Name: Baked Zeppole
Prep time: 45 min
Yield: 8 Pieces
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 cup g all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup g water; 7 tbsps g butter; 1/2 tsp g salt; 3 g eggs (about 3 medium eggs weighed without shell); 2 cups ml partially skimmed milk; 3/4 cup g sugar; 3 egg yolks; 3/4 cup g all-purpose flour; 1 packet vanillin (or vanilla extract or seeds from a vanilla pod); lemon peel; 1 pinch salt; syrupy cherries; to taste powdered vanilla sugar

The baked zeppole are one of the most traditional Italian pastries and, as tradition dictates, they are prepared for St. Joseph’s Day on March 19th, although they are so delicious that they can be made any time of year.

St. Joseph’s Zeppole is a very simple dessert, traditionally made with choux pastry, a swirl of thick pastry cream and syrupy cherries. The cream used for zeppole, unlike the classic pastry cream, is much thicker, compact, and structured because it is used to decorate the zeppola and must maintain the swirl and its shape, without dripping down the sides of the zeppola.

There are many recipes of this version, and generally, they are prepared both baked and fried, but there are also other versions, such as cocoa zeppole with milk cream.

The preparation of zeppole is not very difficult. The main difficulty is in baking the choux pastry because to obtain puffed and hollow zeppole, it is necessary to be very careful with the baking and know your oven. I generally use the “descending baking” method, which means I start baking the zeppole in a preheated convection oven at 356-374°F and then lower it in the next 10 minutes to 338°F and then again to 320°F in the last 10 minutes of baking. I prefer this method to baking for 30 minutes at the same temperature because in the first 10 minutes, the strong heat gives the zeppole the push to grow, while in the following minutes, the zeppole bake and dry without drying out or burning. For other tips and advice on how to bake choux pastry for zeppole perfectly, I refer you to my choux pastry recipe for zeppole.

Now let’s move on to the recipe and see how to prepare these delicious baked St. Joseph’s zeppole. Both the dough and the cream can be easily made by hand, but if you prefer, you can also use a stand mixer or the Bimby. Additionally, with the same dough, you can also prepare delicious cream puffs.

Below I leave you some cream recipes with which you can fill your zeppole if you want to try different flavors from the traditional zeppola.

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 45 Minutes
Portions: 8 Pieces
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Father's Day, St. Joseph

373.15 Kcal

calories per serving

Info Close

Energy 373.15 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 51.84 (g) of which sugars 32.73 (g)
Proteins 9.13 (g)
Fat 15.69 (g) of which saturated 8.57 (g)of which unsaturated 5.97 (g)
Fibers 0.93 (g)
Sodium 230.82 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 174 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients for preparing baked zeppole

For the preparation of the choux pastry, I used the recipe by pastry chef Simone Esposito. What I changed is the way to bake the zeppole.

1 cup g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup g water
7 tbsps g butter
1/2 tsp g salt
3 g eggs (about 3 medium eggs weighed without shell)
2 cups ml partially skimmed milk
3/4 cup g sugar
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup g all-purpose flour
1 packet vanillin (or vanilla extract or seeds from a vanilla pod)
lemon peel
1 pinch salt
syrupy cherries
to taste powdered vanilla sugar

Tools

Saucepans
Piping bags
Star nozzles
Spatula
Baking trays

Steps to prepare baked zeppole

Let’s see together how to prepare the baked St. Joseph’s zeppole.

Start with preparing the choux pastry, which will be used to make your baked zeppole.
In a saucepan, put the water, salt, and butter.
Turn on the heat and melt the butter completely.
The water should start to boil.
At this point, lower the heat to the minimum and pour all the flour in.
With a spoon or silicone spatula, stir quickly until you get a thick mixture.
Turn off the heat and slightly spread the mixture to cool it down. 4-5 minutes will suffice.
At this point, start adding the eggs. I recommend weighing them and adding the exact amount of eggs from the recipe to prevent the mixture from becoming too liquid.
Add one egg at a time, mix it with the spoon to incorporate it into the mixture, and add the second egg only when the first one is completely absorbed.
Proceed in the same way with the third egg.
You should get a soft but substantial dough. If you lift the spatula, the dough should remain “clinging”.
Spread a layer of oil on the baking sheet and then place a parchment paper over it. This way, you’ll be sure that the parchment paper won’t move when you make the zeppole.
Put the choux pastry in a piping bag with a large star nozzle and make 2 turns of dough one above the other. Do not make them very large because the dough will expand during baking, and above all, space the zeppole well on the baking tray.
Preheat the oven to 356-374°F convection, and only when it reaches temperature, place the tray in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Without opening the oven, lower the temperature to 338°F and continue baking the zeppole for another 10 minutes. After this time, lower the temperature again to 320°F and continue baking for another 10 minutes. In total, you will need to bake the zeppole for 30 minutes: 10 minutes at 356-374°F; 10 minutes at 338°F; and 10 minutes at 320°F.
After baking, turn off the oven and let the zeppole cool with the door slightly open. You can use the handle of a wooden spoon or a cloth to help.
With this method, you will get well-cooked zeppole, hollowed inside, ready to be filled.
Once your zeppole are cooled, you can fill them and consume them immediately or store them in a well-sealed container away from moisture.
While your zeppole are cooling, proceed to prepare a thicker and more structured pastry cream than the classic one because it will have to maintain the shape of the swirl on the zeppola.
In a pot, put the sugar and sifted flour.
Mix the powders.
Add the yolks and a small amount of milk (taken from the total) to mix the mixture.
Once done, add the rest of the milk and the vanillin and mix the ingredients with a hand whisk.
Wash a lemon thoroughly (preferably organic) and use a vegetable peeler to peel the zest, taking care not to peel the white part, as it would make the cream bitter.
Put the peel in the cream to be cooked and turn on the heat.
With a silicone spatula, stir continuously. The cream will begin to thicken more and more.
When it starts to bubble, it’s ready.
Add a pinch of salt and stir again. The salt will enhance the flavor of the cream and slightly tone down the taste of the yolks.
Continue to stir vigorously with a spatula, then remove the lemon peel and transfer the pastry cream to a bowl.
Once the cream is ready, let it cool and immediately put it in a piping bag with a star nozzle. Use one slightly smaller than the one used for making the zeppole.
To fill the baked zeppole, you can either cut them horizontally and fill them or, as I did, insert the piping bag nozzle into the central hole of the zeppole and fill them with some cream inside.
Once done, sprinkle them with powdered sugar and create the characteristic swirl on the zeppola.
Finally, decorate them with one or two syrupy cherries.
Serve your baked zeppole within a few hours to fully enjoy their goodness. Over time, the choux pastry will tend to absorb the moisture from the cream and become softer.