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My choice was a dessert because they’re just so much fun to make. These are Zeppole. They are Italian doughnuts that are just divine. This is the kind of treat that you can’t stop at one.
They are so surprisingly easy. You don’t need to do anything fancy or wait for the batter to be ready. Just drop them in hot oil and watch them puff up into magic little balls!
Zeppole is an Italian treat that had its origins in using up leftover dough. I’ve read a few things about pizza shops frying up leftover pizza dough and sprinkling sugar and cinnamon on it. Zeppole is a special treat Italians eat on St. Joseph’s Day – Zeppole di Guiseppe. There are a few different versions from sweet to savory. My personal favorite is ricotta zeppole.
After making the dough, place it in a gallon size ziplock bag and seal out the air. This will make it easy to drop the dough into the hot oil.
To drop the dough, I cut off a corner snippet of the ziplock bag. Then, I pipe out about a 1-inch tube of dough and snip it off with scissors. This makes little bite-sized balls of yumminess. You can also pipe them into doughnut shapes, but I was not that talented. Mine came out much cuter as little balls.
Print
Italian Zeppole
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scooped out
- 2 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup flour
Instructions
- Beat the ricotta cheese for a minute.
- Add the vanilla bean paste or seeds of the vanilla bean.
- Add one egg at a time.
- Combine sugar, salt, baking powder, and flour.
- Slowly add flour mixture to the ricotta mixture as it mixes on a medium speed.
- Once it’s ready, transfer it to a pastry bag or a gallon zipper bag.
- Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil to 350 degrees.
- Pipe about an inch of batter and drop it into the hot oil. Pipe about 6 at a time.
- Remove from the oil when golden brown.
- Drain on a paper towel.
- Dust with powder sugar.
- Enjoy immediately.
These delicious Zeppole are part of An Italian Dinner Feast Blog Hop! Check out all the wonderful dishes and decor below to have yourself an Italian dinner to remember!
25 comments
Wow, I’m sure I could eat the whole batch!
May I have a few for breakfast? These look delicious and I love how pretty they fry up. This is truly a great Italian feast!
How perfectly delightful. How did you keep from dropping dough into your mouth? Oh wait. They are doubly good fried, right? I’m a fellow participant, the pasta e’ fagioli soup is mine.
I live in Rhode Island and I can’t wait for St Joseph’s Day. The Italian bakeries all have zeppoles. Here they’re not small. They’re the size of a large bagel, sliced with the creme piped HIGH in the middle.
My kids would love these!!
I have tried these once or twice and I love them. Thank you for sharing this recipe I can’t wait to try it.
I have never tried these before but I am totally drooling over here!
Can I have a couple “to go?”
I just don’t understand how I haven heard of these before…they look delicious!
Yum! I can’t wait to try your recipe. I think I could eat them any time of day. I think this recipe will soon become a family favorite.
Pinned 🙂
You know, I have never made these. I have eaten my fair share when we traveled thru Italy. You make it look so easy and I appreciate your recipes and easy tips. *pinned Thanks for joining me for my Italian Feast Blog Hop. ~Barb
One look at these…..and it was love. Can’t wait to try.
Susie @TheChelseaProject …Italian Blog Hop
I can’t wait to try and make these. My friend’s husband made them for us recently, and we devoured them. In less than 5 minutes.
These look delicious. I make something similar using biscuit dough. I might have to try these.
well, thee seem so easy! I always imagined making donuts to be rather difficult. I might have to try this with my daughter’s some morning. They would love this for breakfast.
Oh wow, I’ve never had this one before. Looks easy to make! I’ll try and make this at home. Thanks for sharing!
Be still my waistline! I’m a sweets type of gal, I’m a dessert kind of gal, I’m a fried pastry kind of gal. I’ve fried biscuits but I need to try this Italian zeppoles. I’ve not had the pleasure of eating one.
I’m drooling over here! These look amazing! Pinning this recipe for future reference! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I had never heard or had Italian donuts! thanks for the find I will be making and eating these!
I’ve never heard of Italian Zeppoles before. These look really delicious. I will have to pin this to have and try at some point! They look delicious.
My son loves making doughnuts, can’t wait to try this one with him!
It’s my first time to hear about Italian Zeppoles and they look like something I would love!
Wow.. These look so good and delicious too! I can’t wait to try them out!!
These look delicious…and they bring me back to my childhood! I can almost smell them 😉
Yum…. i’ve never had this dessert before! They look delicious!
These look sinfully good. Yes, please!
Ah this was so delicious! I used cinnamon on them. Couldn’t stop munching! Thanks for sharing.