In Italy, ‘Carnevale’ or ‘Carnival’ is largely centered around crostoli; these delicate, airy fried pastries are also a popular holiday treat among Italian-Americans. My great-grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from the Veneto region of Italy, passed down the recipe for this beloved family dish.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 72 |
| Yield: | 6 dozen pastries |
Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons rum (Optional)
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- vegetable oil for frying
- confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- With an electric mixer on high speed, beat together salt, sugar, and eggs until very fluffy. Stir in evaporated milk, vanilla extract, and rum. Gradually mix in flour; knead well with dough hook until dough begins to blister, about 10 minutes. (If dough is still sticking to bowl after 5 minutes, mix in 2 tablespoons of additional flour, 1/2 tablespoon at a time.) Remove dough, and cover with plastic wrap; set aside 20 minutes.
- Pour oil into a deep fryer or Dutch oven to a depth of 2 inches, and heat over medium heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Separate dough into small portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough portions until very thin. Cut into long, narrow strips (about 6 inches by 1 inch). With a sharp knife, make a slit in the center of each strip, and draw one end through the slit.
- Fry in hot oil until puffy, blistered, and very light golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to paper towels to cool. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 87 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 21 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Wonderful! Not too crunchy and not too soft.
This is a decent recipe. At my house, there were some additions to the recipe that strengthen the success of this fabulous cookie. A teaspoon of vanilla or orange extract will liven it up. Besdies the already noted input that the oil needs to be HOT, as hot as you can go without burning the oil, the cookies themselves should be thin. The thinnner you can get them, the better they will fry and the crisper, and less oily they will appear. While shopping at a local Italian market in San Diego, I came across a cute little cookie company, Cookies con Amore, that actually makes these in a variety of flavors. They did not have the honey, but they were REALLY close to what my Nonna used to make!
In my family we have this type of pastry as well,I thought I would try this one for a change. It was easy to put together even though I kneaded the dough by hand , I added annisette flavour instead of rum and only used 1tsp.Make sure that the oil is hot enough for frying and that they are all ready to go into the pan in small bathches, it goes quite quickly once you start frying them. The only thing I found different from our family recipe was these turned out softer like a funnel cake and not crisp like what I am used to.