Zeppole Made Easy, Recipes, Folklore ...

This is a really easy recipe that was given to me by a lady who sold Zeppole at feasts and such.

1 cup of Ricotta cheese
2 small eggs
1 cup of Presto flour

Mix the above and fry till golden, blot off oil and spinkle granulated sugar over them. Enjoy!

  These are the honey balls that are made around Christmas time in Italian Bakeries and neighborhoods where I live in the Bronx. This is my mother's recipe, as you can see its' well loved.

My mother, Josephine, passed away in July of 2007, after battling ovarian cancer for 2 years; she is sorely missed but lives on through her ricipe and on this page. If you like this lens/recipes, please consider rating my lens and do feel free to send me other ideas for this page.


Dough

2 1/2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup of Crico
1 tablespoon of sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of Stock Sweet Vermouth
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Honey Sauce
16 oz of honey
zest of 1 orange peel
juice of 1/2 an orange (depending on size)

  Sift the dry ingredients together. Add zest and combine wet ingredients. Some melt the crisco, I cut it in. Knead the dough about 5 minutes (by hand). Make a long rope from the kneaded dough. Cut little marble size pieces (maybe a little bigger) and cover them with plastic wrap till your ready to fry them. To make the honey sauce, put the honey in a saucepan, add the juice of the orange and the zest on a low flame just enough to warm and infuse the orange's essential oils into the honey. Some strain this syrup (some don't), I do and zest another orange over a heap of coated struffala; right before serving.


  I use vegetable oil but you can try other oils (oil combos ...) or Crisco (any shortening), heat the oil until it is hot enough to fry a marbles sized piece of dough to golden within a minute or less. We never used a thermometer but I'd say around 365°. Only put a few in at a time or the oil will foam up on you. When they are golden brown take them out of the oil and blot them on brown paper bag with a paper towel over them. I put them on a drying rack, for 30 minutes.


  I like to take all the struffala and put them in a big mixing bowl, pour the honey mixture in and coat all the struffala. Then you can arrange them in a heap, and sprinkle non pareil all over them. Some also put more orange zest strings too.





  I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Enoy the ones you Love, because you never know how long you'll have them.

Zeppole Recipe # 2
Yield: 20 servings

2 tb butter
pinch salt
1 c flour
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
vegetable oil for deep frying
1/2 c confectioners' sugar

Put butter and salt into a saucepan with 1 cup water. Boil until
butter dissolves. Off heat, dump in flour all at once and stir
rapidly to mix. Return pan to medium-high heat and cook, still
stirring rapidly, until mixture is smooth and begins to coat bottom
and sides of pan. Remove pan from heat and, one at a time, add eggs
and extra yolk, stirring briskly until each addition is absorbed.
Let mixture cool to room temperature. Put confectioners' sugar into
a brown paper bag. Heat deep-frying oil to 375F. Using 2 teaspoons,
drop in nuggets of dough about the size of a small walnut. Fry a
few at a time for 5-to-6 minutes each. As they cook, the zeppoli
will rise to the surface, turn over when their bottom halves are
golden brown, and finally rupture slightly and puff further as the
interior dough expands. Remove them from the oil when golden brown,
firm, and hollow inside. (Check one from the first batch, and if
the interior is at all soggy, cook the rest longer.) Drain zeppoli
briefly on paper towels, then toss in the bag with confectioners'
sugar. Serve at once.

Note: As made in Naples for the Feast of San Giuseppe, these crullers
are piped from a pastry bag into ring shapes. After being fried,
their centers are filled with pastry cream and cherry preserves.

