St.Joseph's Pastries (Zeppole di San Giuseppe)

Ingredients

Zeppole di San Giuseppe can be baked or deep-fried. The recipe ingredients stay the same.

For Choux Pasty Dough

• Bread flour - the dough needs to puff up significantly in the oven and only bread flour with high gluten content (at least 12% protein) can hold up such a huge expansion.
• Water - some use milk or a mix of both. Milk makes pastry shells a little softer.
• Butter - unsalted, room temperature or from the fridge doesn't matter.
• Eggs - large eggs.
• Salt

For Vanilla Pastry Cream

• Whole milk
• Egg yolks
• Sugar
• Cornstarch
• Vanilla pod - alternatively use vanilla extract.
• Butter - helps the cream hold its shape and gives extra silkiness. You can skip it if you prefer.

For Decoration

• Amarena cherries - drained from syrup.
• Powdered sugar - to dust before serving.

Since choux pastry dough is known to play games when handled incorrectly (not rise or turn flat when out of the oven) make sure to read full recipe before starting the preparation.

After recipe instructions you'll also find ingredients to prepare a small batch. It's super handy if it's your first time making Zeppole di San Giuseppe.

• In a medium stovetop pot add water, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to low and add all flour at once. Using a wooden spoon mix energetically until the dough comes together in a smooth ball.
• Continue mixing and cooking for a few more minutes.

• Transfer the dough into a mixer bowl.
• Using a dough hook beat it for a few minutes to let the dough cool.
• Once the dough is warm (it doesn't have to be cold, just cool enough so the eggs won't cook with the heat) start beating in the eggs one at a time. Add the next egg ONLY once the previous one has been completely incorporated.

TOP TIP: Add all eggs one by one except the last one. Beat the last egg with a fork and add in small portions until you reach the perfect consistency of the dough.

How to know when you have a Perfect Choux Pastry Dough? The perfect choux pastry dough should look more like thick cream, not dough. It is smooth and glossy. It hangs from the spoon stretching and slowly falls off leaving kind of a V shape. If for some reason your dough doesn't hold it's shape, it's not too late. See common mistakes section for troubleshooting.

Transfer the dough to a pastry bag with a large star-shaped tip and start piping zeppole. There's a slight difference in how to do it depending if you're going to deep fry or bake them in the oven, all explained below.

Oven Baked or Deep Fried?

In the most classic version zeppole are deep fried in extra virgin olive oil.

But honestly, I prefer oven baked zeppole. They're lighter, less messy (which is pretty important) and equally delicious.

How To Bake Zeppole

• Preheat oven to 400 F / 205 C (fan off).
• Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe the dough into 3-inch in diameter circles leaving a small hole in the middle.
  TOP TIP: Leave enough space between the pastries as they’ll double in size in the oven.
• Start baking in a preheated to 400F/ 205C oven for 15 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 350F / 175C and bake for another 10-15 minutes Don’t open the oven during the first 25 minutes or until your zeppole a lightly brown.
• Past 25 minutes open the oven door ONLY for an inch and let zeppole bake for another 5-10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to hold the oven door slightly open. This way any residual humidity will have a chance to evaporate and zeppole won't collapse when out of the oven.

PAY ATTENTION: It's really important not to open the oven before zeppole are lightly brown! It means that they're not yet cooked in side and the moisture in the dough will turn them flat immediately.

How To Fry Zeppole

• Preheat vegetable oil suitable for frying to 375F in a deep sautee pan.
• Cut out 3 inch squares of parchment paper, brush one side of the square with vegetable oil.
• Pipe the dough on each square forming a circle. Deep squares in hot oil a few at a time. The paper will separate from the fritters in the hot oil.
• You can remove it using small tongs. Fry zeppole until lightly brown on both sides. Transfer on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

How To Assemble

• Once zeppole are cool, cut each in half.
• Fill a pastry bag with pastry cream. Pipe the cream on the bottom half, cover with the top, and pipe another star or swirl of pastry cream on the top.
• Decorate with amarena cherries (drained from syrup) and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Tips & Tricks For Success

• Measure all the ingredients with a kitchen scale.
• Use bread flour. The dough needs to puff up significantly in the oven and only bread flour can hold up such a huge expansion.
• Bake a test batch. Once the dough is ready, bake 2-3 zeppole so you can adjust the remaining dough if needed or prepare a small batch to test.
• Make ahead. Prepare the pastry cream the day before. The next day you'll only need to bake the shells and assemble zeppole.

Common Mistakes & Troubleshooting

• If you don't have a kitchen scale and measure all ingredients in cup it's posible your dough might have turn too runny, doesn't hold the shape when piped.
  What to do: prepare another batch of dough without the eggs. Cook it well according to directions in the recipe and let cool completely.
  Once extra dough is cool start adding it to the main dough mixing well until you've reached the desired consistency.
• The shells puffed well in the oven, but went flat when they cooled.
  What to do: bake the new batch for a little longer and make sure to bake for the last 5-10 minutes holding the door oven slightly open with a wooden spoon.

Make Ahead

You can prepare pastry cream filling 1-2 days in advance. In fact, I highly recommend you do this, since pastry cream needs time to rest and settle.

Zeppole shells are best prepares the same day.

This small batch of zeppole is ideal for 2 people or if you want to try making them for the first time and don't want to use the full batch to test.

• water - 62 grams (¼ cup water)
• butter - 25 grams (1 ounce)
• bread flour - 40 grams (1.4 ounces)
• salt - a pinch
• egg - 1
• Small Batch Pastry Cream

The process of making the dough and baking zeppole is exactly the same as for the full batch. My biggest tip is to use a small saucepan.