Bolognese sfrappole are a typical Carnival dessert.
They can be found throughout Italy with different names that vary from region to region: chiacchiere, crostoli, cenci, sprelle, galani, marvels. Many words to indicate the most famous Italian Carnival dessert.
The dough is rolled out with the pastry machine. Once the pastry is smooth and thin, using a pastry cutter, make the sfrappole of the shape you prefer: bows, diamonds, lozenges, with cuts in the center or without.
The dessert has a very ancient ancestor in the frictilia of ancient Rome: the Romans, on the occasion of the Saturnalia, today's Carnival, used to prepare a dough very similar to sheets of lasagne, fry them in abundant pork fat and then sweeten them with honey. Not a light preparation at all, but it followed the lean period of the days of Lent. With Roman domination the dessert reached every point of the Empire: which is why every region of Italy and many European countries have their own version.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 kg 00 flour
- 100 g butter
- 5 eggs
- 100 g icing sugar for the dough
- 30 g anise
- 200 g orange juice
- 1 pinch salt
- seed oil for frying to taste
- icing sugar to decorate to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
To prepare the sfrappole, place the flour on a pastry board, make a well in the center and add the eggs, the butter cut into pieces, a pinch of salt, anise and sugar.
Squeeze the orange juice and add it little at a time, kneading.
When you have obtained a homogeneous, soft and not too moist dough, cover it with cling film and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Once the necessary time has passed, take a part of the dough and roll it out as finely as possible. Leave the remaining dough wrapped in cling film.
Cover the pastry with a clean cloth to prevent it from drying out and cut strips of dough using a pastry cutter (with a hemmed edge).
You can make stripes, diamonds or irregular pieces.
Pull the dough strips with your hands again so that they are as thin as possible.
Heat the seed oil and when it is hot, immerse your sfraple.
When they are golden brown, drain them and let them dry on sheets of absorbent paper.
Sprinkle the surface of the sfrappole with icing sugar and serve.