A sweet treat for Father’s Day: Le zeppole di San Giuseppe

Today is San Giuseppe, “Father’s Day”. I would have loved to have my dad a little closer, so I could give him some homemade zeppole di San Giuseppe, since they turned out quite well. I would be lying if I said that I will miss my father more tomorrow than on other days, because I miss him A LOT, ALWAYS. It’s not the right time for me to start making a cheesy and overly personal list right now, which is of no interest to anyone but me, about all the situations in which I miss my father excessively, but one of them is too relevant to keep to myself. Since I’ve been here in Italy, when I go to a restaurant where they treat me very well, a food shop of those that have good quality products, or I try something that I assume he would like as much as I do, the first thing that crosses my mind is that I would like to call him and have him stop by for dinner, have him do the shopping with me, or be able to bring him a slice or a plate of what I have just prepared and have him tell me what he thinks. If I have a bad day, thinking that my father is so far away makes the discovery stop being so exciting. It only lasts a moment, because thank God, although far away, I have my family. I can’t complain, but… Couldn’t he have found a partner in Santa Perpetua or Palau de Plegamans?

If I had been faithful to my adopted city, as a dessert for Father’s Day I should have prepared Bigné di San Giuseppe. My personal tastes carried more weight and I finally opted for the zeppole di San Giuseppe, which, although they are also sold in Rome’s pastry shops without any problem, are more typical of Naples and its surroundings. In reality, there are no major differences between the dough for the Bigné and that of the zeppole. Both are traditionally made fried, although they can also be baked to save some calories. The Bigné are cream or ricotta-filled puffs. The zeppole are nests of puff pastry, in the middle of which the cream is placed and they are topped with amarene sciroppate or a little truffle or Nutella, in a shape that resembles Arale’s poop. Although you don’t need to be a master of pastry to prepare them, if you have never made them before, they have some first-class annoying steps. I myself, even though I had followed the recipe to the letter, from one of the most popular and well-explained websites circulating in Italy, had some moment of… But don’t worry. I have taken it into account and have incorporated some advice into the recipe I followed, so that the same thing doesn’t happen to you.

PS: Couldn’t teleportation exist once and for all, like in Star Trek? Since, for the moment, it doesn’t, I send my dad a song that I like a lot, instead of the zeppole (Let’s see if next year, everything goes a little better for all of us).

Sweet for Father's Day: Le zeppole di San Giuseppe

Autor: La ragazza col mattarello

Número de raciones: 8

Tiempo de preparación:  40 minutos

Tiempo de cocción:  25 minutos

Tiempo total:  1 hora 5 minutos

Ingredientes

• For the cream:
• 3 egg yolks
• 25 g of flour or cornstarch
• half a vanilla bean
• 75 g of sugar
• 250 ml of whole milk
• For the dough:
• 2 large eggs or 3 small ones
• 70 g of butter
• 40 g of sugar
• The grated zest of half a lemon
• 250 ml of water
• 160 g of flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• To garnish:
• A little Nutella, maraschino cherries or a little cherry jam

Instrucciones

1. Preparation of the cream:
2. Heat 200 ml of milk with the half vanilla bean, which must first be cut lengthwise, from top to bottom of the stem.
3. Turn off the heat when the milk is about to start boiling and let it cool.
4. Beat the yolks with the sugar and the flour or cornstarch and, when everything is well mixed, add the 50 ml of milk that we had reserved.
5. Remove the half vanilla bean from the milk and add the egg mixture.
6. Heat the cream over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until it is very thick.
7. Let it cool on a plate, completely covered with plastic wrap, so that a crust does not form.
8. Preparation of the zeppole:
9. Heat the water, butter and the pinch of salt, and turn off the heat when the water is about to start boiling.
10. Add the flour, little by little, stirring with a wooden spoon, until you get a compact dough in the shape of a ball.
11. Heat the dough, without stopping stirring, until a thin, white layer begins to form on the bottom of the pot.
12. Turn off the heat and add the sugar, once again, mixing well with the wooden spoon.
13. Let the dough cool.
14. When the dough is only slightly warm, add the lemon zest.
15. Beat the eggs and add them little by little to the dough, without stopping stirring, until it has a consistency similar to that of very soft modeling clay. I have made this clarification because it might be that it is not necessary to add all the beaten egg. It depends on the size of the eggs, whether there was a little more or less flour, whether it is prepared by hand or with a food processor, etc...
16. Fill a piping bag with the dough.
17. Form nests on squares of parchment paper. (Forming a spiral of dough for the base + a ring of dough on top of the edge of the base)
18. Place the nests inside a pan full of peanut oil, paper included. You will see that when they start to fry, it will detach from the paper, at which point you can remove it with the help of some tongs.
19. Let them fry over very, very low heat (the temperature of the oil should not exceed 180 degrees or they will be burnt on the outside, and raw on the inside or they will not puff up)
20. When they are fried, place them on a plate that you have previously covered with two sheets of paper towels, so that they absorb a little of the oil from the freshly fried zeppole.
21. Once cold, fill the hole of the nest with cream, on top of which you can add a maraschino cherry, a little cherry jam or a little Nutella.

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