Couple of days back I watched everyday Italian in food network, where Giada made an Italian sweet calling it as Zeppole (Italian Donuts) !...hummm sounds interesting. But when you compare Giada's recipe with the dessert- Sicilian Sfinci ,You would agree to name it Sfinci rather Zeppole.
Sfinci are a regional sweet, originated in south of Italy and typically served during 19th of march .
I could able to make one today. Not that bad at all, it turned out well, I just followed Giada's recipe with slight alteration in the propotion, which is very simple to follow.

While searching net, I also found Rowena's blog which has good chunk of info about Zeppole:
http://rubbahslippahsinitaly.blogspot.com/2008/03/making-zeppole-interview-with-bakery.html
Refer the pics for Sfinci: http://www.comune.marsala.tp.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/4413
Few Important tips:
Make sure the oil is at right temp, this recipe calls for 375F. Else they wont cook well or it will get burnt, takes about 4-5 mins to get the golden brown color.
Ingredients:
Sugar - 3 tablespoons
Butter room temp - 1/2 stick
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2
All-purpose flour - 1/2 cup (self raising)
Large eggs - 2
Oil for frying

Method:
Mix Sugar, water and butter in a medium pan and heat till it boils.
Take off the pan from heat and add the flour mix well and keep in the heat again stir for 2-3 mins until it forms a ball.
By Using electric mixer add in the egg 1 after the other, incorporating the egg completely before going for the second. It comes to the consistency shown below.


Heat the oil to 375F and drop a spoon of dough, let it fry till it turns golden brown.
Once done, remove from heat and drizzle it with some sugar and serve immediately.

Comments (4)

On February 18, 2009 at 5:06 PM , Anonymous said...

Great looking Zeppole... Let see how it tastes ;)

 
On February 19, 2009 at 3:23 AM , Rowena said...

Ann, the first thing I thought of when I saw the pic were sicilian sfinci! Now, I believe Giada is from Rome(?) so it goes to show the yummy variety in which this particular treat signifies the traditional foodstuff for San Giuseppe/Father's Day. I could have one of those right now...but since you just reminded me of Sicily, I'm gonna go link-happy and leave a few:
Comune di Marsala
a BIG pot of sfinci (image)
sfinci from Eolian islands
italian cooking forum

 
On February 19, 2009 at 10:55 AM , Ann said...

Thanks Rowena, for the great links. I bet Giada swaped the recipe!!
I read abt the diff between these two..huh, looks like calling it as sfinci make more sense :)


Happy Cooking!
An'

 
On May 4, 2010 at 8:47 AM , Heatherfeather said...

These look incredible and very, very tempting.