Father’s Day in Italy is coming up on March 19, la festa di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Day. This holiday has given rise to any number of special dishes, some of which such as bignè di San Giuseppe and the pasta con la mollica we’ve already featured on this blog. Today I want to share with you the recipe for what might just be the most famous of all San Giuseppe dishes: zeppole di San Giuseppe.
Zeppole di San Giuseppe are doughnut like swirls of fluffy choux pastry, baked and dusted with confectioner’s sugar, then topped with another swirl of thick pastry cream and crowned with a black cherry.
This pastry looks delightful and it tastes even better than it looks! It’s surprisingly easy to pull off, so long as you arm yourself with a star-tipped pastry bag to give the confection its iconic swirly look. The whole process should take less than an hour.
Like other zeppole, zeppole di San Giuseppe were traditionally fried, but for today’s post I’m proposing a modern baked version, which is not only lighter (if not exactly dietetic) but also less fussy to make.
Even if you’re not celebrating Father’s Day this month, do give it a try!
Ingredients
Makes 4-5 zeppole
For the pastry dough:
- 50g/2 oz butter
- 1 Tbs sugar (optional)
- 250g/1 cup water
- a tiny pinch of salt
- 150g (1 cup) flour, preferably of the “OO” variety
- 3-4 eggs, beaten
For the pastry cream:
- 2 egg yolks
- 75g (1/3 cup) sugar
- 20g (2 Tbs) flour or corn starch
- 250 ml (2 cups) milk (or equal parts milk and cream)
- 1 tps vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean, split open)
For the topping:
- Confectioner’s (aka powdered) sugar
- Amarena or best quality maraschino cherries (one per zeppola)
Directions
Making the choux pastry
In a saucepan, bring the butter and water to a simmer. When the butter has melted, take off the heat and whisk in all the flour. Return to the heat and stir vigorously over a gentle flame for a minute or two, until the dough forms a smooth ball.
Turn the dough into the bowl of a standing mixer, spread it out over the bottom and sides with a spoon or spatula to speed cooling. Let it cool completely.
Place the bowl on the standing mixer with the whisk attached. Set the speed to medium and add the beaten eggs to the bowl one by one. Continue whisking the eggs into the dough until it obtains a smooth, thick paste-like consistency. (This step also works with a hand mixer, of course.)
Fill a pastry bag with a star tip with the dough. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, pipe doughnut shaped swirls of the dough about 8-10cm (3-4 inches) wide. Go round twice so that each zeppola has two layers of pastry, like so:
Bake your zeppole at 200C/400F for 25-30 minutes, or until they are cooked through and golden brown. They should puff up considerably as they bake.
Place them on a rack and let them cool completely.
Making the crema pasticciera (pastry cream)
In a standing mixer bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth and the mixture forms ‘ribbons’ as the whisk rotates. Then add the flour or cornstarch slowly, bit by bit, into the mixture until fully incorporated. The mixture should be a pale yellow and quite fluffy.
Meanwhile, heat the milk (or milk and cream) over moderate heat until hot but not boiling. You will see little bubbles just beginning to form around the edge of the pot. (If you are using a vanilla bean, add it to the milk and let it steep for a few minutes, then remove it.) Take the milk off the heat and drizzle it, little by little, into the mixer bowl.
Now pour the whole thing from the bowl into the pot (along with the vanilla extract if using) and put it over very gentle heat, whisking continuously and vigorously. After a while, it should begin to thicken. Keep stirring until you have a thick custard.
Remove from the heat, and let the mixture cool completely. It will thicken further as it cools.
Putting the zeppole together
Shortly before you’re ready to eat, dust each of the zeppole with confectioner’s sugar.
Then, using a star tipped pastry bag, pipe a good swirl of the pastry cream in the center of each zeppola, making sure to completely cover the hole in the middle.
Finally, place a cherry in the middle of the pastry cream.
Serve immediately, or within an hour or two.
Notes
The trickiest bit about making zeppole di San Giuseppe is getting the right consistency of dough. It should be a stiff paste, soft enough to pipe easily but firm enough to keep its shape. And for this, the crucial step is adding the eggs. Four is the usual number recipes call for, but since eggs vary in size, I would start with 3 eggs and see the consistency you get, then add another one if you think it needs it. If you overshoot the mark, you can always add a spoonful or two of flour to firm up the dough.
As for the pastry cream, the main pitfall is avoiding lumps. See the Notes for our post on sporcamuss for tips.
You’ll need a rather wide star shaped tip for your pastry bag for piping out the dough, so that your zeppole turn out the right size and shape. Italian recipes will specify 12-15mm wide, or about 1/2 inch. For our North American readers, I found that a 1M tip worked quite well, while my cyber friend Christina Conte of Christina’s Cucina recommends the similarly sized 2D tip. And you can use the same tip for piping out the pastry cream topping.
