Sweet Pastry Fritters
Fried dough sprinkled with sugar. What’s not to love?
The key ingredient of this dessert is lard. It has been many years since I’ve cooked with lard. However, I managed to find some in Mexican foods section of the grocery store.
The lard is mixed together with flour, a little sugar, white wine, salt, and one egg. This all comes together loosely before being kneaded until smooth. This step is very similar to making pie crust.
dough before resting 15 minutes
Next, the dough is rolled out to 1/8 thickness and cut into strips of 5” by 1/2”. I will admit I was a little confused about how to twist and shape this small strip of dough into a bow. I decided to just twist and make a crisscross.
Each fritter is fried in hot lard until golden brown.
first round draining
A sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar is the finishing touch. On the left you will see a sprinkle. I wondered what a thicker coating of the sugar would taste like so I was more liberal with the fritters on the right. Both versions tasted good. The fritter turns out light, crisp and slightly sweet. They were great with a cup of hot tea. I’m going to make them again using the lard substitutes (butter & vegetable oil) so I can compare the taste.
I thought we consumed the entire batch. I latter discovered my husband stashed some in a bowl marked with his initial. I had a big laugh. In nine years he has never marked his food. I take that as a compliment.
Did you know that lard contains 20 percent less saturated fat than butter and double butter’s level of monounsaturated fat, the “good” fat?
I should have called these “irresistible Sweet Pastry Fritters”. But don’t tell Doug. Your husband knows what’s good.
As we age food “health” fashions come and go. I always found unsaturated but hydrogenated fats to be counter-intuitive and skipped the whole ‘Crisco’ era. I resisted the virtual ban on eggs as cholesterol delivery devices and knew that the pendulum would shift back to olive oil.
Through it all, lard has always had an honored place in my kitchen along with real butter. There is no need to try to ‘lighten’ the lard experience. As Marcella correctly says, lard is as healthful as any other solid fat and has a better lipid profile than butter.
I’ve missed a few recipes in this series because I am working from my earlier edition, “The Classic Italian Cookbook”, which I love. I didn’t find the “sweet pastry fritters” right away, but located them as “Chiacchiere della nonna”. They are not only (almost) named after me, but my nonna made them by the bagful at holidays to distribute to us grandkids.
My grand (and great grand) children live too far away, but I’ll make a batch for me and my wife to enjoy.
Thank you, Marcella and Irene.