Zeppole di San Giuseppe
The dessert for Saint Joseph's day, 19 March, which in Italy is also Father's Day. Zeppole are double rings of choux pastry, piped with a star nozzle, with a swirl of lemon-scented pastry cream and an amarena cherry in the centre. Traditionally fried, today more often baked. The key is the double ring — one ring piped on another — which gives high walls and a hollow for the cream.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Pastry cream 20 min
- Choux paste 20 min
- Baking 30 min
- Drying and cooling 35 min
- Filling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook a thick lemon-scented pastry cream
Bring the milk to a boil with the lemon peel and split vanilla. Beat the yolks with the sugar and cornflour, whisk in half the hot milk in a thin stream, then return everything to the pan. Cook, stirring, until thick and bubbling, plus a minute. Remove the peel and vanilla, press film onto the surface and chill.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 40 g cornflour · 1 pcs lemon · ½ pcs vanilla pod
Blipping, then a minute more — film on the surface.Cook the choux base
Boil the water with the butter, sugar and salt, tip in the flour at once and beat over the heat 2 minutes, until it forms a ball and leaves a thin film on the base. Transfer to a bowl and stir 3 minutes to cool.
Ingredients: 250 ml water · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
Add the eggs one at a time
Beat in the eggs one at a time until absorbed. Beat the last egg and add it gradually — you may not need all of it. The paste should be stiffer than for profiteroles — falling slowly from the spoon and holding its shape. Too loose, it cannot hold a double ring and spreads in the oven.
Ingredients: 250 ml water · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
Pipe double rings
Spoon into a bag with a large star nozzle and pipe a 7 cm ring onto paper, then, without stopping, a second ring on top. The double layer gives high walls and a hollow for the cream.
Ingredients: 250 ml water · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
A ring on a ring — high walls and a well for cream.Bake without opening the oven
Bake 20 minutes at 200°C, then 10 minutes at 180°C, until golden and light. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes — choux collapses in cool air.
Ingredients: 250 ml water · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
Dry them in the open oven
Switch off and leave the zeppole 5 minutes with the door ajar. The inside steams dry and the shell firms. Taken out at once they sink, the centre still damp.
Ingredients: 250 ml water · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
Pipe the cream into the centre
Fill the cooled zeppole with a swirl of cream piped into the hollow, injecting a little into the ring from below. Whisk the cream briefly first so it is smooth.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 120 g sugar · 40 g cornflour · 1 pcs lemon · ½ pcs vanilla pod
A swirl in the well and a little inside.Add a cherry and dust with sugar
Top each swirl with an amarena cherry and a little syrup and dust the edges with icing sugar. Serve within two hours — choux softens from the cream's moisture.
Ingredients: 12 pcs amarena cherries in syrup · 2 tbsp icing sugar
Before you start
Fried or baked
Original zeppole are deep fried, giving a crisper, somewhat richer pastry. The baked version is lighter and easier at home. Neapolitan pastry shops sell both side by side.
Amarena, not cocktail cherries
Amarena is a variety of bittersweet sour cherry, candied in thick syrup. Red cocktail cherries are too sweet and artificial. As a stand-in use well-drained cherries from homemade preserve.
Baked rings ahead
Empty baked zeppole keep two days in a tin and freeze well. Refresh 5 minutes in a 180°C oven before filling. The cream keeps three days in the fridge.
