Friday, November 13, 2009

CROSTOLI and CRISPELLE

Hi everyone.  Well here it is Friday already.  I almost did not make it this morning.  I had a Wisdom tooth extracted yesterday and I'm only feeling so, so this morning.  You know the routine, a million shots of horrible stuff to numb your mouth, 30 seconds to get the tooth out, and then a face swollen up like a jelly fish.  That's me today folks.  Plus can hardly eat anything.  Wah Wah!  Anyway enough of my whinning.  I was at Claro's Italian store in Tustin last week and I saw something that really flooded my mind with wonderful memories.  Cristoli!  My Grandmother used to make both the the Cristoli and what she called Crispelle.  My gosh, what memories.  The Cristoli are thin crisp fried cookies, but the Crispelle are somewhat like a do-nut, fried dough, but a million times better.  It seems like we always had them available.  She must have made them 2 or 3 times a week.  What a treat!  So today, two of my all time favorites.  I will be making the Crispelle this weekend.  The Cristoli I make at Christmastime.

CRISTOLI

3 eggs lightly beaten
 about 5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
about 1 cup milk
1 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients to make a smooth dough.  Cut into four pieces, and roll each like you would for Ravioli.  Cut into squares, and fry in a large pot of Wesson oil.  They cook very quick.  Turn and let cook on the other side just till light brown. Let them drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle them with powdered sugar.  They are a crispy, sweet treat.

CRISPELLE

These are just flour, water, salt, yeast.
 3 to four cups of flour
1 pkg of dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
warm water
1 egg

 Dissolve the yeast in a 1/4 cup of warm water.  Make a well in the flour and add the yeast mixture and one egg.  Add the salt.  Bring the flour up into the wet ingredients and mix until it forms a dough.  Knead the dough until smooth and shiny.  Let it rise until doubled.  Punch down the dough.  Cut into 4 sections.  Roll out to about 1/2 thick.  Form into twists.  Let rise for about 1/2 hour.  Fry in light olive oil till brown and cooked through.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, or my favorite, drizzled with honey.  They are amazing.

Well that is for me today.  Going to just take it easy and try to think what I can eat for the next day or so.
Have a great weekend.
Ciao for now
Grayce











































                                                                                                                                                                        

1 comment:

  1. do you know how to make the cooked wine for the crispelle?
    shoney123@msn.com

    ReplyDelete