Today’s recipe is a savory dish from the Abruzzese tradition: savory Christmas crispelle.
Crispelle are a popular food that was widely produced in the past due to the simplicity of the necessary ingredients. They have ancient origins and are made with a leavened dough with added potatoes, then fried in plenty of olive or seed oil. They are best eaten hot and steaming and are perfect as a snack. They are often offered to friends and family visiting during the Christmas period.
I remember my grandmother making crispelle in large quantities, starting to fry them on the 22nd or 23rd, the day of Squilla, kept them at home throughout Christmas, and warmed them up at the hearth when needed on the barely warm embers. I still remember the scenes of us grandchildren by the fireplace eating crispelle warmed by grandma, who handed them to us on a piece of paper towel so we wouldn’t burn ourselves. Such beautiful memories! Surely today we don’t make them in abundance anymore, but they remain a must for Christmas.
What I’m proposing today is the version my mother has always made, the one taught to her by my grandmother, passed down not by writing it in notebooks but by making it together every year.
Let’s see together, step by step, how to make Abruzzese savory Christmas crispelle.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Abruzzo
- Seasonality: Christmas
Ingredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups re-milled semolina durum wheat
- 10.5 oz potatoes, peeled, cooked, boiled
- 0.2 oz active dry yeast
- 1 egg (medium)
- 1.25 cups water
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- to taste seed oil (for frying)
Tools
Below you will find links to some tools used to make the recipe
- 1 Scale
- 1 Immersion Blender
- 1 Pastry Board
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Frying Pan
Let’s Get Started!
I should preface by saying that crispelle should be kneaded on a pastry board, forming a fountain with the flour and placing all the ingredients in the center, then kneading vigorously by hand. I had my stand mixer do this step! We’re modernizing a bit!
Take the potatoes, peel them, cut them into cubes to speed up the cooking time, and cook them in water until they are soft enough to easily pierce with a fork. When they are cooked, blend them with an immersion blender, adding about 1.4 oz of their cooking water. We should get a rather fluid potato puree.
In the stand mixer’s bowl, pour all the ingredients: the flour, yeast, mashed potatoes, beaten egg, olive oil, and salt, and start kneading at medium speed, also adding the water. Let the machine run for about 5 or 6 minutes, then lightly oil your hands and start kneading it by ‘slapping’ it until it becomes nice and elastic and detaches well from your hands. Cover with plastic wrap and a cloth and let it rise for 4 or 5 hours until it has more than doubled in size.
Now that the dough is well-risen, take a wide, high-sided frying pan, pour in the seed oil and heat it, then lightly oil your hands with the seed oil and take a small piece of dough, stretch it with your hands and place it in the hot oil.
When they are golden on one side, turn them so that they brown well on all sides. Let them cook on all sides over medium-low heat. Continue until the dough is finished, each time taking a bit of dough, oil your hands. Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.
If you want the sweet version, you can roll them hot in granulated sugar. Before finishing them all, take a picture of your crispelle, post it on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia on Instagram and Facebook), and show me if you preferred them savory like me or sweet. I’ll be waiting and ……. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
A Riccia Recommends
During cooking, I recommend getting help to turn the Abruzzese savory Christmas crispelle because your hands might be a bit dirty. The number of crispelle you get with this quantity depends a lot on the size you make them. For example, I like them thicker because they stay softer and spongier, while my mother likes to make them thinner and crispier.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Are they called crispelle throughout all of Abruzzo?
No, every place has its name and version. In some areas, for example, they are called Torcinelli and are rolled in granulated sugar when hot.
