Every year on March 19, Italians commemorate St. Joseph, the patron saint of Sicily, with an elaborate feast called La Festa di San Giuseppe. Traditional San Giuseppe feasts always include a few special items, like breadcrumbs, artichokes and citrus, and the dinner always culminates with a sweet Italian treat, the zeppole.
Zeppoles are made with choux dough (which contains only butter, water, flour and eggs), and are baked with a high moisture content that creates steam which “puffs” the pastry. Then, the puff pastry shells are filled with pastry cream, dusted with powered sugar, and topped with a cherry – and sometimes drizzled with chocolate. And, they’re totally delicious.
Zeppoles are only available for a few days in March at select bakeries – Oakmont Bakery and Bethel Bakery both have them today – and once they’re gone, you have to wait until next March to try them.
And if you want to try your hand at making them on your own, Ciao Pittsburgh has a recipe that’s begging to be tried.
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