Amusement park fritters, grandma’s recipe for soft, delicious fritters coated in sugar, as good as the more traditional Sicilian fried bread dough, also perfect as Carnival sweets together with chiacchiere. To be honest, I have never seen these fritters at an amusement park, but here in Sicily we have many patronal festivals and fairs where they are a must and so I got the recipe from a friend who prepares and sells fantastic ones! Whether they are Sardinian zeppole or Catania rice zeppole, or the very quick apple fritters or the very soft quick sweet fritters, when my children smell frying, sugar and vanilla, they go crazy with joy!
But do you know what they particularly crave? They crave these famous amusement park fritters — soft, fragrant, golden and delicious! And my friend has a secret that makes them truly unique, want to find out? Follow me into the kitchen, you’ll discover how to make the best amusement park fritters, light and fluffy as clouds. We will not use eggs or butter, but a secret ingredient that makes every dough delicious: ricotta! Let’s head to the kitchen now, but before you start cooking remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes, you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).

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Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Rest time: 2 Hours
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 14-16 fritters
Cooking methods: Frying
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

4 3/4 cups type 0 flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 cups Milk (about 350 ml)
0.4 oz Fresh brewer's yeast (or 3.5 g (about 1 1/4 tsp) dry)
3 oz Ricotta (or spreadable cheese (about 6 tbsp))
1/4 cup Sugar
3 1/3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (or high-oleic sunflower oil)
1 1/4 tsp Salt (use 1 tsp (about 6 g) if the cheese or ricotta is already salty)
1 cup Granulated sugar
Half packet Vanillin (vanilla powder)
as needed High-oleic sunflower oil (for frying)

Tools

Bowl
Pan

Preparation

Put the flour into a bowl, add the milk just lukewarm and the yeast, mix, then add the sugar,
the salt, the ricotta or spreadable cheese and finally the oil.
Work the mixture roughly in the bowl, cover and let it rest for ten minutes covered with a kitchen towel.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. The dough will be very sticky; work it for about ten minutes or until it is dry and elastic. Avoid adding more flour, as you could end up with hard fritters.
Once you have a smooth, elastic and homogeneous dough, shape it into a ball, place it in a bowl and let it rise in the oven with the light on until doubled in size — it will take about 2 hours. Using a mixer or stand mixer will reduce the time.
After rising, divide the dough into portions of 70–80 g, shape into balls and let them rise again in the oven with the light on for 10 minutes.
Pour high-oleic sunflower oil into a heavy-bottomed pan and place over heat. Check the oil temperature by dipping a wooden skewer — if it sizzles, you’re ready to fry: take a ball of dough and flatten it from the center outwards, keeping the edges thicker.
Gently place the dough disks into the oil one or two at a time and fry, turning them often and trying to keep the temperature around 338°F. If the oil gets too hot, they may burn on the outside while staying raw at the edges (if you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, judge by eye). Each fritter will cook in about 1 minute or slightly more.
Collect the fritters, let them rest briefly so the excess oil drips off, and then toss them in granulated sugar mixed with the vanillin.
Serve these treats still hot and fragrant and you’ll see they are delicious!!