This is a typical italian recipe that all moms prepare for Carnevale along with the traditional carnival sweet called “Crostoli” (sweet fritters). Really easy to make and your kids, husband, friends will love it!

Here the ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 70gr of sugar
• 60gr of raisins
• 300gr of flour
• 100ml of milk
• 1tsp of yeast
• orange zest
• 2/3 tbsp orange juice
• 60ml of grappa or another liquor ( like rhum)
• sunflower oil for frying
• icing sugar for decoration

First of all you have to soak the raisins in warm water and grappa for at least 20 minutes.

Then you start mixing the rest of the ingredient beginning with eggs and sugar, then add the milk, the orange zest and juice, the sift flour+yeast and at last the drained sultanas. (the original recipe doesn’t include vanilla extract but I just loved it so much that I added a tsp).

You should let the dough rise for an hour. I didnt want to wait so I actually cooked them straight 😉

Preheat the oil to medium-high heat (190°C /375°F).  If you do not have a thermometer to test the temperature of the oil, you should stick the handle of a wooden spoon a cm or two into the hot oil. If bubbles emerge rapidly from the handle, then the oil is ready.

Prepare a plate with some kitchen paper so that once the frittelle are cooked, you can place them there and the excess oil will be absorbed.

Take two spoons and form little balls (as big as a nut) that you will drop into the hot oil. Let them fry for around 2 minutes or until you see them puffed and golden.

Drain them on the paper towel and sift some icing sugar on the top.

If you have more time, you can prepare some “crema pasticcera” (custard cream), poke a little hole on each “frittella” and using a piping bag, you can fill each frittella with some custard. If you really want to try something different, be naughty and  instead of custard cream you can use Nutella!!

TIP Don’t fry too many frittelle all at once or you will reduce the temperature of the oil, and the frittelle won’t cook properly.  Just drop a few each time. The tricky part of this recipe is maintaining the oil always at the same temperature.

Buon Carnevale!

These days I don’t have time to cook any complicated dish,  my kitchen scale is broken (actually not broken but I don’t have any spare battery for it) and 1 hour ago I was DESPERATELY craving cinnamon rolls! What to do? I checked few recipes and all of them required to weight flour, weight sugar, wait for the dough to rise bla bla bla so I decided to make my OWN super quick version of cinnamon rolls.

I had some puff pastry in the fridge which I rolled out. I then spread melted butter on it, lots of it to cover the full surface.

Then I sprinkled some granulated brown sugar on the top and dusted lots of cinnamon powder.

I rolled the pastry into one log. You don’t need to roll it really tight cause in the oven these little rolls will puff better if they have more space between lawyers.

To be able to cut the log easily I left the rolled pastry in the freezer for around 20 minutes or until you notice it is getting harder. Then I took it out, cut it in slices and placed them on a baking tray covered with baking paper.

I baked them in the oven for around 20 minutes (or until you see they become slightly brown).

When I took them out they looked super yummy but they needed something more so I just followed the advice of one of the various recipes and mixed some maple syrup with little milk and sugar until I got a thick consistency.

I poured a teaspoon of the mix on each roll. After half an hour there were only 3 left!

My own recipe worked!