Castagnole the Italian Carnevale Treats

I was looking forward to three things during this period of the year: my birthday, dressing up for Carnival and eat the Traditional Carnival cakes.

All the kids were planning how to dress up (it may have been Zorro, D’artagnan, Astronaut, Pulcinella, Colombina or Disney princess…) for a friend’s party where you could find yummy cakes, panini and pizza or even during the school hours where usually our teacher where pick a day to celebrate it. I was the kid that was always around the refreshment table lol.

I also remember costume parades among the Primary Schools of the whole district, each of them was selecting a different topic. All the mums and the teachers were busy making costumes for all of us, I remember once our theme was Disney, all the girls were dressed as Minnie Mouse, and the boys were dressed as Scrooge McDuck.

Everything was fun and shiny and weird - good weird! - but what I was craving the most was the time when I could go home and enjoying the lovely cakes and sweets my mum baked for us.

But I am talking too much, indulging on the past and I am sure you are impatient too to try one of those great recipes I inherited for Carnival. Scroll down and give a go for these Traditional Italian Cakes for Carnival called Castagnole, I hope you will loved them as much as I do.

Recipe Castagnole

Ingredients

• 240 gr of Plain Flour or 00 Flour

• 2 Eggs

• 70 gr of White Caster Sugar

• 30 gr of Liquor (Rum or Limoncello or Italian Grappa)

• 130 gr of Ricotta cheese

• 9 gr of Baking Yeast

• 1 pinch of Salt

• Seed 1 of Vanilla pod or 15 ml of Vanilla Paste

• Zest of 1 unwaxed Lemon and 1 unwaxed Orange

To Fry

• 1,5 L of Groundnut Oil

To decoration

• 1 Spoon of Icing sugar

Method

First thing, add the sugar, the eggs, the salt, the vanilla seeds, the zest of a Lemon and the zest of an Orange in a large bowl and whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the Ricotta cheese, the Liquor in the bowl and whisk until is all absorbed, then add the flour and the Baking yeast, previously sift it, until is all well combine.

Cover the bowl with a cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour in the fridge.

When the hour is over, take the dough off the fridge, dust the hands with some flour, take some dough and give them a round shape (3 cm Ø), lay them down in a plate leaving a bit of space between them, you may need more than one plate. In the meantime, pour the Groundnut oil in a deep saucepan, place it on medium heat, the oil is ready to use when it reaches 180°C.

Once the oil has reached the right temperatures fetch the balls, give them again a round shape with your hands and place them onto the hot oil (please be careful in doing so, boiling oil can be dangerous indeed) making sure to not overcrowd the pan placing them just a few at each given time. They will turn by themselves and they will be ready when the colour is brown golden all over each ball. Scoop them out from the oil and set them down on a plate with some kitchen paper to drain the oil in excess.

Once you have finished to fry all the batch, transfer the Castagnole balls in a clean plate and sprinkle some Icing sugar on top.

Set a side the pan with the oil and transferred it in a bottle once is cold and dispose it in the nearer Recycle Centre.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea, a coffee or with your favourite hot drink for breakfast.

Buon Appetito!

Please let me know if you have tried, leave a comment below and I will happy to help you!

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Foxy Tips:

You can add in the raw dough some raisins or some chocolate button to make them even more indulgent.

Try them by adding Crème Patissiere with a piping bag once they are cooked, they will be so YUMMY!!!!