Tag: fried

Sgonfiotti di Castagne (Hannukah Chestnut Puffs)

Hannukah Italian Baroness Tapuzina

If you have been following me for a while, you know by now that I like to try something different each year for Hannukah as well as other holidays in the Jewish calendar. Most of the time they turn out great and sometimes they don’t turn out so great. Usually I don’t blog about the disasters. I tried making pumpkin fritters for the first night of Hannukah. They smelled great, they looked good, but they tasted like fried goo. Thank goodness I had a lovely gargantuan fresh mango for Plan B.

I had bought chestnut flour a while back and kept forgetting to make something with it. I found all sorts of interesting recipes only to find out they tasted terrible. Either they were dry and tasteless or wet and gooey. I found an Italian recipe for chestnuts puffs and thought I would give them a try. The worst that could happen was that I will never buy chestnut flour again.

The dough did not rise very much and I didn’t have high hopes on the dough puffing up at all, but lo and behold, the dough did work. The taste is very interesting, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. They have the faint sweetness of fresh chestnut. Mr BT loved them. They are not very sweet, they almost taste like a fried graham cracker, but not. I am still on the fence about whether I really like them or not, but buying more chestnut flour is a great excuse for going to Umbria on another holiday. Maybe I do like the puffs after all.

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Sgonfiotti di Castagne - (Hannukah Chestnut Puffs)
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1-1/4 chestnut flour
  • 1/4 icing sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon optional
  • 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour plus extra for dusting
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Vegetable oil
Instructions
  1. Mix the warm water and yeast in mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
  2. In separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup of chestnut flour, the icing sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
  3. In the mixing bowl, add the remaining 3/4 chestnut flour, all purpose flour, granulated sugar, butter, egg, and salt. Beat at medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 45 minutes.
  4. Heat about 7cm (3 inches) of oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat.
  5. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll one piece of dough to 3mm (1/8-inch) thick. Cut rounds using a floured 38mm (1-1/2 inch) round cutter.
  6. Fry the rounds, about 10 at a time, turning once until puffed golden, 30 to 45 seconds. Drain on a paper towel. Dust with the reserved chestnut-sugar mixture and serve warm or a room temperature.

Italian Soufganyiot – Frittole

Hannukah Italian Baroness Tapuzina

Chag Hannukah Sameach everyone! Happy Hannukah.

We were invited to a lovely Hannukah party at a friend’s house. So, I decided to make an Italian fritter that is usually made for Carnevale, but is quite fitting for our oily festival. Every region in Italy has their own fritter recipe: mine is from the imaginary province of Italy where we live in central Israel.

Our landlord recently surprised us one Friday morning by planting three lovely citrus trees: a clementine, a lemon, and an orange tree. He also brought us a large box of clementines and oranges to eat.

So, I decided to make some candied orange peel with some of the oranges and they were a perfect addition to the Hannukah fritters. These are lightly candied because I do not like to make them with a lot of sugar.

These fritters are also not too sweet because I cut the sugar in half. So, if you have a sweet tooth, you can make them with 1/2 cup of sugar. I also think the dusting of sugar is not necessary because the sweetness of the apples and the candied orange is enough.

Because they are not fried for very long, the apples remain crunchy enough to still taste fresh. Mr. BT thinks that next time we should also add some fresh or candied ginger to the batter in order to give it a real kick.

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Frittole di Mela, Uvetta, Scorza D'arancia Candita E Pistacchio
(Apple, Raisin, Candied Orange Rind and Pistachio Fritters) Adapted from a recipe from Kyle Phillips of ItalianFoodAbout.Com
Ingredients
No yeast method:
  • 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour plus 2 more tablespoons
  • 1/4 cup sugar plus more for dusting (if you want)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk may need to add a little more
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup raisins muscatel if possible
  • 1/2 cup chopped pistachios or whole pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup candied orange rind minced
  • 2 large granny smith apples
  • Brandy
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Zest and juice of one small lemon
  • Oil for frying
Yeast method:
  • 20 g fresh yeast or 1 sachet instant dried yeast
  • 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm milk
  • 2 cups flour
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar plus more for dusting (if you want)
  • 1/2 cup raisins muscatel if possible
  • 1/2 chopped pistachios or whole pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup candied orange rind minced
  • 2 granny smith apples
  • Brandy
  • Zest and juice of one small lemon
  • Oil for frying
Instructions
No yeast method:
  1. Put the raisins in a small bowl and soak in brandy for one hour, until plump.
  2. Grate the zest of the lemon. Peel, core and cut the apples into a medium dice. Set aside and sprinkle the juice of the lemon you just zested on the apples.
  3. Mix the eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Add the flour, baking powder and milk. Then fold in the pistachio nuts, apples and candied orange. Drain the raisins well and dust them with the 2 tablespoons of flour, shaking them in a strainer to remove the excess flour. Fold them into the flour mixture.
  4. Heat the oil on medium-high heat and when it is hot, drop the batter a tablespoon at a time into the hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper and dust optionally with sugar.
  5. Serve immediately. These do not keep well.
Yeast method:
  1. Put the raisins in a small bowl and soak in brandy for one hour, until plump.
  2. In another bowl, mix together yeast and warm milk. Add flour, salt, sugar, apples, pistachios, candied peel and raisins to the batter. Whisk together well to make a thick batter. Cover and leave in a warm place for 2-3 hours, or until volume has doubled.
  3. Heat the oil on medium-high heat and when it is hot, drop the batter a tablespoon at a time into the hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper and dust optionally with sugar.