Zeppole for Saint Joseph's Day

saint joseph's day is celebrated on the 19th of march, and is a huge holiday in america’s italian and roman catholic population.

 

a traditional saint joseph's day treat is the zeppola, a gift from the italian immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. zeppole are puff pastry filled with either riccota or vanilla, chocolate or almond custard, with a dusting of confectioner's sugar and a cherry on top.

 

as stated before, my dad was born on march 19th, which happens to be saint joseph's day as well as the birthday of charles m russell and wyatt earp; in fact, dad was born exactly 100 years after mr. earp. even more interesting, back when we first met, and even before we were married, the beautiful mrs. tas started a tradition of making my dad cream puffs (which are very similar to zeppole, only they come from france) for his birthday. the funny part is that we never tied this tradition to saint joseph's day until just recently, when dave pointed it out with his post.

 

so, yesterday, we made zeppole for my dad for his birthday, which is on saint joseph's day. they were made by my #1 son, josef, who was named after my wife's grandfather, josef milot, who passed away on saint joseph's day a couple of years before she and i met.

 

i had joe take pix of the process, so we will get this posted soon. they turned out very well and tasted great - a true italian treat with a lot of meaning - that made a great birthday gift as well!

 

many thanks to dave for tying all of this together for our family!

 

keep in mind that since i didn't actually make them, i might not have the little details just right, and since he is young and this was his first time for something like this, they are a little rough around the edges. bottom line, though, is that they really tasted great, and i am proud of the job he did with them.

 

click here for the recipe:

 

 

here's the goods:

 

 

as i recall, the recipe gave a choice of chocolate, vanilla or almond custard, and we went with almond.

 

i guess gizmo wanted to help with this project!

 

 

but since she has no opposable thumbs, and was in a delicate condition at the time, we had to deny her request -

 

after wiping down the table again, we got down to business, making the batter for the pastries.

 

melting the butter and lard in hot water:

 

 

and introducing them to the dry ingredients:

 

 

adding the eggs (i have no idea why he dropped them from such a height):

 

 

mixing everything to a smooth consistency:

 

 

plopping them down on a lightly-greased baking sheet

 

 

and into the pre-heated oven we go ~

 

 

where they came out nice and puffy, just as they should be:

 

 

now, to the custard filling - melting the butter in the milk:

 

 

adding the eggs, cornstarch and other ingredients, and stirring well:

 

 

you're looking for a texture much like very silky, smooth pudding:

 

 

now, cut off the top third of each pastry:

 

 

and top with a good, healthy dollop of the custard:

 

 

and, of course, put a cherry on top of each:

 

 

and lightly dust with powdered sugar (this didn't go as lightly as planned):

 

 

finished zeppole, made by josef on st. jospeh's day, ready to go out to grandpa for his birthday:

 

 

these turned out very well, and were surprisingly easy - as i said, a little rough around the edges, but very good tasting:

 

 

they didn't last too long!