I promise you, I saved the best for last… :):)
Tortelli di Carnevale alla Milanese, this delicious mouthful of heaven is going to be the last Italian carnival dessert that I’ll be sharing with you. We will carry on next year though as there are many more yummy treats to celebrate the carnival but for now I need to calm myself down a bit as it will be bikini season before you know it :):) If there is one down side to these desserts; it’s the fact that they are addictive, you basically can’t stop until it’s all finished and that they are almost always fried. Some of them do have oven baked versions but you and I both know that the result is not the same :):)
This particular one is made of pate a choux and sometimes raisins or diced apples get mixed in the batter or just left plain. If they are made right they will be hallow in the middle and can be filled with creme patissiere after they’re cooked. My personal favourite is the one filled with lemon creme patissiere, you can also fill them with chocolate or vanilla creme patissiere. But if you are feeling lazy or short of time just use Nutella and you have yourself a winner :):)
They then get rolled in caster sugar which makes a nice contrast with the soft, creamy beignets or you could use powdered sugar as I did here because I was out of caster sugar :):)
- 250 ml water
- 50 gr sugar
- 4 eggs
- 150 gr flour, sifted
- 60 gr cold butter, diced
- zest of one lemon
- a pinch of salt
- vegetable oil for frying
- caster sugar or icing sugar to sprinkle on top
- Put water, sugar, salt and butter into a pan and bring to a boil on medium heat.
- As the butter gets melted take it off the heat and mix in the flour in one go, beat until it forms a smooth dough.
- Place the pan back over medium heat and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes to get rid of the excess moisture.
- Once done transfer to a bowl and mix for a couple of minutes so it cools down a bit. Then incorporate the eggs one by one, mixing very well after each addition. Now, this part is quite tiring so I strongly recommend that you use an electric mixer for this step or better yet the kitchenaid if you have one.
- Mix in the lemon zest and once you have a smooth and elastic batter you can start frying.
- Heat the oil to 170 C (340 F) and using a tea spoon drop little balls of the batter in the pan. Fry for 3-4 mins turning them with a fork to make sure they get cooked nicely all over. Transfer to a tray covered with paper towel.
- You can enjoy them just rolled in plenty of caster sugar or a generous sprinkle of icing sugar.
If you decide to go full monty and have them filled with pastry cream as I like, you could use the recipe for vanilla creme pattissiere that I shared with you before. Needless to say you’d need to prepare it first and cool it nicely in the fridge, you could also do this a day or two in advance. If you prefer to have a lemon pastry cream instead all you would need to do is to swap the Vanilla bean with the zest of a lemon. Once I heat my milk with the zest in in it I usually let it steep for 15 minutes (reheat it before the next step) then remove some of the zest with a fork before mixing it with the egg yolks as I don’t want two much of it in my mouth but you don’t have to. follow the rest of the recipe. I hope you enjoy this sweet treat as much as we do, would love to get your comments :):)