Zeppole Recipe # 3

1/2 cup white wine,
2 1/2 cups water
Pinch salt
2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
Olive oil, for frying

3 teaspoons powdered cinnamon mixed with 1 cup sugar
Put wine and water in a pot. Bring to almost a boil. (It shouldn't come to a full boil.) Add the flour all at once and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. When the dough comes out of the pot in a single piece remove it from the heat. Place on lightly oiled marble or counter surface. Knead by pounding with a rolling pin. Do this for 10 minutes so as to make it smooth and homogeneous. Roll the dough into snakes about as thick as your little finger. Pull off small pieces of dough, rub the dough between your hands and pinch ends together to make small rings.
Heat the oil and fry the zeppole a few at a time. Prick balls with a skewer as they fry, so the dough will bubble out and they become crunchier and more golden. Drain them on paper towels. Dredge them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve hot or cold.

  This recipe isn't fried, like the custard filled zeppole you get at a bakery. This really seems like a Struffala Recipe (not mine though, I fry them too).

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 tsp grated lemon peel

Lightly grease a baking sheet and preheat oven to 450°

  Bring water, butter sugar and salt to boil in a medium saucepan. Add flour, all at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms a smooth ball (about 3 minutes) Remove from heat
Quickly beat in eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and glossy. Add orange and lemon peel and mix thoroughly.

  Drop by tablespoonfuls 2-in apart on the baking sheet.
  Bake at 450° 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350°. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden in color.

  Remove to rack and cool completely. Cut slit in side of each puff and fill with whipped cream, vanilla pudding or ricotta filling (below).

Ricotta Filling
3 cups ricotta cheese (about 1.5lbs)
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tsbp grated orange peel
2 Tbsp grated lemon peel

  Combine all ingredients and beat with electric mixer about 10 minutes. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

2 sticks unsalted butter
4 tsp. baking powder
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
10 eggs
7 cups flour

Form cookies into traditional Italian shapes like spirals,
twists and S shapes. Preheat Oven to 325* bake for 10-15
minutes orb until golden on the bottom. Make a glace' with
milk and confectioners sugar. Sprinkle with little rainbow balls.


Anginettie Cookies

5 cups of all-purpose flour
2 extra-large eggs
1 cup of whole milk, heated to 110* (plus extra if needed)
1 ounce lemon extract
5 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of granulated sugar 3 cups of shortening, diced
4 cups of confectioners sugar
1 cup of multi-colored nonpareils

Preheat the oven to 350*. Mix the flour, eggs, milk, lemon extract, baking powder, and granulated sugar until incorporated in a large mixing bowl. Add the shortening, one piece at a time, until a dough forms. Add a little milk if the dough is too dry, add flour if the dough is too sticky and knead until smooth for about 5 minutes. Cut the dough into golf ball size pieces, roll each piece into a log. Make twists, "S" shapes and/or spirals. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper that has had some butter or cooking spray on it. Cookies should be 2 inches apart, bake for about 15 minutes.

  San Gennaro's actual Feast Day is September 19th. The Feast starts around September 11th and goes on through the 21st, so get down there and enjoy some Italian culture and food.


  My father's family came from Naples, so I'm glad to say The Feast of San Gennaro is underway in Little Italy (in Manhattan). San Gennaro is a pretty mysterious saint, with very little written about him throughout the ages. He was bishop of Benevento, Italy, and died a martyr in 305 AD. Funny, that's where Strega Liquer is made, the Campagna region.

Tarantella Luciana is a cut from Neapolitan Mandolins Encore (one of my dad's albums).

3 cups plus 1 tsp unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of unsalted buter cut in pieces
1/2 cup of raisins
1 tsp anise seeds (I don't use them, you can)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350* I use a cookie sheet with Release aluminum foil, or you can use cooking spray. In a bowl combine flour, baking soda, sugar and salt; sift into a large bowl. Using two knives, cut in the butter, then add the buttermilk and knead for 5 minutes. Shape dough into a 6 inch round loaf and sift the remaining teaspoon of flour over the loaf and cut a cross into the top (about an inch deep). Bake till golden about 45 - 50 minutes. Enjoy and Brightest of Irish Blessings to You!

Basic Pizzelles


3 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 Tbl. vanilla or anise
1/2 cup margarine, melted (do not use oil)
2 tsp. baking powder