If you like, you can of course make the pastry cream first, then the choux pastry. There’s no special magic in the order. I just find it saves time to make the pastry first, then the cream while the pastry is baking. But whichever order you choose, make sure both are completely cool before proceeding with assembling your zeppole di San Giuseppe.
Choosing your cherries
Zeppole di San Giuseppe are topped with a cherry, most classically the black cherries in syrup that Italians call amarene sciroppate. The best known are the Fabbri brand, which you should be able to find in most well stocked supermarkets or online. Another delicious if less conventional option are best quality mareschino cherries imported from Italy. The Luxardo brand, which you can find in many liquor stores for making cocktails, is quite good. A note for US readers: please avoid those overly sweet, artificially flavored and bright red dyed atrocities you’ll find in supermarkets that make a mockery of the name “mareschino”.
Variations
If you want to use the traditional frying technique for making zeppole di san Giuseppe, pipe out the zeppole in the same way as indicated above, but use small squares of parchment paper for each zeppola. Get your oil nice and hot but not smoking, say around 180C/350F, and slip the zeppole into the oil one by one. Deep fry on both sides until golden brown.
One popular variation on the classic zeppole di San Giuseppe is adding chocolate to the pastry cream. It’s really easy to do, you just add a couple of spoonfuls of cocoa, or say 50g/2oz of bittersweet chocolate in small bits, to the still hot pastry cream. Stir until it melts.
Making ahead
Once you’ve assembled your zeppole di San Giuseppe, you should really eat them right away, no more than an hour or so later.
That said, you can make the component parts as much as a day or two ahead, then assemble them right before you want to eat. The pastry cream should be stored in the oven, with plastic wrap on top to prevent a film from forming. The pastry should be stored in a cool place loosely wrapped in paper as you would a loaf of bread.
We’re on Substack!
As our subscriber list continues to grow, the fees for maintaining our newsletter on our current platform (Mailchimp) are growing, too. And sustaining those costs is becoming unsustainable if I want to keep the newsletter free of charge, which I do! Hence we’re making a trial move to Substack, which is completely free, both for us and for you.
If you’re not already signed up, you can do so right here and never miss another new post:
For our current readers and newsletter subscribers, nothing much should change. While some other bloggers are moving their whole operation to Substack, for the moment, I plan to use Substack simply as an alternative platform for sending out our weekly newsletters. But Substack does provide other cool features, including a forum for social interacting in ways that a website doesn’t allow. So look out for those features coming in the future!
As always, there is nothing either on my Substack website or on this website that’s hidden behind a paywall. That said, if you want, you support us via a paid Substack subscription to help defray the costs of maintaining the blog, that’d be awesome!
And if you want to share any feedback or ask any questions on this pilot move, feel free to let me know.
Zeppole di San Giuseppe
Ingredients
For the pastry dough
- 50g 2 oz butter
- 1 Tbs sugar optional
- 250g 1 cup water
- a tiny pinch of salt
- 150g 1 cup flour preferably of the "OO" variety
- 3-4 eggs beaten
For the pastry cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 75g 1/3 cup sugar
- 20g 2 Tbs flour or corn starch
- 250ml 2 cups milk or equal parts milk and cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or a vanilla bean, split open
For the topping
- confectioner's (aka powdered) sugar
- black cherries in syrup preferably amarene or best quality maraschinos
Instructions
Make the choux pastry base
- In a saucepan, bring the butter and water to a simmer. When the butter has melted, take off the heat and whisk in all the flour. Return to the heat and stir vigorously over a gentle flame for a minute or two, until the dough forms a smooth ball.
- Turn the dough into the bowl of a standing mixer, spread it out over the bottom and sides with a spoon or spatula to speed cooling. Let it cool completely.
- Place the bowl on the standing mixer with the whisk attached. Set the speed to medium and add the beaten eggs to the bowl one by one. Continue whisking the eggs into the dough until it obtains a smooth, thick paste-like consistency.
- Fill a pastry bag with a star tip with the dough. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, pipe doughnut shaped swirls of the dough about 8-10cm (3-4 inches) wide. Go round twice so that each zeppola has two layers of pastry.
- Bake your zeppole at 200C/400F for 25-30 minutes, or until they are cooked through and golden brown.
- Place them on a rack and let them cool complete
Make the pastry cream
- In a standing mixer bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth and the mixture forms ‘ribbons’ as the whisk rotates. Then add the flour or cornstarch slowly, bit by bit, into the mixture until fully incorporated. The mixture should be a pale yellow and quite fluffy.
- Meanwhile, heat the milk (or milk and cream) over moderate heat until hot but not boiling. You will see little bubbles just beginning to form around the edge of the pot. (If you are using a vanilla bean, add it to the milk and let it steep for a few minutes, then remove it.) Take the milk off the heat and drizzle it, little by little, into the mixer bowl.
- Now pour the whole thing from the bowl into the pot (along with the vanilla extract if using) and put it over very gentle heat, whisking continuously and vigorously. After a while, it should begin to thicken. Keep stirring until you have a thick custard.
