- Today, we're making a recipe. that'll make your
childhood dreams come true. Let me show ya. (upbeat music) Hey everybody. It's Natasha of natashaskitchen.com and today I'm going to teach
you how to make zeppole. These are Italian donuts,
melt in your mouth delicious and the kids go crazy for these and I'm seriously craving donuts. So let's get started. (counter thuds)
(bell dings) Place a medium sauce pan over medium heat and add half a cup of water, along with half a cup of whole milk, then eight tablespoons of unsalted butter. If you use softened butter
or cut the butter into pieces it will melt in much quicker. Also add one teaspoon of sugar and just a quarter teaspoon of salt. Once the butter is melted,
bring that to a boil over medium heat, then remove
it from the heat completely and stir in one cup of flour all at once using a wooden spoon. Once all of the flour is incorporated and you don't see any white
flour streaks anymore, you can place that back over medium heat and continue stirring constantly for about one and a half to two minutes to release the excess
moisture from the dough and you also want to
partially cook the flour. You should also see a thin film form on the bottom of the pan and
the dough will come together into one smooth mass. After a couple minutes,
take it off the heat and you need to cool the dough slightly. To quickly cool the dough, transfer it to a large mixing bowl, and use an electric hand mixer to beat the dough for about a minute. Next, add four large
room temperature eggs, adding them one at a time and
let them fully incorporate into the batter before
adding the next egg. Once all of the eggs
are in and incorporated, continue beating another minute
until the dough is smooth and forms a thick ribbon when
you pull up on the whisk. Transfer the batter to a large piping bag with a half inch opening. You can also use a large Ziploc bag and cut one of the corners to a half inch. We're gonna use just about half
of the batter at this point. Make sure you don't overfill your bag. You want to have enough room
to twist the bag and seal it. Since zeppole are fried Italian donuts, make sure to preheat your oil
to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You can either use a pot or Dutch oven with a thermometer clip attached, and I will leave a link to
these that I use and love in the notes. Using a thermometer for
frying is really important. Otherwise, if the oil gets too cold, the doughnuts will absorb too much oil. And if it's too hot, they can burn. Also a food strainer like
this one will make it easy to collect the fried donuts. Today, we're gonna use one
of my favorite kitchen tools. It is our deep fryer. I will leave a link to this
and all the tools I showed you in the recipe notes. It's easy because you
can set the temperature and you don't have to worry about it. It also automatically filters your oil, so there's very little
maintenance required and everything that needs
washing is pretty much dishwasher friendly. You'll also want to set up a
tray lined with paper towels to soak up any extra oil from the donuts. Once the oil is preheated
to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, you'll need your filled piping bag and a pair of kitchen scissors. Pipe the batter into the
hot oil snipping briskly to make sure you have a clean cut. You'll want to pipe and
cut the dough into about half inch pieces. Fry those for about four
to five minutes total, and they should puff up
and flip over naturally. But if they don't, you can use
some tongs to flip them over. Repeat the process with the
next batch of doughnuts. It usually takes about
three batches to get done. You don't want to overcrowd the oil or you can cool down the oil too quickly. (oil sizzling) Once the donuts are
deeply golden in color, you want to remove them from
the oil and transfer them to that paper towel lined platter. Once all of the donuts are
fried, it's time to serve. And I love to serve these
with a generous coating of powdered sugar. Here's some fun serving ideas. You can keep it simple and just put them onto a serving platter,
dusting with powdered sugar between layers. And be generous with the powdered sugar. Remember there's only one
teaspoon of sugar in the dough. You can also serve them
fancier by making a cone out of parchment paper. Form the cone, then fold down
the bottom to keep it sealed and fill it up with powdered sugar donuts. - I find this as my favorite
way to portion control. Otherwise, I end up eating way too many of these zeppole donuts. Lastly, you can serve them
up the traditional way or carnival style. Fold down the edges of a paper lunch bag and fill the bag with donuts, adding a generous amount
of powdered sugar. All right. The truth is it doesn't really
matter how you serve them because they disappear
in like five seconds. So before the kids get home from school, we're gonna do a taste test,
while they're still here. (Natasha laughs) All right. The most important thing
is not how you serve them but how you eat them. So I will demonstrate. You're welcome. (giggles) Okay, there we go. Okay, ready? Oh, Nope. One, okay. Practice run. I was so close. Okay, here we go. - [Husband] I got it. You don't want that one. You don't want it. (laughing) Oh boy. Okay. (giggles) Okay. Third time's the charm. I have to get this. Otherwise, I don't know. Ready? Ready? Oh! (laughs) Oh, mm. These seriously melt in your mouth. And it's like all donut
dreams coming true right here. They're dangerous. I mean, they're so good. That's what I mean. They're dangerous. I love that they're a little
bit crisp on the outside, but so soft and airy on the inside. And remember the inside of
the donut doesn't have very much sweetness to it because
we put just a teaspoon of sugar in the batter, but you
can control the sweetness with the added powdered sugar on top. If you've never made zeppole before, I hope you realize just
how easy these are to make. They come together fast. I mean, it's like 30 to 45
minutes from start to finish, easy peasy. This is gonna become a
new favorite for you. And if you have this dough mastered, this is the exact same dough that we use for churros, cream puffs, and eclairs. One dough, all of these recipes. So once you get it down,
you're gonna be a baking pro. I hope these become a new
favorite recipe for you. And we'll see you in our next video. Uh-oh, here he comes. And there go the donuts. All right, our taste tester. Just, just start with one, start with one. I know it's hard. - Mm. These are so good. Are they good? Aren't they good? All right. Okay, that's enough. (chuckles) I think I'll have
another, or maybe 10 more. - Shh!
