (see instructions below) and transfer to a wire rack to let cool.
- Transfer to a serving plate or arrange 3 to 4 pieces in bamboo skewers (barbecue sticks). Serve and enjoy!
Coating Instructions
- In a saucepan, add in the sugar and pour in the water. Stir until the sugar is well dissolved.
- Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook until the syrup is golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin and save this recipe to your Pinterest account! Click on the Pin button above 🙂
Thank you and I hope you find this article useful! It’ll mean a lot if you RATE THE RECIPE by clicking the stars and SHARE THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS! 🙂
