Sfingi (Italian donuts)
My cultural heritage is Italian. Both of my parents and their parents were born in Sicily, in Italy’s south. I’ve grown up in country Victoria, however, my home life was very much Italian! These days, whenever our extended families gather, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn into a debate about the name and origins of Italian donuts, otherwise known as sfingi or zeppole or even crispelli. I’ve come to learn that it depends on the Italian region and of course, one’s family tradition. Sfingi is usually the Sicilian name. Zeppole is usually the Calabrian name and my sister-in-law, whose family comes from the Abbruzzo region of Italy, calls them crispelli. I’m sure there’s no hard-and-fast rule, and really, what’s important is that whatever you call them, they’re easy to make and they’re DELICIOUS!
For ease, I’m going to call my version, sfingi, which can be made with plain flour and dry yeast and warm water, or just with self-raising flour and warm water. And there’s a variety of ways to enhance the base batter mixture: you can enjoy them plain, just rolled in caster sugar, or you can add in sultanas, figs, or even anchovies and chilli for a savoury version. My brother-in-law Naz Cugliari, chef and owner of Il Forno Restaurant in Hampton, assures me the anchovy-version is delicious, too!
Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup caster sugar (to mix the donuts in later)
Sultanas, if you’d like to mix these into the batter
2 fresh figs (which is what we used in the video recipe)
Method
Place the flour into a large bowl
Add the dry yeast
Pour in the cup of lukewarm water and slowly add to the flour/yeast and mix in until there are no lumps. You’re looking for a thick pancake consistency. Nice and gooey.
Place a tea towel over the bowl and place in a warm place, usually on the stovetop for 30 minutes.
This is your base sfingi batter mixture.
If you’d just like plain sfingi, you’d just fry them up as is and toss them into the caster sugar.
If you decide to add additional ingredients to the base batter mixture, after the 30 minutes, add any additional ingredients to the batter (or separate the batter into different bowls for different varieties). We had two figs, which we peeled and mushed into some of the batter. We also had half a cup of sultanas, which we mixed into some of the batter.The rest we left plain.
As a variation to the Caster sugar, you could also add some Cinnamon sugar.
Frying the sfingi
Using a domestic deep fryer, heat Vegetable oil up to 180 degrees (if you don’t have one of these fryers, just grab a small pot, half fill it with Vegetable oil and heat up to 180 degrees – buy yourself a cooking thermometer so you know when the oil has reached 180 degrees!)
Spoon in dollops of the batter into the heated oil and keep turning them to ensure they become golden brown all over.
Drain the donuts out of the oil, and place into a large bowl with caster sugar. Toss the donuts until they’re covered.
Serve while fresh and hot!
A Slight Variation: Italian Donuts with two ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup lukewarm water
Mix the self-raising flour and lukewarm water in a large bowl ensuring all the lumps are out, and you want the same thick pancake consistency for the batter.
Unlike the sfingi, you can cook these straight away (no need to wait for the yeast to work its magic in the plain flour).
Add any of the extra ingredients you might like (sultanas, figs, or savoury options), and then Follow the instruction for frying above.
