Pistachio-flavored carnival fried dough, oh my, how delicious! Even tastier, I assure you that these are a must-try immediately, as they are addictive. They are very easy to prepare; you just need to make any fried dough you like, with or without eggs, with butter or cream, olive oil, and once ready, we enrich them with pistachio chocolate. To make pistachio chocolate, we use only 2 ingredients: milk chocolate and pistachio paste or, alternatively, pistachio cream which is easier to find. For the fried dough, we prepare it with our favorite recipe; I used my classic recipe. For the liquor, I used alchermes, but grappa, anise, rum, or other liquors are also fine, or alternatively, orange juice works perfectly.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 40 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Carnival
Ingredients for Pistachio Carnival Fried Dough
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 medium eggs
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/3 oz liquor
- 2 tbsp butter
- to taste vanilla
- to taste orange or lemon zest
- as needed sunflower seed oil for frying
- 7 oz white milk chocolate
- 4 tbsp pistachio cream
- to taste colored sprinkles
Tools to Prepare Pistachio Carnival Fried Dough
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Pasta Machine
- 1 Pastry Wheel
- 1 Kneading Board
- 1 Frying Pan
- 2 Small Bowls
- 1 Tablespoon
- 1 Teaspoon
- 4 Paper Towel
- 1 Tray
Steps to Prepare Pistachio Carnival Fried Dough
Let’s start preparing the dough for the fried dough in a bowl by simply adding all the ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and grated orange or lemon zest, the liquor—alchermes or one of your choice—and preferably melted butter. Knead until you get a nice, homogeneous, and elastic dough. Let it rest for at least half an hour.
After the resting time, take the dough, divide it into at least 6 parts, and roll each one with the pasta machine to obtain thin sheets. Ideally, the dough should not be sticky so you don’t need to use too much flour, but if needed, you can use a little as you go, just before passing the sheet to the final level, so you have a sheet not too covered with flour.
To roll out the sheet, start working with open rolls at the lowest level, fold the sheet and pass it several times at this level until you have a regular sheet. Then tighten the rolls, one level at a time, and gradually obtain a thin sheet; I stop at the penultimate level, 5 or 6, last if you want them very thin.
Place the sheets on a perfectly clean surface, without the need to use flour. With a pastry wheel, cut the dough into rectangles, with or without central cuts.
Fry in plenty of hot oil at about 340°F, let it brown on both sides, and immediately soak the dough in oil so they magically puff up. Lightly brown on both sides before drying on absorbent paper, never overlapping them.
Prepare the melted white chocolate by cooking it in a double boiler, in a saucepan or in the microwave with 2 small bowls, place water in one at the base and the broken chocolate in the other. Heat for a few seconds at a time at medium power, so as not to risk burning the very delicate white chocolate.
Once the chocolate is melted, add the pistachio cream and mix. Use it immediately before it hardens. Place the cold fried dough on a large tray and spoon pistachio chocolate over them. Let them cool before moving them. It is ideal to prepare several trays of fried dough ready to be covered with chocolate. I forgot, I also added, as I went along, with the chocolate still hot and therefore soft, some colorful sugar sprinkles, remember to put them on immediately, otherwise, you might find the chocolate already hardened.
Let the chocolate harden and then you can even stack them on a single tray ready to enjoy.
