Italian Zeppole di San Giuseppe Recipe
Zeppole di San Giuseppe is a traditional Italian pastry consisting of a Pâte à Choux pastry shell filled with cream and topped with a black cherry. The Pâte à Choux pastry is made in a saucepan by combining flour, eggs, butter, salt and water until it forms a smooth pipeable dough.
The dough is piped into a round shape and cooked before being filled with crema pasticceria then dusted with powdered sugar.
Crema pasticceria is Italian pastry cream. Like the dough, it is also prepared by cooking in a saucepan. It’s made with flour, sugar, eggs, milk, cream or both. The classic filling is vanilla flavored but other popular flavors are lemon, chocolate and ricotta. The cherries used are amarena, a dark tart cherry preserved in syrup.
Zeppoles may be fried or baked. When baked they have a lighter texture. Variations include different flavored fillings or adding fruit or nuts. Non-traditional zeppole can be found filled with other types of cream like mascarpone.
Origin and Cultural Significance
‘Zeppole di San Guiseppe’ means pastry of St Joseph in English. The pastry is prepared for the Festa de San Guiseppe or the feast of St. Joseph which honors biblical Joseph, for his role as a husband to the Virgin Mary and earthly father to her son Jesus.
Italian Zeppole di San Giuseppe Recipe
Zeppole di San Giuseppe is a traditional Italian pastry consisting of a Pâte à Choux pastry shell filled with cream and topped with a black cherry.
Ingredients
Cream
- Egg yolks (organic) - 4
- White sugar - 75g
- Potato starch (if using corn starch add 1 more tsp) - 30g
- Salt - pinch
- Milk (warm) - 415 ml
- Vanilla - 1 tsp
Pastry
- Butter - 4 oz.
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Water - 8 oz.
- Flour - 5 oz.
- Eggs - 4
Garnish
- Powdered sugar - 5 tbsp
- Fabbri cherries - 16
Instructions
Cream
- Place the egg yolks into a medium sized pot (off the heat).
- Add the sugar and potato or corn starch and whisk together until uniform.
- When the mixture is smooth, place the pot on the stovetop.
- Begin pouring in the warm milk whilst whisking.
- Turn the heat on to medium.
- Continue whisking and gradually increase the heat. The pastry cream will thicken as it heats up.
- When the mixture comes to a boil, let it cook for about 3 minutes then remove from the heat.
- Add the vanilla and keep stirring as it cools so that it doesn't form a skin.
- Move into a large bowl and set the bowl into a larger bowl with ice water (if you need to cool it quickly), then refrigerate covered until completely chilled.
Pastry
- Heat oven to 400ºF.
- Prepare the choux pastry, by placing the butter, sugar and water in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat
- Bring to a rolling boil.
- Add the flour, all at once, and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon for about a minute until the mixture forms a ball.
- Remove from heat, keep stirring to cool the dough.
- When cooled slightly, add an egg and beat well until well incorporated, before adding the next.
- Repeat with remaining eggs until the batter is smooth and satiny.
- Place in piping bag or spoon onto a baking tray lined with a
silicone sheet or parchment paper into small puffs, about 3" apart. - Make a small divot on the top of each puff with the back of a teaspoon.
- Bake for about 30 minutes.
- Turn off the oven and leave for 10 minutes.
- Place on cooling rack, let cool completely.
Decorate
- Make a hole with a skewer, into the side of the choux pastry.
- Fill the hole with pastry cream using a piping bag.
- Pipe more filling into the indentation on top and dust with powdered sugar.
- Top with a cherry.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 170Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 110mgSodium: 88mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 1gSugar: 10gProtein: 4g
Nutrition is provided and calculated by Nutritionix. It is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimation.
