Today a very dear friend of mine asked me to make her the ZEPPOLE, and I carried out her wish.
They reminded her of her mother when she prepared them for her family.
This RECIPE is of Campania origin and it is now prepared throughout Italy on March 19, for Father’s Day, as the Sfinci di San Giuseppe in Sicily, but inside they are filled with pastry cream (crema pasticcera). The most traditional is the fried zeppole (those that I am proposing in this post), but many prefer the baked version because they are lighter.
Solo-Dolce’s Zeppole Recipe
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Total Time
25 minutes
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
- 200 ml water a little bit more than ¾ cup
- 80 g butter 2.8 oz
- 200 g flour 1 ⅓ cup
- 4 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Pastry Cream (Crema Pasticcera)
- 5 eggs yolks
- 125 g sugar 4.4 oz
- 45 g corn starch 3 tbsp
- 500 ml whole milk 2 cups
- 1 scraped vanilla bean
- 1 lemon zest
Instructions
Choux Pastry
- Pour the water into a saucepan.
- Add the butter, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour, stirring continuously avoiding lumps.
- Place the pot back on low heat and stir vigorously slamming the mixture with a wooden spoon, until the dough combines and begins to come away from the sides of the pot (you will see a white film on the walls of the pot).
- Add the eggs one by one to the cool mixture and mix well before adding the additional eggs, one at a time.
- Cut the parchment paper into small squares on each side at about 10 cm.
- Make the choux pastry in a sac-à-poche with a star-shaped nozzle.
- Draw a circle of dough over the square of paper of almost the same size.
- In a large saucepan, heat the peanut oil and bring it to a temperature, not over, 165°C (329°F).
- Once you have reached the temperature of 165°C (329°F), place the donut with all the paper and immediately remove the paper with kitchen tongs.
- Let the zeppola fry for a few minutes without turning it upside down so that it keeps its shape while cooking.
- Then turn the zeppole over and cook on the other side. when golden, remove the zeppola with a slotted spoon and place it on absorbent paper to absorb the oil.
Pastry Cream (Crema Pasticcera)
- For the directions see ☛Pastry Cream
Assembling
- Cut the donuts in half and fill them with pastry cream.
- Close with the other half.
- Sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
- Add a tuft of pastry cream with the pastry bag,
- Place a black cherry on the top of the tufted cream or chocolate drops as I did, because I didn't have any cherries at home and …
Notes
ENJOY!
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