Lightly sweetened, crispy on the outside, pillowy and airy on the inside, with a delicious whipped custard cream, these zeppole di San Giuseppe (Saint-Joseph’s pastries) are a delicoius treat to make during the Easter! Traditionally eaten on March 19 to celebrate St-Joseph’s day, these pastries can usually be found until Easter. As Montreal has a big Italian community, especially in the neighborhood where I lived growing up, I would enjoy eating zeppole every Easter.
Moreover, the version I have grown to love, which is the traditional way, is fried. They are a hybrid between a beignet, made with choux pastry dough. However, you can also find baked zeppole, which taste more like cream puffs. Furthermore, different fillings can be eaten with them: custard, cannoli ricotta filling, nutella, pistachio cream, etc. The sky’s the limit for making the zeppole filling! The one I am showing today is made with a vanilla whipped custard cream with mini chocolate chips, which gives a ligther texture than custard.
Finally, to be more efficient, I suggest making the custard cream first before making the zeppole. This is because the custard needs to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Ingredients you need to make this recipe:
- Flour: All you need is all-purpose flour for this recipe, nothing fancy!
- Eggs: The eggs will add texture and make the dough puff up when fried.
- Frying Oil: You need to choose a good frying oil by paying attention to its smoke point, which is the temperature where the oil starts to break down and smokes. For most frying recipes, including this one, you need your oil to reach a temperature of 350°F to 375°F. Your oil also needs to have a neutral taste. Do not use olive oil as not only it has a low smoke point of 325°F, but also has a strong taste. For this recipe, I am using avocado oil.
- Butter: I recommend using unsalted butter to make zeppole. If you are using salted butter, you can skip the pinch of salt.
HOW TO MAKE ZEPPOLE DI SAN GIUSEPPE
MAKING THE WHIPPED CUSTARD CREAM
In a saucepan, add milk and split vanilla pod on medium heat until it comes to a boil. Turn off heat and let the vanilla infuse for 15 minutes. (Here I also had to cut my pod in half since it was too long for the saucepan.)
In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until it has lightened in color. Whisk in cornstarch and mix until homogeneous.
While whisking, slowly pour the steady milk mixture until incorporated. PRO TIP: This step is called tempering the eggs. If you add the milk too quickly, the eggs will cook.
Pour the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan. Scrape off the vanilla beans and add to the saucepan. PRO TIP: It is important to strain the mixture back into the saucepan because you want a smooth custard cream. Moreover, do not waste those precious vanilla beans!
Cook over medium heat while whisking continuously until the custard thickens and becomes bubbly. Remove from heat, add butter and whisk until incorporated. Cover tightly with a plastic wrap, pressing the plastic against the custard to prevent a film from forming. Let it cool to room temperature and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. PRO TIP: The addition of butter will smoothen the custard cream further.
Once the custard cream has chilled, in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium speed, beat cold heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks. Manually fold in the whipped cream into the custard cream. PRO TIP: Make sure your heavy whipping cream is cold fresh out of the fridge. Otherwise, it will not whip well.
Add to a piping bag with a piping tip, cover the tip and put back into the refrigerator until ready to pipe. PRO TIP: Covering the tip will prevent the filling from drying out. When it does, it will block the piping tip and I promise you that you will get frustrated trying to unblock it!
MAKING THE ZEPPOLE
In a saucepan on medium heat, bring to a boil water, butter, sugar and salt. Lower the heat, add all-purpose flour and mix with a spatula until the flour is fully incorporated into a dough.
Transfer dough into a mixing bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and let it run on medium speed to cool down for about 5 minutes. PRO TIP: You need to let it run before adding the eggs. Otherwise, you will end up with cooked eggs in your pastry dough!
Add eggs, one at a time and vanilla extract until incorporated and the pastry dough becomes a silky ribbon-like consistency. Scrape the edge and bottom of the mixing bowl as often as necessary.
Transfer the pastry dough into a piping bag with a piping tip. Pipe in a circle of rosettes on pre-cut parchment paper pieces of about 3-4 inches wide.
