Apulian Christmas Pettole (Bimby Recipe).
How to prepare pettole? Today I present a typical recipe from my region Puglia, pettole, delicious fritters traditionally prepared during Advent. Pettole are soft balls of leavened dough, very soft and fried in hot oil. The rule is to knead the typical sticky dough with your hands and work it vigorously, just like our grandmothers did. However, today we have handy kitchen assistants that do the kneading for us. For this recipe, I used the Bimby, which halved the working time for excellent results. Those without a Bimby can use a mixer or even better, a stand mixer.
Let’s see how to prepare Apulian Christmas pettole!!!
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: recipe for about 50 pettole
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 526.56 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 18.90 (g) of which sugars 0.25 (g)
- Proteins 2.75 (g)
- Fat 50.40 (g) of which saturated 8.55 (g)of which unsaturated 39.39 (g)
- Fibers 3.44 (g)
- Sodium 291.75 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 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 to make Apulian Christmas Pettole (Bimby Recipe)
- 4 cups flour
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 0.5 oz salt
- fresh yeast (1 cube)
- 4 1/4 cups peanut oil
The pettole were born by accident from a woman who, while listening to the sound of bagpipers, forgot she had made dough for bread and when she checked it, she realized the dough had over-proofed. So she decided to heat oil to fry balls of this highly leavened dough. During frying in the hot oil, she noticed the pieces of dough puffed up wonderfully. Then she decided to call these golden balls, soft inside.. Baby Jesus Pillows.
Tools to make Apulian Christmas Pettole (Bimby Recipe)
- Bimby
- Mixer with spiral beaters
- Beaters
- Pan for frying with high edges
- Slotted Spoon
- Bowl for proofing
How to prepare pettole
Place water, crumbled yeast, and sugar in the bowl: 5 Seconds. Speed 5.
Add the flour and salt (strictly in this order, the yeast must never come into contact with the salt): 3 Minutes, Kneading Speed.
The final result should be a homogeneous dough, sticky but not excessively liquid as it needs a certain elasticity
Cover the bowl and place it in the oven with the light on (this creates the right proofing temperature) for about two hours (until almost doubled).
Take a pot with high edges and add the peanut oil, heat it to the right temperature, and with the help of a spoon, take some dough and fry the pettole. Each time you take a new spoonful of dough, wet the spoon in a glass of water, so it is always clean (be careful not to let water drops enter the hot oil).
The exact amount of water is the secret to success, I believe, lies right there…
TIPS AND NOTES
FROM THE WEB.. EVERY PLACE HAS ITS OWN CUSTOMS..
Every town here in the south has its own way of filling them… savory, sweet, there are countless variations!
If you want them even tastier, just divide the dough into more parts, adding a handful of crumbled tomatoes in one part, or small pieces of anchovies with a few capers or hearts of boiled cauliflower.
….I made them today and they turned out spectacular! The same taste as my dear Apulian grandmother. Thank you for taking me back to sweet moments spent in her company.
Try making them with anchovies and salted olives in the dough… divine!!!! Simply add salted anchovies in pieces and pitted olives to the dough.
Must try them filled with sweetened ricotta and then sprinkled with sugar, delicious!
If you liked my recipe, give it a star rating! For any clarifications, you can write to me in the comments! THANK YOU
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