Sfince of San Giuseppe with cream, fried or baked filled with ricotta or custard. Not only for Saint Joseph is sfince prepared, this dessert apparently has ancient origins, and it seems it is mentioned in the Bible and the Quran under a different name. It was the Arabs and Persians who transformed bread into sweets. However, it was the nuns of the Stimmate di San Francesco monastery in Palermo who prepared these fried sweets filled with ricotta, which over time they passed down to pastry chefs throughout the Island. The name sfincia derives from Latin, which means sponge, exactly how the dessert appears once fried, it resembles a sponge.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 10 pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: San Giuseppe, Father's Day
- Energy 167.94 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 14.90 (g) of which sugars 0.20 (g)
- Proteins 5.64 (g)
- Fat 10.00 (g) of which saturated 4.02 (g)of which unsaturated 5.67 (g)
- Fibers 2.62 (g)
- Sodium 158.97 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 95 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
- 1 cup water
- 2.5 oz lard
- 1.5 cups flour
- 5 eggs
- 0.5 tsp salt
Tools
- Parchment Paper
- Mixer
- Electric Whisk
- Small Pot
- Bowl
- Piping Bag
Preparation
In the small pot, put the lard together with the water and let it melt.
As soon as it starts boiling, turn off the heat and pour in all the flour at once, always stirring with the whisk to incorporate well.
Let the mixture cool and then patiently incorporate all the eggs one by one.
While the mixture rests in the fridge, prepare the custard, you can find the dose and explanation here.
Put the sfince dough into the piping bag if you want to bake them. On a baking sheet with parchment paper, draw circles, two overlapping. Don’t put them too close. Bake for 25 minutes at 375°F
Some of them, as I did, can be fried by spoonfuls poured into hot oil. Once they are cold, you can fill them with custard.
Here are my Sfince of San Giuseppe with cream.
Sure, they are not pretty to look at, without powdered sugar and with brandied cherries instead of sour cherries! But I guarantee they are delicious.
