Reviewed: Dec. 4, 2007

This is a good basic pupusa recipe. Pupusas can be difficult to make at first but if you're patient they can be restaurant-quality. Just to clarify, "masa harina" is commonly sold as the brand name "Maseca." This will recreate similar tastes to what you've tried before. Do not use regular flour or corn flour, stick to the flour used to make tortillas. Most authentic pupusas are made by folding the circular dough in on itself around the cheese, rather than covering it with a second one and crimping it. Slap a palm-sized ball of cheese onto the center of the flattened ball of dough and compress it, then fold the edges of the dough disk up around the cheese to form a ball. Crimp off excess dough at the top and then flatten the ball into a pupusa.

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Reviewer:

socalstudent

Reviewed: Dec. 18, 2007

Decent basic recipe. We added jalapenos to about half of the ones we made....pretty good.

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8 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

chevellechick

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Lubbock, Texas, USA

Living In: Anna, Texas, USA

Reviewed: Jul. 1, 2008

The ingredients for the recipe are authentic but the method is not. You'll get the same results but if you can master the authentic way of prepare them, you'll be able to make them much faster. You can take a golf ball sized piece of the dough, roll into a ball before patting back and forth between your hands. (Using a dusting of Maseca on your hands or a little water alternately to keep it from sticking to your palms or from becoming too dry.) Once you have a round disc about the size of your hand, place a good sized pinch of the cheese in the middle. Bring the edges of the dough up around it and pinch to seal. Now you will have a dough ball with cheese in the middle. Now repeat the process of clapping it back and forth between your palms to flatten into a (now slightly fatter) disc once more - and then it's ready to cook.

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Reviewer:

T.L

Reviewed: Nov. 23, 2008

Added salt to the masa as well as some oil(next time I'm thinking manteca de puerco instead). The first few came out pretty dry(why we added the oil). Used queso cotija as one of the fillings, & another mixture of beans and chicharrones.

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Reviewer:

Rude Nun

Cooking Level: Beginning

Home Town: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Living In: Tooele, Utah, USA

Reviewed: Dec. 15, 2008

It is also traditional to use harina de arroz (rice flour) to make your dough.

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Reviewer:

Katie

Reviewed: Oct. 26, 2009

Last year my friend for El Salvador made these for us on Thanksgiving while we cooked the actual dinner. It was supposed to be a light snack to keep us going until dinner was ready. Well... we ended up eating so many of these that we really didn't "tackle" Thanksgiving dinner full force like we usually do. She did use the two-tortilla method described in this recipe so...I guess it is also an authentic way of preparing them. Maybe she is from the side of the country that makes them this way...who knows. However, I do think that the single tortilla method described by our fellow reviewers must yield a better, less doughy result. My friend used beans along with the cheese as filling. The beans were kind of like a homemade refried beans. She prepared curtido to go with them (served on the side) and also a very plain and bland tomato sauce (she just pureed a couple of roma tomatoes). The sauce by itself was nothing but it worked very well together because of the strong flavor of the curtido. It helped mellow out the vinegary taste of the curtido. Pupusas are not my favorite thing in the world, they are just Ok for me (no matter who makes them, and I've had plenty). However, when compared to others I've had, these are very good.

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Reviewer:

LatinaCook

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Jardines Del Caribe, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Reviewed: Nov. 15, 2009

I'm not sure about the proportions of masa to water. I added more water and they were still too dry so I dumped leftover cheese on top. Probably just takes making this a few times to get the right feel of the dough, more by feel, less by measure. Kids liked it and I look forward to"making it mine". Used black beans and jack for the trial run.

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Reviewer:

PAMELA D. aPROpos of nothing

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: El Paso, Texas, USA

Living In: Dallas, Texas, USA

Reviewed: Dec. 26, 2009

I tried a mixture of traditional vs. easy and what I did was use a tortilla maker. After making the ball I would put it in the mold and then fill it up with the cheese. Fold it over and make another ball and then put it back in the mold. Some of the filling can come out but it definitely looks really nice this way.

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Reviewer:

WOODPIXIE

Reviewed: Jun. 27, 2010

My husband is El Salvadoran the first half of his life so I am not. I wanted to make something near and dear to his heart and this worked. Thank you so much. BTW, I used fresh mozzarella and he said it was great.

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Reviewer:

josioradio

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Jan. 16, 2011

I wish I had a tortilla press because these pupusas took a lot of time to make. I added salt to the dough and refried beans to the filling. Instead of using two pieces of tortilla, I only used one. I also cooked half of them in a little bit of oil because the first half were coming out too dry. I served it with homemade curtido on the side because I can't eat pupusas without it.

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