These Italian treats often served during St. Joseph’s Day are traditional pastries you must try! Although the traditional ones are often deep-fried, this zeppole recipe has pastry shells that are baked with pastry cream inside.
How To Make Zeppole (Italian Donuts)
Zeppole is a fluffy donut made of cream puff dough, and deep fried for a crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside treat.
Prep:
30 mins
Cool and Chill:
1 hr 15 mins
Cook:
1 hr
Total:
2 hrs 45 mins
Ingredients
Pastry Cream:
- 4 egg yolks
- 21⁄2 cups milk
- ½ cup heavy cream, chilled
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
- orange zest, or lemon from 1 orange
Pastry Shells:
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp sugar
To serve:
- maraschino cherries, destemmed or stemmed
- powdered sugar
Instructions
Pastry Cream:
- Sift together your flour, cornstarch, & salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- In a saucepan, add the milk and lemon or orange zest. Bring to a simmer, then set aside in a warm area. Discard the citrus zest.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar for roughly 5 to 8 minutes until pale and light.
- Afterward, fold in your sifted flour mixture until evenly incorporated.
- Temper your egg mixture by pouring in roughly ¼ cup of the milk mixture slowly and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepot and cook on medium-low heat until the mixture thickens. Stir continuously.
- Once thickened, quickly remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and strain into a bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap. It should be sticking directly on top of your pastry cream to avoid forming skin. Set aside in the chiller until chilled completely.
Pastry Shells:
- In a large saucepan, add the water, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil.
- Turn your heat down to very low, then add the flour. Continuously stir with a wooden spoon for roughly 3to 5 minutes until the flour has completely absorbed the liquid and slightly cook at the same time.
- Quickly transfer the dough into a stand mixer. Beat for no more than 3 minutes until the dough is completely cooled off.
- Add one egg at a time, beating in between until incorporated. Set aside for about 15 minutes to cool down completely at room temperature.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place the dough in a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper then pipe out little “nests” that are about 2½-inches wide and 3 levels high, while maintaining a few inches apart from each other.
- Bake these for about 35 to 40 minutes or until deeply golden brown. Allow it to cool completely at room temperature.
Assembly:
- Whip your heavy cream until stiff peaks, then fold into your chilled pastry cream.
- Fill up a pastry bag that has any tip with the pastry cream.
- Slice your pastry shells in half, then pipe in roughly 2 ounces of your pastry cream.
- Cover with the remaining half of your shell, then pipe the hollow middle with roughly ¼ ounce of pastry cream.
- Place a maraschino cherry on top and repeat until you have assembled all the cakes this way. Dust with powdered sugar and serve!
Nutrition
- Sugar: 324g
- :
- Calcium: 7994mg
- Calories: 4221kcal
- Carbohydrates: 332g
- Cholesterol: 1002mg
- Fat: 229g
- Fiber: 1g
- Iron: 2mg
- Monounsaturated Fat: 51g
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g
- Potassium: 9779mg
- Protein: 219g
- Saturated Fat: 133g
- Sodium: 2609mg
- Trans Fat: 1g
- Vitamin A: 11297IU
- Vitamin C: 1mg
Want to share your experience making Zeppole or discuss variations on this classic Italian treat? Join the conversation in the Baking and Desserts forum section!
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