I remember when I was a child and my grandma would cook me my favourite Carnival sweets – Fritoe Veneziane. They are a soft dough made with flour, eggs, sugar, yeast and milk and flavoured with citrus peel, peanuts and raisins. Every Venetian family has their own recipe, which can be different in textures, aromas and stuffing, but of course, my grandma’s is the best!
Chef's Recipe - Venetian Frittelle or Fritoe Veneziane
Ingredients (Serves 4)
250 g wheat flour
35 g sugar
20 g brewer’s yeast
1 egg
20 cl milk
30 g raisins (hydrated in 1 tbsp of rum)
30 g peanuts
The skin of 1 lemon (washed and grated)
1 l peanut oil
Method
- Take a large bowl and mix the milk and brewer’s yeast with 50 grams of flour until it becomes nice and doughy
- Leave the dough in the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes in a warm, dry space.
- After half an hour you can add all of the remaining ingredients apart from the peanut oil
- Mix the ingredients thoroughly with the dough and cover again, leave until the dough has roughly doubled in size
- With a small, wet spoon, mould the dough into small balls
- Deep fry the balls in the peanut oil for 2 to 3 minutes until they are lightly browned
- Drain on kitchen paper, leave to cool slightly and serve with a sprinkling of icing sugar
- Sit down and enjoy these tasty Venetian treats!