- Remove from the heat, and let the mixture cool completely. It will thicken further as it cools.
Assemble your zeppole
- Shortly before you're ready to eat, dust each of the zeppole with confectioner's sugar.
- Then, using a star tipped pastry bag, pipe a good swirl of the pastry cream in the center of each zeppola, making sure to completely cover the hole in the middle.
- Finally, place a cherry in the middle of the pastry cream.
- Serve immediately, or within an hour or two.
And you might also like...
Parmigiana bianca di zucchine
Cavolfiore alla Cavour (Cauliflower à la Cavour)
Patate in tecia
Capesante alla veneziana (Venetian Style Scallops)
Minestrone alla genovese
Zucchine a fiammifero (Zucchini Matchsticks)
Frico
Polpette di sedano (Tuscan Celery Balls)
Arrosto di maiale con cipolline (Roast Pork with Pearl Onions)
Insalata di arance e finocchi (Orange and Fennel Salad)
Carbonara di carciofi (Artichoke Carbonara)
Insalata di polpo (Octopus Salad)
30 Comments on “Zeppole di San Giuseppe”
A classic! They look fab, Frank!
Would you believe La Cucina Italiana (online, not sure about the print copy) used my photo and attributed my zeppole to an Italian chef? They won’t budge on removing it, and I even wrote to ask the chef if he could tell them…niente. So frustrating 🙁
Wow, that’s crazy. I would have thought that La Cucina Italiana wouldn’t engage in that kind of unethical behavior. But looking on the bright side, I guess you can take it as a kind of backhanded compliment…
I grew up in Cliffside Park NJ in the 1960s (born in Hoboken). Mostly Italian at the time. We always got zeppoles on Fest di San Giussepe. The pastry shops also used cannoli cream as a filling, which I preferred.
Hmm… Sounds to me like sfinci di San Giuseppe, a variation on the classic zeppole from Palermo.
Now this is how I want to celebrate Father’s Day! I do love pastry cream, and the Italians know how to use it well. I still remember a croissant (of sorts) filled with pastry cream that we ate in a hotel in Anacapri – it was THAT memorable!
Anything with pastry cream, amirite?
buona festa del papà for tomorrow. It has been a while since I last made zeppole di San Giuseppe. Yours look like I should be having them right now for breakfast 🙂
Thanks, Tandy! And yes, they’re wonderful with a cappuccino for breakfast!
This takes me back to my first winter in Rome. First world oil crisis, so little light and no heat, but there were cream puffs on Saint Joseph’s Day. No complaints there!
Ha! I’m sure they helped ease the discomfort.
Woops…I mean to say zeppole and not bigne!
👍
Yum, I can’t believe that these delicious little pastries exist and that I’ve never had one. I’m definitely doing without.
That’s an omission I suggest you correct ASAP, Karen!
these look so very delicious Frank. Not something I would make myself but something to drool over …
Definitely drool worthy, Sherry.
I’ve been dreaming of these bigne since we had them and loved them in Rome in 2020 during the “season”. And after doing a taste comparison we gave two definite thumbs up to the baked variety. As far as the custard…well, let’s just say I adore the stuff! And I’ve a jar of the Fabbri cherries on hand too! Guess I’m just going to have to make some! Thanks for reminding me of how good they are!
Sounds like you’re well stocked, Eleanor! Buon San Giuseppe!
I’ve never had a Zeppole, although I’ve heard / read about them a lot. They look so beautiful – that’s a quintessence of elegance in pastry, I would say. And simple flavours yet nothing short of amazing!
That’s so kind of you to say, Ben.
I have always wanted to make these, Frank, but I’ve never had a good recipe. So thank you for that! When I lived near Boston’s North End, we were going to one of the more famous pastry shops to have one of these, and my friend said, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a doughnut.” Little did he know…
I’d say so, lol!
These zeppole di San Giuseppe sound like the perfect treat for Father’s Day or any special occasion! The combination of fluffy choux pastry, creamy pastry cream, and a sweet cherry on top sounds absolutely divine.
Thanks, Raymund!
I wait patiently every year for these. Being from Boston’s North End we had a lot of choices but many pastry shops have gone by. Went to Modern Pastry last year. They fill them when you order. No soggy pastry crust. HEAVEN…🥰.
Excellent! I didn’t even know you could buy them in the US. Good to know there’s at least one place that makes them.
I know I’d love these because I love crème pâtissière! I used to go to a fabulous patisserie and tea shop (run by an old Belgian lady) in the 70 and 80s, which sold doughnuts filled with crème pâtissière, decades before anyone else did it …and they were cheap. These days posh doughnuts with the same filling cost a fortune and people queue up for them!
Yep, it’s always the way, isn’t it? Personally I have a strict rule, I never wait on line (queue) for food. That ended when I left school!
My husband loves choux pastry. These look terrific!
Thanks, Angie!