Today, we’re making a recipe. that’ll make your childhood dreams come true.
Today I’m going to teach you how to make zeppole recipe. These are Italian donuts, melt in your mouth delicious and the kids go crazy for these, and I’m seriously craving donuts.
How to make zeppole dough:
Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add half a cup of water, along with half a cup of whole milk, then eight tablespoons of unsalted butter.
If you use softened butter or cut the butter into pieces it will melt much quicker, Also add one teaspoon of sugar and just a quarter teaspoon of salt.
Once the butter is melted, bring that to a boil over medium heat, then remove it from the heat completely and stir in one cup of flour all at once using a wooden spoon.
Once all of the flour is incorporated and you don’t see any white flour streaks anymore, you can place that back over medium heat and continue stirring constantly for about one and a half to two minutes to release the excess moisture from the dough and you also want to partially cook the flour.
You should also see a thin film form on the bottom of the pan and the dough will come together into one smooth mass.
After a couple of minutes, take it off the heat and you need to cool the dough slightly.
To quickly cool the dough, transfer it to a large mixing bowl, and use an electric hand mixer to beat the dough for about a minute.
Next, add four large room temperature eggs, adding them one at a time, and let them fully incorporate into the batter before adding the next egg.
Once all of the eggs are in and incorporated, continue beating another minute until the dough is smooth and forms a thick ribbon when you pull up on the whisk.
Transfer the batter to a large piping bag with a half-inch opening.
You can also use a large Ziploc bag and cut one of the corners to a half-inch.
You’ll need to use just about half of the batter at this point. Make sure you don’t overfill your bag. You want to have enough room to twist the bag and seal it.
Tips for frying donuts
Since zeppole are fried Italian donuts, make sure to preheat your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You can either use a pot or Dutch oven with a thermometer clip attached, and I will leave a link to these that I use and love in the notes.
Using a thermometer for frying is really important. Otherwise, if the oil gets too cold, the doughnuts will absorb too much oil.
And if it’s too hot, they can burn. Also, a food strainer will make it easy to collect the fried donuts.
Overview of a deep fryer
Our deep fryer. It’s easy because you can set the temperature and you don’t have to worry about it. It also automatically filters your oil, so there’s very little maintenance required and everything that needs washing is pretty much dishwasher friendly.
You’ll also want to set up a tray lined with paper towels to soak up any extra oil from the donuts.
Frying zeppole donuts
Once the oil is preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, you’ll need your filled piping bag and a pair of kitchen scissors.
Pipe the batter into the hot oil snipping briskly to make sure you have a clean cut.
You’ll want to pipe and cut the dough into about half-inch pieces. Fry those for about four to five minutes total, and they should puff up and flip over naturally. But if they don’t, you can use some tongs to flip them over.
Repeat the process with the next batch of doughnuts. It usually takes about three batches to get done.
You don’t want to overcrowd the oil or you can cool down the oil too quickly. (oil sizzling) Once the donuts are deeply golden in color, you want to remove them from the oil and transfer them to that paper towel-lined platter.
How to serve zeppole
Once all of the donuts are fried, it’s time to serve.
And I love to serve these with a generous coating of powdered sugar. Here are some fun serving ideas.
You can keep it simple and just put them onto a serving platter, dusting them with powdered sugar between layers. And be generous with the powdered sugar.
Remember there’s only one teaspoon of sugar in the dough.
You can also serve them fancier by making a cone out of parchment paper.
Form the cone, then fold down the bottom to keep it sealed and fill it up with powdered sugar donuts.
I find this as my favorite way to portion control. Otherwise, I end up eating way too many of these zeppole donuts.
Lastly, you can serve them up the traditional way or carnival style.
Fold-down the edges of a paper lunch bag and fill the bag with donuts, adding a generous amount of powdered sugar.
All right. The truth is it doesn’t really matter how you serve them because they disappear in like five seconds.
Taste test
The most important thing is not how you serve them but how you eat them.
These seriously melt in your mouth. And it’s like all donut dreams coming true right.
I love that they’re a little bit crisp on the outside but so soft and airy on the inside.
And remember the inside of the donut doesn’t have very much sweetness to it because we put just a teaspoon of sugar in the batter, but you can control the sweetness with the added powdered sugar on top.
If you’ve never made zeppole before, I hope you realize just how easy these are to make. They come together fast. I mean, it’s like 30 to 45 minutes from start to finish, easy peasy.
And if you have this dough mastered, this is the exact same dough that we use for churros, cream puffs, and eclairs. One dough, all of these recipes. So once you get it down, you’re gonna be a baking pro. I hope these become a new favorite recipe for you.
I love your recipes! Your details are amazing, Thank you