Selena Robins, Author

It’s that time of the where those who celebrate Easter will be hunting for chocolate bunnies, Cadbury Crème eggs or gasp Peeps.

This year you can raise your sweet tooth bar higher and cook up a batch of an Italian Easter delight; heavenly balls of dough called ZEPPOLE.

Zeppoles are deep-fried dough balls, topped with powdered sugar.

However, as is with most things of my people, every household has their own recipe. Some recipes call for filling the dough with pastry cream, custard or butter and honey.

I am sharing my family’s recipe for Zeppole.

Get your Italian on and fry up a batch.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar, plus 3 tablespoons
2 TBSP ground cinnamon
2 tsp. maples syrup (you can substitute and use 1 tsp. vanilla)
zest of one small lemon
1 stick unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup)
1 cup room temperature water
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sifted, all purpose flour
4 large eggs
olive oil, light kind used for frying (not the extra-virgin olive oil)
confectioner sugar (or as we call it in Canada, icing sugar)

Directions:

In a bowl mix together: 1/2 cup of sugar, cinnamon, maple syrup (or vanilla) and lemon zest. Set aside.

Turn your stove on to medium heat, and using a saucepan, combine the following in the saucepan: butter, 3 TBSP sugar and the water.

Stirring constantly, bring this to a boil.

Once it has boiled, remove from the stove and stir in the flour.

Return the saucepan to the stove, and keep stirring until the mixture forms a ball. Continue stirring for 5 minutes.

Take mixture from saucepan and add to the sugar/cinnamon/vanilla/lemon bowl you had set aside (or if you prefer to use a food processor you can put it in there).

Using a hand mixer (or food processor), add your eggs one at a time, so that each egg is mixed in well with the dough.

Continue beating until mixture is smooth.

At this point you are going to fry the dough, but if you want to do it later, you can. Simply cover the bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate and fry them later.

TO FRY THEM:

Add enough oil into a large frying pan (about 2 inches). Heat oil over medium heat.

Fry them in batches so they are not crowding each other.

When oil is hot, using a melon baller, or small ice cream scooper or a tablespoon and drop the dough into the hot oil. Turn the zeppole a few times so that all sides get a nice golden color.

Once they are all puffed up and golden on all sides (takes about 5 minutes) place each one on paper towels.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and if you like, you can sprinkle with cinnamon as well.

Best eaten right after they are made.

Please reach out f you have any questions about this recipe.

Optional:

You can fill them and/or top them with your favorite custard or cream as well.

Sharing a recent trailer created for my novel, ONCE UPON A KISS. This book also mentions plenty of tasty baked goodies.