Baked St. Joseph’s Zeppole are traditional sweets for Father’s Day and can also be prepared fried. Today’s baked version remains the lighter and more delicate variant, March 19th is approaching and they really can’t be missed! A delicious dough of Choux Pastry filled with smooth pastry cream and finished with a tasty cherry and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
If you are as much a sweet tooth as I am and cannot resist such goodness, how about preparing them together!
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 40 Minutes
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: St. Joseph's, Father's Day
- Energy 478.69 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 46.61 (g) of which sugars 20.37 (g)
- Proteins 15.14 (g)
- Fat 26.84 (g) of which saturated 14.71 (g)of which unsaturated 11.93 (g)
- Fibers 0.92 (g)
- Sodium 118.23 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 60 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 Baked St. Joseph’s Zeppole
For the choux pastry
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup Water
- 1 pinch salt
- 7 tbsp butter
- 4 eggs (about 210 g weighed without shell)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 1 packet vanillin
- 1 lemon (grated peel)
- to taste syruped cherries
- to taste powdered sugar
Tools
- Wooden Spoon
- Pan
- Sieve
- Pastry Bag
- Smooth Nozzle to use for the cream
- Star Nozzle to use for the zeppole
Baked Zeppole Preparation
In a pan, place the water, salt, and butter cut into pieces. Bring to a boil and remove the pan from the heat. If the butter hasn’t melted completely, just stir with a wooden spoon. Now add the sifted flour (previously) all at once, without fear of lumps forming.
Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon and put back on the heat, cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, this time will allow the dough to detach from the sides forming a ball.
Remove the pan from the heat and let the dough become lukewarm; in the meantime, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Pour them a little at a time into the dough, making sure they are well incorporated, only when the amount poured is absorbed, add more.
Don’t worry if the dough seems to break apart, keep stirring. In the end, our choux pastry should be smooth and homogeneous, like a firm pastry cream. On a slightly buttered baking tray, create the shapes using a pastry ring. Dip it in flour and place it on the tray, thus drawing our shapes, which should be spaced well apart.
Transfer the mixture into a pastry bag with a star nozzle and a minimum 1 cm diameter tip.
Make our zeppole and bake them in the oven, I prefer static baking at 392°F for 20 minutes; if using a fan oven, 374°F is enough. Check the baking after 10 minutes and make sure they don’t get too dark, otherwise, lower the oven temperature by 10°. After 20 minutes, place a wooden spoon or a ball of aluminum foil between the oven and the door and continue baking for another 10 minutes. In this phase, they should dry inside and color outside. Baking time and oven temperature are always indicative, so adjust to your own oven.
To simplify the work, we can prepare our zeppole even days in advance and fill them only when needed.
Here find the recipe to prepare pastry cream, once ready and cooled, put it in a pastry bag with a smooth nozzle. Cut the zeppole in half and fill, decorate each with a dollop of cream and cherry. Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Congratulations to all the dads!
Storage for Baked St. Joseph’s Zeppole
The zeppole can be prepared in advance and stored in a closed container before filling.
Once filled, they can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
If they don’t puff up properly in the oven and flatten, the baking didn’t go well. In the Choux Pastry or Bignè Pastry recipe, there are secrets, tips, and step-by-step photos to prepare it better.
We can also fill our zeppole with other creams: chocolate dark ganache
