Zeppole Di San Giuseppe. A traditional Italian Treat.

Well, I know a dessert or any recipe for that matter is not something you would expect to see in a crafting blog but hey! It is still handmade and for those of you who know me personally, know that I enjoy cooking just as much as I enjoy crafting. 

During the entire month of March, I decided to fast from  sugars, it was a bit more than I expected because it wasn’t only about avoiding the obvious sweets like desserts but all artificial sugars, and believe me, there are a lot of hidden sugars in the stuff we normally buy. So I had to carefully read all labels before buying or eating something I didn’t make myself. The exception was on March 19th, which also happened to be a lent Friday, a fairly rigid fasting day for me but not this year, because it was the Solemnity of Saint Joseph and in solemnities we don’t fast, we feast!. So to honour this day I baked this traditional Italian dessert.

I compiled this recipe from a few that I found on Pinterest but the one I liked the most was from Christina’s Cucina. Let’s get right to it.

Here is what you’ll need;

For the pastry

• (4 oz) 1/2 cup butter

• 1 ½ teaspoons of sugar

• (8 oz) 1 cup water

• (5 oz) 1 cup flour

• 4 eggs at room temperature

For the filling

• 2 egg yolks

• 2/3 cup (200 ml) of warm milk 

• 1/2 cup plus 2 ¼ tbsp cornstarch

• pinch of salt

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• powdered sugar to sprinkle

• Maraschino cherries (optional)

You’ll also need a piping bag, one small and medium to large size tip.

Start by preheating your oven to 400 F 

Let’s start by making the pastry. Place the butter, sugar and water in a saucepan on medium heat. When the water comes to a boil, add all the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball, it’ll take only about 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from the pot from the heat and keep stirring until the dough cools a little. Continue by adding one egg at a time, incorporating well each egg before adding the next. The batter should be smooth and with a light shine.

Get your baking pan lined with parchment paper. Place the mixture in a piping bag and start making small rings with the dough. What I did was to pipe two rings or two layers of dough, one on top of the other one, forming a sort of well. Alternatively, you could spoon the batter and once baked open a small hole to allow for filling. Bake for about 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, and leave for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and  place on a cooling rack.

Now let’s make the filling. You could do this step while the pastries are in the oven.

In a saucepan, put the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, salt and vanilla. Whisk all these ingredients. Add the warm milk and continue whisking in low heat. Slowly increase the heat until the mixture thickens, always whisking. Once it becomes a cream, it’s ready. Set aside and let rest until it reaches room temperature.

Assembling the zeppole

Add your cream on a piping bag with a small tip (you could use a small spoon to add the filling). Pipe some cream in the well of each pastry or in the hole if you spooned them. I added quite a bit of cream so it went a bit above the edge of the well.

Finally, I sprinkled some icing sugar and decorated each of them with a maraschino cherry on top. This last step in completely optional but I think it’s a nice finishing touch and it adds a bit of colour.

This is not the only zeppole recipe, I remember seeing a deep fried version and no filling, but I think I liked this one better because it’s a bit lighter. They were a hit here at home and I will definitely be making them again. Who knows, they might become a tradition every March 19th from now on!

Thanks for reading, 

Cheers!