Zeppole di San Giuseppe

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

(Saint Joseph's Cakes)

makes 12 Zeppole

(Italy)

                                                                                Prep time:  2 hours+

                                                                             Cook time: 1 hour

                                                                              Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients

for ricotta cream filling:

 2 15- Ounce Containers Ricotta
1 1/2 Cups Confectioners’ Sugar
2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
2 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Candied Citron Or Orange peel

OR

for lighter cream filling

½ cup Ricotta

1/3 cup Confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 heaping tablespoons mini chocolate chips

1 pint heavy cream

OR

for the custard filling:

     4 eggs

     2 ounces granulated sugar

     1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

     1 quart milk

     1 tablespoon vanilla

     zest from one orange

      zest from  one lemon 

profiterole dough: 

    1 cup Water
    1 stick (8 tablespoons) Unsalted Butter
    1 teaspoon Salt
    1 cup Unbleached Flour
    4 large Eggs
    if using fried version vegetable oil for frying

garnish:

candied cherries – cut in half for garnish
2 tablespoons chopped unsalted pistachios for garnish (optional)
confectioners’ sugar

Preparation

ricotta cream filling:

Place a large sieve or colander in a large bowl, line with cheese cloth and place the Ricotta in.  Allow some of the whey to drain off the Ricotta, for about 20 minutes.

Whisk together the ricotta, sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and candied fruit, if the filling looks too thick to pipe add a little milk to thin it out. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

OR

lighter cream filling:

Whisk together the ricotta, sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and candied fruit, if the filling looks too thick to pipe add a little milk to thin it out.  Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Start with cold (directly from the frig) heavy cream and place the cream in a bowl and, with a hand or stand mixer, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.  Don’t whip too much or you’ll end up with butter.

Gently fold the Ricotta cream, one tablespoon at a time, into the whipped cream until all the ricotta cream has been incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Go on to create the dough.

OR

custard filling:

Prepare the pastry filling by pouring the milk into a saucepan, add the lemon and orange zest and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar until combine, add the flour while whisking continuously.

Once the milk begins to boil, remove it from the heat and slowly add the egg mixture, whisking constantly. The resulting mixture should be soft and creamy.

Return the mixture to the stove over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes fairly dense, it is now custard.

Transfer the custard to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap insuring that the plastic wrap is in contact with the surface of the custard so that a film doesn't form on the surface of the custard.  Allow the custard to cool thoroughly.

While you wait for the cream to cool, prepare the dough.

the profiterole dough: 

Bring the water, the butter and the salt to a boil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Remove the liquid from the heat and add the flour stirring well with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely incorporated.

Return the saucepan to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is slightly shiny, about 3 minutes; you’re basically making a  profiterole dough.

With a rubber spatula, scrape the dough into a large bowl. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beat the dough continually until smooth, about 2 minutes.

non-frying method:

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a very large star tip with the Zeppole dough.

Lightly grease a rimmed cookie sheet with extra-virgin olive oil and, using the pastry bag, form 12 4-inch ovals of dough over the surface of the cookie sheet until you have used all the batter (use additional lightly greased rimmed cookie sheets if necessary).

Preheat the oven to 425° F.  Once the oven reaches temperature, place the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake until they turn golden brown, about 15 minutes.  After this first baking lower your oven temperature to 325° F, without opening the oven door, and bake for an additional 25 minutes.  After this second baking turn off the oven and if you are going to fill the Zeppole, remove the puffs and cut each in half horizontally, return to the cookie sheet and return it to the hot oven for 20 minutes. 

Once the fritters are cool enough to handle fill a pastry bag with the pastry cream/custard and fill the lower half of each split puff with the cream/custard, add the tops and decorate each Zeppole with a little cream/custard topped by a cherry on top or if you haven’t split the Zeppole, top each Zeppole with the cream/custard topped by a cherry.

Sprinkle each Zeppole with powdered sugar, sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve.

traditional frying alternative:

To create the traditional fried fritters cut 12 4-in squares of parchment paper and grease one side of the squares with extra virgin olive oil.  Then, using the filled pastry bag, form an oval ring of dough on each parchment square until you have used all the batter.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a very large star tip with the Zeppole dough.

Fill a tall pot with about 5-inches of frying oil and place the pot over high heat.  When the oil comes to 375° F. on a candy thermometer  place the 2 or 3 of the fritters in the oil, parchment squares and all, remove the squares with a pair of tongs as the fritters begin to fry.  Frying more than 3 fritters at a time will cause the oil temperature to drop.  Once the fritters are golden brown, remove the fritters using a slotted spoon and place them to drain on paper towels.  When the oil temp comes back to temperature place 2 or 3 more fritters in the pot a fry them.  Continue in this manner until all the fritters have been fried. 

Once the fritters are cool enough to handle, if you are going to fill the Zeppole, cut each in half horizontally otherwise leave them as is.

Fill a pastry bag with the pastry cream/custard and fill the lower half of each split puff with the cream/custard, add the tops and decorate each Zeppole with a little cream/custard topped by a cherry on top or if you haven’t split the Zeppole, top each Zeppole with the cream/custard topped by a cherry. 

Sprinkle each Zeppole with powdered sugar, sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve.