During the duration of the making and eating of these fried balls of yum I came to the conclusion that ‘bomboloni’ is an incredibly fun thing to say. I also came to the conclusion that bomboloni is mother-effing scrumptious.
“What the hell is bomboloni?” you may ask. Well, you uneducated fool, bomboloni is a fried dough snack popular in Italy, Tuscany to be exact (and uh, sorry for calling you a fool, I was just kidding). Its kind of like a beignet (I made those a few months ago, click here to see), or zeppole. They’re more like donut holes, or “Munchkins” from Dunkin’ Donuts, than actual doughnuts. You can fill them with chocolate cream, or pastry cream, or even jam. You could drizzle them with melted chocolate and powdered sugar, or dip half of them in a glaze of some sort. You could also probably have them plain. However not all bomboloni is sweet- some can be filled with cheeses and such (just like beignets can be filled with meat and cheese). But I prefer the sweet kind of fried dough, myself. So these particular bomboloni’s are not covered in powdered sugar, oh no. They are spiced sugar bomboloni’s; coated in sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger.
This is a piece I like to call ‘Bomboloni Bowls.’
…
I cut this recipe out of Blueprint magazine from the November/December 2007 issue. Sadly, Blueprint is now closed, but you’re lucky I saved this recipe, because you can now be cool enough to have found a recipe for a dessert called ‘bomboloni’ as well.
SPICED SUGAR BOMBOLONI
Ingredients:
Makes 25 doughnuts
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons milk
- 4 envelopes plus 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
- Vegetable oil for frying
Directions:
- Heat 1 cup water and the butter in a small saucepan until butter melts. Set aside to cool.
- Combine milk and yeast in a large bowl; whisk to dissolve yeast. Add eggs. Do not mix.
- Add flour, sugar, and salt in that order. Do not mix.
- Add the butter mixture and mix until just combined.
- Wrap bowl tightly with plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.
- Place dough on floured surface and gently roll out to about 1 inch thick. Cut out circles of dough with a 2-inch round cutter. Place on a well-floured, parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Heat at least 3 ½ inches of oil in a pot until 325 degrees. Fry bomboloni in batches, turning once, until golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes per side. Remove, and drain on paper towels.
- Dredge in spiced in sugar. To make the sugar, combine 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon allspice, and 1 teaspoon nutmeg in a small bowl.
Serve these babies with some espresso and you’re good to go.
Mine did not turn out completely round, like little balls, but I don’t think there’s really a shape qualification for these anyway. You could make them into balls by rolling the dough, if you really want. The spiced-sugar is ah-mah-zing, but I did some with powdered sugar too, because I’m a sucker for a zeppole-style taste, as you can see below. I omitted the cloves from the sugar mix because I don’t like the taste of cloves. Reminds me of the dentist.
Just a tip: make sure they’re cooked all the way through. You don’t want a messy, uncooked middle. They’re going to get pretty dark on the outside before they’re totally done. Just don’t burn them. If they aren’t cooking through properly, your oil isn’t hot enough or deep enough.
I also think it made way more than 25. But I rolled my dough thinner than 1 inch, so duh.
I'm Marilla. A 30-something artist, hobby baker, home canning enthusiast, gardener, DIY-er, wife, mommy of a baby boy and dog mom (to another baby boy) from New York. 
These look really good! I would love to have hmm, maybe 5 of them right now with my coffee.
Oh wow, I never knew that I needed bomboloni until I saw this post. Now I have an intense craving for these fried treats. Ooo, and I can only imagine how wonderful they’d be filled with chocolate (yes, I’d add chocolate to everything if I could).
April- They’re amazing. I ate four right off the bat last night!
Elyse- I’m definitely making them with chocolate next time… and the strudel as well. I think these filled with a chocolate cream would = heaven.
OMG! Those look SO delicious!! I am SO making those on my next *free* kitchen day!
They’re extremely delicious and addicting.
I’m with Elyse — chocolate on everything! And donuts are never wrong!
If donuts are wrong, I don’t wanna be right!
Honey, try using peanut oil for the deep frying. It’s better and you may also want to try Down Swan cake flour. Its by the regular flour. I only say this because we tried making my Ma’s European donuts and after many experiments we learned those two nifty tricks fron the cooking shows.
Oh good grief I said it ass-backwards, dear it’s called
Swans Down cake flour. I’m sorry..just make them however the hell you want. haha!
I’ve heard of Swans Down. It’s not easy to find here. We only have Softasilk. But I’ll look for it!
My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about a year and am
worried about switching to another platform. I have heard very good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
When someone writes an article he/she maintains the image of a user in his/her mind that how a user
can understand it. Thus that’s why this post is perfect.
Thanks!
I would like to use the chance of thanking you for that professional instruction I
have always enjoyed checking out your site. I am looking
forward to the commencement of my school research and the overall groundwork would never
have been complete without visiting your website.
If I can be of any assistance to others, I will be glad to
help by way of what I have learned from here.
Nice replies in return of this matter with genuine arguments and
telling all regarding that.
These are actually enormous ideas in regarding blogging.
You have touched some pleasant factors here. Any way keep up wrinting.
Some truly interesting information, well written and broadly user
friendly.
Thanks to my father who informed me about this weblog, this webpage
is actually remarkable.
Hey there! I know this is kind of off topic but I
was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment
form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one?
Thanks a lot!
Hello, just wanted to say, I enjoyed this blog post. It
was helpful. Keep on posting!
Excellent web site. Plenty of useful information here.
I am sending it to several pals ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And naturally, thanks on your sweat!
I’m really impressed with your writing skills as well as with
the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a great blog like
this one today.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to grasp
so much about this, like you wrote the e book in it or something.
I think that you can do with some % to force the message home a little bit, however other than that, this is excellent blog.
An excellent read. I’ll definitely be back.
I absolutely love your blog and find most of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for.
Does one offer guest writers to write content to suit your needs?
I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating
on many of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome weblog!
When I initially commented I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are
added- checkbox and from now on whenever a comment is
added I get four emails with the exact same comment.
Is there a means you are able to remove me from that service?
Many thanks!
I read this article completely concerning the comparison of latest and preceding technologies, it’s amazing article.
Everything is very open with a really clear explanation of the
issues. It was really informative. Your site is useful.
Thanks for sharing!
Hello there, I discovered your site by the use of Google whilst looking for a comparable subject, your site got here up, it appears great.
I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hi there, just was alert to your blog thru Google, and
located that it is truly informative. I’m going
to watch out for brussels. I’ll appreciate for those who continue this
in future. Lots of folks can be benefited
from your writing. Cheers!
Thanks , I have recently been searching for information approximately this topic
for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve found out so far.
However, what about the bottom line? Are you positive about the supply?
First off I would like to say terrific blog! I had a quick
question which I’d like to ask if you do not mind.
I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing.
I have had a tough time clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out.
I do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to
15 minutes tend to be wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints?
Kudos!