I need to be sincere, I did not realized Carnevale was ending today! So now I am rushing to add this post online while I already know is not going to happen within the next few hours. Anyways, this is a recipe I love because it reminds me of my childhood and my best friend’s dad, Fausto, who used to make THE best Italian Crostoli. I am not joking, his Crostoli were perfection. They were crispy and sweet, but not too sweet and they were literally melting in your mouth at each bite. I hope one day he will share his Crostoli recipe with me. For now we will use another recipe, which I find still pretty satisfying.
First things first, what are Crostoli? Crostoli are a traditional sweet crisp pastry that is prepared during the carnevale period in Italy. They are called with different names according to the area of origins, for example we called them Crostoli in Friuli Venezia Giulia, my region, but they are known as Chiacchiere, Frappe, Bugie, Cenci, Sfrappole o Galani in other regions.
Crostoli Ingredients
- Flour: all-purpose flour
- Sugar: white sugar to sweeten the dough, but just a little bit
- Milk: I use milk, but you can try with a substitute and let me know 🙂
- Butter: also in this case if you want you can try to add margarine instead of butter
- Eggs: a must ingredient in this recipe
- Marsala: it’s an Italian liquor that I like to use sometimes in desserts, but it isn’t a must
- Lemon: lemon zest to give Crostoli some nice flavor
- Salt: just a pinch
- Oil: sunflower oil to fry the dough
- Icing Sugar: for the topping
Crostoli – Carneval Sweet Crisp Pastry
Cuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy1
hour20
minutes20-25
Crispy and sweet, these carnevale crostoli will literally melt in your mouth at each bite!
Ingredients
150g Flour
20g Sugar
30ml Milk
15g Butter (melted)
1 Egg
1 Tbs Marsala
Lemon zest
A pinch of Salt
1.5L Sunflower Oil
Icing Sugar
Directions
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl mix the flour with sugar and the salt, then with the help of a fork make some space in the middle of the bowl, like if you have to create a small nest into the flour.
- Add the rest of the ingredients. Inside the nest add milk, lemon zest, Marsala and melted butter. Mix it well and start incorporating the flour little by little.
- Knead. Continue kneading the dough with your hands, until you have a smooth dough. Shape it into a ball, wrap it with cling film and let it rest at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
- Shape your dough. After, divide the dough into 4 pieces. You need to roll the dough out as thinner as you can. I use a pasta machine and I roll the dough like if I were making fresh pasta. Which means: press a little bit each piece of dough with your hands first, then with a rolling pin (or you can skip this and go straight to the pasta machine). Sprinkle the flattened piece of dough with flour and roll it out with your pasta machine using the widest thickness.
- Now you got a short dough sheet. Fold the two sides of the dough (right and left) to the center, press it with your fingers a bit and roll it again into the pasta machine (it’s exactly like making fresh pasta). Now you should continue to roll the dough into the pasta using an increasingly thinner setting, until you get to a very thin pasta sheet.
- At the end you will get a long sheet that you can cut into smaller sheet dough, about 7-8 cm wider. I recommend to get all your Crostoli’s sheets ready before start frying them.
- Warm the oil up to a temperature of about 160° into a small but tall pot. I didn’t have a thermometer so I used the “toothpick proof”: insert the tip of a toothpick into the hot oil, if you can see little bubbles forming around the toothpick the oil is hot enough and you can start start frying the Crostoli.
- Gently dip the pastry into the oil, and fry each side for about 7-10 seconds (use a fork to flip the sheet upside down). If the pastry gets too dark too quickly it means that the oil is too hot. Move the pot from the stove and let it cool a bit before continuing it. You will understand that the Crostoli are perfectly fried when they turn golen, not brown (brown = overcooked/slightly burned).
I recommend to fry one Crostolo at the time, so you will be able to keep the oil’s temperature high and fry them perfectly. - Drain the Crostoli on a paper towel and once they are dry and cold sprinkle them with icing sugar.
- If you manage to stop yourself from eating all the Crostoli at once, you can store them in a sealed food bag for a few days.
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