‘Zeppole’ - Italian Doughnuts

Take a saucepan and put the milk, lemon zest and vanilla seeds in it. To take the vanilla seeds, cut the pod lengthwise and remove the tiny seeds by scraping them from the inside with a knife blade. Heat everything without coming to the boil and then leave it to infuse for 20 minutes, filter the milk with the help of a strainer to prevent the peel and seeds from ending up in your cream. 

Mix the sugar with the cornstarch in a bowl and add the egg yolks, beat well with the help of a whisk until the mixture is smooth, at this point add the milk in a trickle, stirring constantly. Now put the mixture on a low flame and let it thicken, stirring. Be careful not to reach boiling point otherwise the cream will tear and smell like cooked egg. It is sufficient to reach 85°C.

Pour the cream into a large bowl to cool, cover with cling film placed in contact with the cream to prevent the formation of a skin.

Put a pot on the stove with the water, salt and butter and bring to a boil.

Pour the flour into the pot all at once and continue to stir vigorously with a whisk to ensure that no lumps form; continue to cook the dough, stirring vigorously until it comes away from the walls sizzling, it will take about 3-4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir the mixture to allow it to lose heat.

Add the eggs one at a time to the mixture, letting them absorb well while continuing to stir. Set aside and prepare for frying.

Take the baking paper and cut out squares of about 10 cm per side and place them on the work surface. Take a pastry bag (sac à poche) and insert a large star-shaped nozzle, fill it with the dough and then form the doughnuts with a diameter of 7-8 CM on the squares of baking paper. 

Pour the oil into a pan suitable for frying and bring it up to temperature. Now you can fry the zeppole by immersing them on the side without baking paper, shortly afterwards turn them over and finish cooking them until they are golden brown.

Once your doughnuts have cooled, using a pastry bag with a star-shaped nozzle, you can fill the center of the doughnuts with your custard, which will have cooled in the meantime.

Now take the sour cherries in syrup and place one in the center of each zeppola on top of the cream, sprinkle with a little icing sugar and enjoy.