FRYING THE ZEPPOLE AND PIPING THE WHIPPED CUSTARD CREAM
Add at least 1.5 inch of frying oil in a Dutch oven or fryer and bring to a temperature of 350°F. Add the piped zeppole upside down and remove the parchment paper with heatproof tongs. Fry zeppole until golden brown. Let them sit on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
Once the zeppole are slightly cooled, pipe the whipped custard cream by either cutting the zeppole in half to pipe in the middle or leave the zeppole whole and pipe on top. Add mini chocolate chips and dust with some powdered sugar.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I store these? Zeppole are best eaten freshly fried. However, you can store fried zeppole (without the filling) in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days. When ready to be eaten, you can reheat them at 325°F for about 5 minutes or until they are warm through and pipe the whipped custard cream. You can also freeze unfilled fried zeppole in an airtight bag up to 2 months.
Can I make this dessert in advance? You can actually make both the whipped custard cream and zeppole dough in advance! You can store them in piping bags in the refrigerator for 2 days. Make sure you cover the pipping tip to prevent your dough and whipped custard cream from drying out.
If you enjoyed this Zeppole di San Giuseppe, check out my other dessert recipes!
Chocolate Orange Pistachio Biscotti
Chocolate Ganache-Filled Madeleines
Fresh Mint Strawberry & Mango Mini Pavlovas
Moreover, if you’ve tried this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can let me know how it went by commenting in the comments section below and don’t forget to leave a rating!
Equipment
- Standmixer
- Dutch oven or fryer
- Piping bag and tip
- Saucepan
Ingredients
For Zeppole:
- 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (180ml) water
- 6 TBSP (85g) unsalted butter
- 2 TBSP (25g) white sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
- Oil for frying
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- Mini chocolate chips to garnish
For the whipped custard cream:
- 1 ½ cup (360ml) whole milk
- 1 Vanilla bean split lengthwise
- 5 egg yolks
- ½ cup + 2 TBSP (125g) white granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (32g) cornstarch
- 1 TBSP (14g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup (120ml) cold heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Making the whipped custard cream
- In a saucepan, add milk and vanilla bean on medium heat until it comes to a boil. Turn off heat and let the vanilla infuse for 15 minutes.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until it has lightened in color. Whisk in cornstarch and mix until homogeneous.
- While whisking, slowly pour the milk mixture until incorporated.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan. Scrape off the vanilla beans and add to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat while whisking continuously until the custard thickens and becomes bubbly.
- Remove from heat, add butter and whisk until incorporated.
- Cover tightly with a plastic wrap, pressing the plastic against the custard to prevent a film from forming. Let it cool to room temperature and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Once the custard cream has chilled, in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium speed, beat cold heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks.
- Manually fold in the whipped cream into the custard cream.
- Add to a piping bag with a piping tip, cover the tip and put back into the refrigerator until ready to pipe.
Making the zeppole
- In a saucepan on medium heat, bring to a boil water, butter, sugar and salt. Lower the heat, add all-purpose flour and mix with a spatula until the flour is fully incorporated into a dough.
- Transfer dough into a mixing bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and let it run on medium speed to cool down for about 5 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time and vanilla extract until incorporated and the pastry dough becomes a silky ribbon-like consistency. Scrape the edge and bottom of the mixing bowl as often as necessary.
- Transfer the pastry dough into a piping bag with a piping tip and pipe in a circle rosettes on pre-cut parchment paper pieces of about 3-4 inches wide.
Frying the zeppole and piping whipped custard cream
- Add at least 1.5 inch of frying oil in a Dutch oven or fryer and bring to a temperature of 350°F. Add the piped zeppole upside down and remove the parchment paper with heatproof tongs. Fry zeppole until golden brown.
- Let them sit on paper towels to absorb excess oil.
- Once the zeppole are slightly cooled, pipe the whipped custard cream by either cutting the zeppole in half to pipe in the middle or leave the zeppole whole and pipe on top.
