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Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries)
Strips of orange-scented dough slit and pulled through themselves into little knots, fried golden and buried in icing sugar, a Chilean treat for tea time and rainy afternoons.
Chilean · medium · serves 8
prep 30 min · cook 20 min
~389 cal · 7g protein · 45g carbs · 20g fat · 2g fiber · 9g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Calzones rotos, "torn knickers", are Chilean fried pastries named for their shape: a strip of dough is cut with a slit down the middle and one end is pulled through it, so it fries up twisted and ragged. They are eaten at once, the Chilean afternoon tea, and made at home on cold, rainy days, when the smell of frying dough and citrus fills the kitchen.
The dough is simple: flour, icing sugar, baking powder, butter, eggs and the grated zest of an orange or lemon, which cooks insist must never be left out. Many add a spoonful of pisco, rum or another spirit, which makes the pastries crisper and blistered.
The dough is rolled thin, cut into strips, twisted and fried quickly in hot oil, then dusted thickly with more icing sugar while still warm.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 3 cups (375 g) plain flour
- 1/2 cup (60 g) icing sugar, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 60 g butter, soft
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp pisco, rum or vodka
- 1 orange or lemon, finely grated zest
- 4 to 7 tbsp warm water
- 1 l vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
- 1Sift the flour, icing sugar and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the salt. Add the butter, eggs, pisco and zest and mix well.
- 2Add warm water a spoonful at a time, kneading, until you have a firm, smooth, compact dough.
- 3Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 3 to 5 mm thick and cut it into strips about 10 cm by 5 cm. Cut a slit about 4 cm long down the middle of each strip, then push one end through the slit and pull it out the other side to make a twist.
- 4Heat the oil in a deep pan to 175C (350F). Fry the pastries a few at a time for about 2 minutes, turn them and fry for 1 minute more, until golden.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the batches small so the oil stays hot; cool oil makes them greasy.
- 5Drain on paper and dust generously with icing sugar while still warm.
Chilean home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Central Valley. Chilean wine kept a secret in these vineyards for a century. In November 1994 a visiting French ampelographer looked at a Maipo plot labelled merlot and identified it instead as carmenere, a Bordeaux variety all but wiped out at home by phylloxera, which had been growing here unrecognised the whole time.
🗺️
Chile. Two southern specifics carry the country. Curanto on Chiloe is a pit of fire-heated stones layered with shellfish, meat and potato dumplings, covered with nalca leaves and turf and left to steam like a buried pressure cooker; its name comes from the Mapudungun for stony. Merken is the Mapuche condiment, cacho de cabra chillies sun-dried, wood-smoked and ground with toasted coriander seed and salt.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Chile
Porotos GranadosSummer stew of fresh beans, corn, squash, and basil, Chile’s pre-Columbian trinity in one pot.
SopaipillasGolden pumpkin-dough fritters, soft and faintly sweet, fried up on cold Chilean mornings and eaten with pebre or chancaca syrup.
CompletoA hot dog buried under diced tomato, mashed avocado, sauerkraut, and mayonnaise, Chile's overloaded snack-lunch.
Browse all Chile recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Chile meal
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Leche AsadaDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries)?
Strips of orange-scented dough slit and pulled through themselves into little knots, fried golden and buried in icing sugar, a Chilean treat for tea time and rainy afternoons.
Where does Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) come from?
Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) is a Chilean dish from Central Valley, Chile.
Can Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Calzones Rotos (Chilean Twisted Fried Pastries) take to make?
About 50 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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