we were just watching a repeat of everyday italian on the food network and it happened to be an episode from the season i worked on. giada was making zeppole, which is essentially an italian doughnut hole, and it reminded me of how delicious little fried balls of dough tossed in cinnamon sugar and dipped in chocolate taste. so while it was snowing outside all day today, we stayed inside and made these! the recipe is adapted from this cookbook which has lots of great recipes. yes it's a little indulgent and no we don't fry things every day but today it was a special treat!Zeppole
serves 4-6
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup for coating
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tbs orange zest
vegetable oil for frying
1 tsp cinnamon
in a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt and 1/2 cup water. bring to a boil over medium heat. take the pan off the heat and stir in the flour. return to low heat and cook, stirring vigorously until the mixture forms a ball. transfer the dough to a medium bowl and using an electric mixer, beat in eggs one at a time. add orange zest and set aside. in a small bowl, combine cinnamon with remaining 1/2 cup sugar and set aside.
pour enough oil into a frying pan to reach a depth of 2-inches. heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
using a small ice cream scoop, carefully drop small tablespoons of dough into the hot oil. fry several at a time but be careful not to crowd the pan. turn zeppole with a wooden skewer to evenly brown both sides and cook until golden and puffed, about 5 minutes. roll cooked zeppole in cinnamon sugar and serve immediately plain or with melted chocolate for dipping. enjoy!
