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Thursday, January 27, 2011

homemade zeppole

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I have a weakness... doughnuts or any kind of dough that has been fried! One of my most FAVORITE guilty pleasures is making homemade zeppole. Zeppole is like the cousin of a doughnut and closely related to an elephant ear or even fry bread. It is an Italian treat often served as a street food, at festivals and different regions in Italy have different variations (or so I am told). Basically it lightly fried balls of dough covered in sugar. There are a number of ways to make them, fill them or dust them with all sugar and spice. My favorite zeppole recipe comes from Giada De Larauntiis. This recipe is quick and easy and OH SO DELICIOUS!!


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The ingredients are super simple!

1/2 cup of sugar for dusting, plus 3 tablespoons
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 stick of butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
olive oil for frying



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    Start by melting the stick of butter in a sauce pan.


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    Add 3 tablespoons of sugar.


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    Add 1 cup of water.



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    Bring to a boil and take the pan off the heat.
    Stir in 1 cup of flour.


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    Return the pan to the heat and stir the mixture until it forms a ball.


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    Transfer the dough to another bowl.


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    I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla- cause I like it :)


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    Add 4 eggs, one at a time.


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    Use an electric mixer and incorporate each egg.



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    Heat up the olive oil- enough to fill up about 2 inches of the pan.
    Heat to around 375 degrees.


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    Using a spoon drop the dough into the oil- I like making them small (so I don't feel so guilty eating a lot of them!)


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    Let the dough fry for about 3-5 minutes until they puff up and are golden brown.


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    Drain excess oil on a paper towel.


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    Combine 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon in a bowl.


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    Drop the zeppole into the mixture.


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    and completely cover both sides.

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    Zeppole are best served warm.


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    And you can serve them in small paper bags filled with sugar


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    or even create cute little paper cones!
    Regardless of how you serve them- they are SO YUMMY! Which is why I ate almost the entire batch.

    And now if you will excuse me, I am headed to the gym!

    21 comments:

    1. omg!i love them, as i do all types of sweets!i am going to be 100kg!!!:-D

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    2. I just gained 10 pounds reading the recipe...but oh how I looooooooooove zeppolis!!! Yummm, this will HAVE to be made on Sunday! Thank you very much!

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    3. These look so good--I think I've seen Giada make them on her show. I will just live vicariously through your blog, because I have a huge sweet tooth and would not be able to stay away from them if I made them!! No will power!!

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    4. Those look sooo good! Excuse me, I need to go get a towel to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

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    5. Oh My! These look delicious! When my kids were small we used refrigerated biscuits to make donuts- nothing like them warm and homemade. A question- do you have to use olive oil? Thanks for sharing.

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    6. Anonymous5:37 PM

      you are so sweet showing such a yummy and sweet food for the cold winter

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    7. Yumm! There have been so many times I wished I could whip up something sweet "out of thin air". Since I have everything on hand thanks to the super simple ingredients, I think I will fry some up tonight! Thanks for sharing :)

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    8. I had to find my recipe cards to write this down. I can't wait to make a batch of these. There is italian in my family and I can't wait to show off what I just learned. Yumm!! Thank you for sharing

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    9. oh man, those remind me of my mother's homemade donuts which my husband now also makes. to die for. delectable. delish. i too can eat many many. thanks for the eye candy! or eye zeppole i should say, hee hee.

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    10. I am Italian, and you're right: they're sooooooo delicious!!!!
      Here in north of Italy their name is "CASTAGNOLE"... anyway... wathever the name is... they're to die for!!! ;-)

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    11. Oh, I have to try these and I don't think I can wait longer than tonight. Hmmm...

      Do you use self raising flour or plain flour?

      Zelde

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    12. Your photos are lovely and the recipe looked simple enough so I made some last night. Delicious!

      Veni vidi vici...zeppole! ;)

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    13. Yum! We have something very similar here in Catalonia (northern Spain)- called 'brunyols'- we eat them around Easter time and they freeze well. We aniseed to them too. De-lish!

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    14. ooh that looks amazing!!! I think if I made them I would also eat th ewwhole batch!!!

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    15. Oh they look so good! :)

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    16. um, yum. not only is your food gorgeous, but your photos are always so beautiful. These look lucious.

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    17. It was torture to read this,but I did , until I almost licked my lips.

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    18. Thank you for the recipe and oh those photos! I love elephant ears and donut holes but this looks mighty tasty!

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    19. wow!!these zeppole are like italian ones!!!I'm happy you know this special dessert!!!
      greetings from Italy!!
      marisa

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    20. Made these today for my family and they loved them! Thanks for sharing.

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