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Zeppole di San Giuseppe


St. Joseph's Zeppole

Zeppole are fantastic and not as difficult to make as you think: here is the recipe for preparing them both baked and fried according to tradition!

Today we are preparing some fantastic zeppole di San Giuseppe, a typical dessert of the Neapolitan tradition that has now spread like wildfire throughout Italy. These are delicious sweet pancakes that are garnished with custard and decorated with black cherries in syrup, and are usually prepared on March 19th for Father's Day . However, nothing stops you from enjoying them during the rest of the year.

The dough is a sort of choux pastry, so it is equally simple to prepare baked San Giuseppe zeppole, obtaining an equally excellent but much lighter dessert. So let's find out how to proceed in both ways.

San Giuseppe zeppole stuffed with custard and black cherry placed on a paper tray
Zeppole di San Giuseppe with cream and black cherry – primochef.it

Ingredients

For the custard

  • Egg yolks – 4
  • Granulated sugar – 100 g
  • 00 flour – 40 g
  • Whole milk – 500 ml
  • Organic lemon – 1/2

For the zeppole

  • Water – 150 g
  • Butter – 100 g
  • Flour 00 – 150 g
  • Eggs – 4
  • Fine salt – 1 pinch

For frying

  • Seed oil – to taste

To decorate

  • Black cherries in syrup – to taste

Preparation

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

1

First of all, let's start with the custard : mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a saucepan, then add the flour and continue mixing.

2

At this point, heat the milk with a piece of untreated lemon peel until it simmers.

3

When the milk is hot, pour it into the container with the egg yolks, put everything back on the heat, stirring with a whisk and simmer for about 3 minutes , until everything thickens. Once the cream is ready, cover it with cling film and let it cool.

4

Let's now move on to the choux pastry dough: in a saucepan, melt the butter in the water together with a pinch of salt and bring everything to the boil.

5

Remove from the heat and add the sifted flour all at once, mixing with a wooden spoon. Bring everything back to the heat and stir well with a wooden spoon to mix the mixture. When it starts to detach from the edges forming a whitish film on the bottom it will be ready.

6

Allow to cool then add the lightly beaten eggs a few at a time, mixing well so that they incorporate into the mixture making it dense and creamy.

7

Transfer the dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle of about 12 mm and then shape the zeppole (double-wrapped circles closed at the ends) on squares of baking paper cut to size (12×12 cm).

8

Heat the oil and when it is boiling, dip two donuts at a time so as not to overcool the oil, leaving the sheet of baking paper which will come off after a few seconds. To obtain even browning for approximately 5/6 minutes.

9

Once ready, drain them with a slotted spoon and pass them on absorbent paper. Decorate the surface with a generous dollop of custard and a black cherry in syrup . Then complete with a sprinkling of icing sugar .

Here is a short video with all the steps to make them in both versions (fried or baked).

The traditional recipe, just as we proposed it to you, includes zeppole fried in oil. However, without changing the procedure, you can also prepare the zeppole in the oven by cooking them at 200°C for 25 minutes . For even quicker cooking, we instead thought of zeppole in the air fryer . In short, there is something for all tastes.

Conservation

If you have prepared plenty of them, we advise you not to stuff them all but to do it on the spot, right before tasting. In this way you can store the zeppole for a couple of days (the cream goes in the fridge, while the cream puffs in a container in a dry place) without the cream losing its moisture and ruining the choux pastry .

Origin

Finding the origin of zeppole is truly a difficult task. In fact, we have to take a leap back in time: we are in Rome in 500 BC . when, on the occasion of the Liberalia , holidays dedicated to Apollo, Bacchus and Silenus, small pancakes made with water and flour were cooked in lard. The festival fell on March 17 and, a few days later, other purification rites dedicated to the end of winter were celebrated.

So does Father's Day have pagan origins? It's difficult to say for sure. According to some theories, in fact, the zeppole in question were those prepared and sold by Joseph to feed the Holy Family fleeing from Egypt.

In fact, however, to find the first written trace we have to wait until 1837 when Ippolito Cavalcanti included the recipe in the now famous Neapolitan cooking manual. Whether they were invented by Pintauro, already the inventor of the Sfogliatelle , or by the nuns of one of the city's convents, this will always remain a mystery. Until the 1970s, there was no connection between zeppole and Father's Day : it rather seemed to be a lucky commercial idea by Pertenopean pastry chefs.

Read also
Zeppole di San Giuseppe with the Thermomix: a sprint recipe

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