Mangiare Zeppole!

Ah, zeppoles. Light, fluffy pieces of heaven. (-:

Really though....they are quite divine.

Here's the recipe:

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
2 T ground cinnamon
1 stick of butter
a heavy pinch of salt1 cup water
1 cup flour4 eggs
oil for frying

Directions:

Mix vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar, and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. Set aside

Put butter, 3 T sugar, salt, and water in a medium saucepan and put on medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring once in a while. Remove from heat. Add flour and stir to combine. Put back on medium heat until the dough comes into a ball. Remove from heat.
Put butter/flour mixture into a bowl and use an electric mixer (hand or stand) to mix in eggs, one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated into batter before adding the next. Don't drop an entire egg shell in like I did or you'll be picking egg shells out of the batter for 20 minutes. :-/

Heat your oil to 375 degrees. You can use a stainless or cast iron dish on the stove or an electric fryer. Just make sure you're at 375 or your zeppoles will be mushy. No one likes mushy zeppoles. Not even my dogs. Not that I've had this experience......

Drop batter by tablespoon-fuls unto the oil. I use my small cookie scoop. It works like a charm. If you don't have one, you can use 2 small spoons. Don't crowd your pan/fryer! These babies puff up to about 3 times their size. And you don't want to drop the temp of the oil drastically. In my electric fryer, I do about 4-5 at a time and that's pushing it. If they have lots of room to move around, they'll likely flip on their own. If not, you might have to help them by giving them a poke.

Fry about 5-6 minutes (until golden brown). Toss in our cinnamon/sugar mixture and move to a paper towel to drain. If you'd like, you can toss them in powdered sugar instead and forget the vanilla/sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Buon divertimento! (Enjoy!)

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So, after making that last recipe I posted, I decided that I didn't like that recipe much. Too eggy for my liking.

So I decided to pull out my husband's grandmother's recipe. She's full blooded Italian and her parents came over on a boat to New York from Italy. So she's first generation Italian-American.

1 egg
2 T oil
¼ C water
2/3 C milk
½ t salt
2 T Baking Powder
2 T sugar
2 C flour

Combine egg, oil, water, and milk in a bowl. once mixed thoroughly, add salt, baking powder, sugar, and flour. Stir (or cheat and use an electric mixer on low) until the lumps are gone.

Drop by spoonfuls into 375 degree oil. Flip as necessary. Fry about 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and then shake in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar. (-:

These were MUCH better (in my opinion). Try both recipes and let me know which one you like.