On March 19, St. Joseph’s Day, Father’s Day is celebrated throughout Italy. Traditional dessert of this occasion is the zeppola di San Giuseppe, typical in particular of Campania, but known throughout Italy. Zeppola is a cream puff or a donut of fried or baked choux pastry, filled with cream and decorated with black cherries or candied cherries.
Today we publish a greedy variant of this traditional dessert: the Zeppole di San Giuseppe alla Liquirizia and Clementine, made by Roberta Gaccione.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the licorice custard:
- 400 ml milk
- 100 ml whipping cream
- 6 yolks
- 150 g sugar
- 35 g corn
- 2 tablespoons Liquorice Powder
- 2 clementines (zest)
Ingredients for the choux pastry
- 250 g water
- 4 eggs
- 150 g flour
- 55 g butter
- 2 tablespoons Liquorice Powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 clementine (zest)
- seed oil to taste
Ingredients for decoration
- 1 clementine
- Gelée with clementines
- Favette flavoured with clementines
Procedure
Procedure for the liquorice custard
To prepare the Zeppole of Saint Joseph with Liquorice and Clementines, the custard must first be prepared.
To prepare the custard, pour the milk, cream and zest of the clementines into a double-bottomed pan; turn the heat to low.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the sugar with the egg yolks with an electric mixer; dilute with a little milk and also add the corn starch and liquorice powder.
Stir until everything is blended.
When the milk with the cream almost boil, remove the zest of the clementines and pour the mixture previously obtained into the saucepan.
Mix vigorously, remove from the heat and transfer the custard into a bowl. Cover with cling film and allow to cool.
Procedure for choux pastry
Now let’s move on to the choux pastry procedure for the Zeppole of Saint Joseph with liquorice and Clementines.
Put the water, the grated zest of the clementines, the butter cut into cubes and a pinch of salt in a thick-bottomed pan.
Turn on the heat and stir until the butter is completely melted.
At this point you can also add the flour and liquorice powder; join it all at once.
Keep stirring until the mixture comes off easily from the sides of the pot.
At this point, turn off the heat, transfer the dough into a planetary mixer and let it cool.
Turn on the leaf mixer and pour the eggs one at a time; stir until the eggs are completely incorporated.
Now you can insert the choux pastry inside the pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle.
Form the zeppole on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper; better if a microperforated pan covered with a microperforated mat.
Bake at 200 ° C, ventilated mode, for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes lower to 180 ° C for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn off the oven and leave it for 10 minutes.
Assembly
Finally, the Zeppole of Saint Joseph with liquorice and Clementines can be assembled.
Transfer the custard into a pastry bag with a star spout.
Stuff each zeppola with the cream and decorate with a clove of clementine, a gélée of clementines and a favetta flavoured with clementines.
Your Zeppole of Saint Joseph with liquorice and Clementines are ready to be served and enjoyed!