Cream Puff Pastry (makes about 12)

1 cup sifted flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder (optional)
4 large eggs

For ricotta filling (Fills about 12)

1 container of ricotta (about 500 g)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coarsely ground roasted almonds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing sugar for dusting

*For similar recipes from first generation Italian Canadians who grew up in Molise in the 1930s check out Zia Rosina's recipes as well as those from Olga and Rita Palazzo.

** For the standard and/or professional method of making cream puffs see the recipe, "Standard Cream Puff Pastry Dough"

To make cream puff pastry dough:



Add salt and sugar to the flour and sift.

Heat water and add butter. Cook until the butter and water mixture boils.

Remove from heat.

Add flour all at once to the butter and water mixture until a ball forms and leaves the side of the pan.

Allow to cool for three to four minutes.

Place the flour and butter mixture in an electric mixer bowl.

Add one egg at a time to the mixture, beating continuously, until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F.

Line two aluminum cookie sheets with silicon baking mats.

Drop 3 to 4 tablespoons of the batter onto the cookie sheet for each cream puff, swirling it on top (Shaping the cream puff as one would like it to appear, i.e, larger on the bottom and smaller on the top) .

Place the cream puff pastries 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

When all the cream puffs have been made, bake them for about 40 minutes or until they are a light golden color.

Remove from the oven and cut a very small slit on the side to get the air out and then return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so.

When the cream puffs are a golden brown and look more or less ready turn off the oven and keep them there to dry for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool.



To make the ricotta filling:



Combine cocoa powder and sugar.

Using an electric mixer or blender combine the ricotta with cocoa powder mixed with sugar and the vanilla.

Fold in the coarsely ground roasted almonds with a rubber spatula.



Wrap the cream puffs in clear plastic and store in fridge until they are nearly ready to be used. Then cut them in half and place about 3 tablespoons of the custard filling on the bottom half of each cream puff, then replace its top.

Store in the fridge until needed.

Before serving the cream puffs dust the tops of the cream puffs with icing sugar.

There are numerous recipes for "zeppole di San Giuseppe" on the world-wide web. It seems that up to the 19th century "zeppole di San Giuseppe" did not include cream or ricotta fillings. The sweets were presented as fried dough with a hole in the center. Sometimes the hole was filled with jam, but most of the time the fried dough was simply dusted with table sugar and cinnamon (For a more traditional take on the recipe see "Fritters"). Nowadays, North American Italian pastry shops only sell "zeppole di San Giuseppe" that come in the form of cream puffs. Often, they offer two varieties -- those with ricotta and those with Italian custard.... Please note that in Molise's small towns and villages very few people did the cream puff version of "Zeppole di San Giuseppe" (Would have cost too much!). Well-to-do households, possibly those in the larger centers such the region's capital, Campobasso, might have indulged in such delicacies but few country folk did. Those who lived in the countryside generally made sweet fritters such as "screpelle" [see Fritters] on the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. Cream puffs were reserved for weddings and baptisms Nonetheless, most Italian-Canadians, regardless of whether they were born in small Southern Italian villages or in large cities now purchase "Zeppole di San Giuseppe" at their local pastry shops for the San Giuseppe's feast day.

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