Italian Carnival Sweet Fritters: Crostoli... or Chiacchiere, Frappe, Sfrappole, Cenci, Galani, Grostoli, Bugie... - Ilaria's Perfect Recipes (2024)

AUTHENTIC ITALIAN CARNIVAL SWEET FRITTERS

These are my favourite Carnival Sweet Fritters ever! Crispy but light and no greasy at all thanks to vinegar added in. I could eat them all day long!

Here in Italy is not the right time to start a diet (or at least for me), because it’s Carnival time!
During this time we are usedto eat/make typical Italian sweet fritters, among which there are, what I call, Crostoli (cross-toh-lee), but as you can see from the title, depending on what town you are in Italy, they’re called with different names.

from Wikipedia:
Carnival, or Carnivale, is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party.
People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life. The last day of Carnival is Mardi Gras. […]
[…] The most famous Carnivals of Italy are those held in Venice, Viareggio, Ivrea and Acireale. […]
-Read more information here on Wikipedia about Carnival in Italy-

Crostoli are made from dough into thin rectangular sheets and then twisted as ribbons or kept flat with wavy borders, deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Remember that, when you eat one Crostolo, you can’t make you stop from eating more, even if the first mouth-impression seems not to be that amazing.

So here’s the recipe my grandmother taught me.

Carnival Sweet Fritters: Crostoli… or Chiacchiere, Frappe, Sfrappole, Cenci…

Difficulty: medium
Preparation: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 large or medium egg
• 1 tbsp melted butter or extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of finely grated lemon zest (only the yellow part) or 1 drop of lemon essential oil (organic)
• 1 tbsp apple vinegar (plain vinegar or grappa also works well)
• ≈1 – 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for the working area

• powdered sugar to garnish as needed
• oil to fry (peanut, corn, sunflower…) as needed

Instructions:

In a bowl mix the egg, melted butter or evo oil, sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon zest and vinegar. Add flour until a no sticky dough is formed.
Knead the dough on a floured work surface for about 5-10 minutes until it’s smooth. Let it rest for about 15 minutes, covered with plastic wrap, in a cool place but not in the fridge.

After that, divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll them out on a floured surface with a rolling pin to form a strip as thin as you can.

Instead, if you use a pasta maker (like me), set it on the widest setting (1), take one piece of the dough and with the palm of your hand flatten it a bit, turn the crunk (or if you have an electric pasta maker switch on the start button) and feed the dough through the rollers.
Fold the edges of the strip towards the middle and feed it through the rollers several times, changing the setting of the pasta maker until you reach the smallest (5). Don’t worry if the strips are not perfect, Crostoli has to come out irregular anyway.

Cut the thin strips into ≈ 3.5 x 3 inch (9 x 7,5 cm) pieces with a pastry wheel cutter (with wavy edge is better).

Make 3 small cuts in the middle of each piece as shown above.

And follow the next photos to make the classic Crostoli shape (but you can leave them flat).

And that’s the final Crostolo shape!

Place over a floured surface.

In a wide and high frying pan, heat up the oil until a wooden spoon dipped in starts to make little bubbles.

Deep-fry Crostoli, turning them twice until they lost their “white” color, do not overcook or they will have a burning taste.

Scoop them out and drain off the oil by putting them over a kitchen paper.

When they’re cool, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.

With that same pasta dough you can do sweet fritters Tortelli (traditionally filled with italian sweet mustard plus chestnut flour or jam or custard or Nutella). Yummy!!!