Zeppole (Eggless Version)

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Zeppole by Sandhya Ramakrishnan

As I was looking for a dish to make for the final day of BM# 33, I narrowed down my search by looking for recipes made with X, Y & Z instead of the starting from A. Isn't that smart?? I think so too (patting on my shoulder right now :-) 

I got super excited when I saw Zeppole from Sandhya's blog in the list for Z and made it for our evening snack today. I've seen Zeppole in many street fairs but never tried to make it myself. This recipe sounded simple enough to try. I'm so glad I tried these because they were sooo good, we gobbled them all up in one sitting and wished there were more.. lot more.

Zeppole are also known as Italian donuts. Flour, butter and eggs are mixed into a dough and then deep fried. This particular recipe uses ricotta cheese and mascarpone cheese instead of butter. The resulting fried zeppole are so airy and fluffy that you lose count of how many you ate.

I didn't have any mascarpone cheese, so I used some vegan cream cheese I had in the fridge. I also used egg replacer instead of the 1 egg called for in the recipe. None of the substitutions affected the final taste or texture of these delicious zeppole. I added some orange zest to give them a slight zing. I served them with some chocolate sauce--yumm yumm.

 Ingredients: Makes about 12~16 medium size zeppole
All-purpose flour - 1cup
Ricotta cheese - ½cup
Cream cheese/ mascarpone cheese - ½cup (I used Tofutti vegan cream cheese)
Baking Powder - 2tsp
Sugar - 3tbsp
Salt - ½tsp
Egg replacer - 1tbsp whisked in 3tbsp water (or 1 egg, lightly whisked)
Cold water - ¼cup
Vanilla extract - 2tsp
Orange zest - 1tbsp (optional)
Cinnamon sugar - ¼cup (3tbsp granulated sugar mixed with 2tsp cinnamon)

Method:

• Heat oil for deep frying in a saute pan or small wok.
• In the meantime, in a small saucepan combine al the ingredients from the list above (flour to orange zest) and cook on low flame until a smooth batter forms. This takes about 2~3 minutes. Turn off the heat and wait till the oil is hot enough to start frying.
• Once oil is hot, add the batter by spoonfuls and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 2~3 minutes per side. Make sure that the flame is not too high, then the outside will get too dark and the inside will be uncooked.
• Remove onto paper towel lined plate. Toss the warm zeppole in cinnamon sugar and enjoy right away with chocolate sauce . These taste best when served the same day.

Chocolate Sauce: Sauce can be made 2~3 days ahead of time and can be refrigerated until ready to use. Just warm it a little bit before serving.

Heavy Cream - 1cup

Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1cup

Method:

• Warm cream in a small saucepan until bubbles start to form on the edges.
• Turn off the heat and add the chocolate chips. Whisk until the chips are melted and the sauce is smooth. 

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 33.