Zeppole Recipe for St. Joseph's Day

Doughnut like Pastries Made with Choux Pastry and Sweet Fillings

Mar 18, 2010
Liliana Tommasini

zeppole - Liliana Tommasini

It is an Italian traditon to celebrate St. Joseph's Day by eating zeppole. Italian pastry shops bake the zeppole with a variety of sweet fillings.

March 19th is St. Joseph Day (la festa di San Giuseppe) is the patron saint of Sicily where it is a huge event celebrated with lavish feasts. Since St. Joseph is also the patron saint of pastry chefs, sweets such as zeppole are also included in the celebration.

Zeppole resemble doughnuts but are made with choux pastry that is either fried or baked. The fillings for the zeppole are usually pastry cream or sweetened ricotta. Below is a family recipe for zeppole that are filled with pastry cream.

Zeppole Recipe for St. Joseph's Day

Ingredients:

Choux pastry

2 cups water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
8 eggs
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Pastry cream

2 cups milk, divided
2 strips lemon zest
1-2 cinnamon sticks
3 tbsp cornstarch
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
icing sugar
24 cherries (optional)

Method:

Choux pastry

Preheat oven at 400 F.

Place the water, salt and butter in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil.
Have a whisk and a wooden spoon ready.
Remove the pan from the heat and dump the flour in all at once, whisking it all in.
Return to the burner start stirring with a spoon.
Cook, stirring constantly, until the dough starts to pull easily from the sides of the pan and forms a ball, about 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir until lukewarm, 6 to 8 minutes.
The next step can be done manually or in an electric mixer.

Manually:

Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring in each one completely before adding the next egg.

Electric Mixer:

Scrape lukewarm dough into bowl on electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time on medium speed mixing thoroughly between each addition.
Stir in the vanilla. Cool completely.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the dough into a pastry bag with a 1-inch star tip and pipe 2-inch rings onto the trays, as many as can fit.
Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes, then at 375 F for 15-20 minutes until evenly browned. Remove and let cool.
The zeppole can be eaten at this time sprinkled with icing sugar or filled with pastry cream.

Pastry Cream

In a small sauce pan bring 1 3/4 cup milk with the sticks and lemon zest to a boil.
Meanwhile, mix 1/4 cup milk with the 3 tbsp cornstarch.
Mix well and set aside.
Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar.
When milk comes to a boil, pour it through a strainer on the egg yolk sugar mixture whisking constantly.
Return mixture to sauce pan and whisk in the milk cornstarch mixture. Continue whisking over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.
Remove from heat, pour in a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent from forming a skin.
Chill before using.

Assemble the zeppole:

Slice the choux pastry in half and fill the bottom half with the ricotta or pastry cream. Replace top half and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Top with cherry if desired.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.