Hi folks.
Today's guest is an amazing lady who shares my love of all things chocolate. I'd like you all to welcome Joan from Chocolate, Chocolate and More to the asylum. Joan whips up some amazing stuff on her blog. Her recipes are always tempting and decadent. She makes everything from pizza dough to bars to popcorn to sausage balls to ice cream cake. She has a varied cooking and baking blog which I love. I like variety in the blogs I read. She is a wonderfully supportive blogging friend who is thoughtful and kind. I was thrilled when she answered my call for guest bloggers during my time away. I adore this lady and hope you all love her as much as I do.
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Hello all! I'm Joan from Chocolate, Chocolate and more. Welcome to my baking adventures. I love all things sweet and specifically, CHOCOLATE! I do occasionally have to cook nutritious, sustainable foods (breakfast, lunch and dinner.) I'm not fancy, you will be able to find all my ingredients in the average grocery store. Most of my recipes are "kids friendly" both for helping and eating.
I'm so excited to be here at Cravings of a Lunatic because, well, I love Kim and all she makes. She's got a sweet tooth almost as big as mine. Have you tried her Pink Popcorn? I have, it tastes just like cotton candy from the fair. Or her how about her Ice Cream recipes? I swear, I've got so many of them pinned, I'll never get them all made. I just need to move in with her, and be her taste tester.
Another love Kim and I share is bread making and Pizza. I will make her Panzerotti one of these days, It just sounds amazing. And it's fried. I'm good with fried foods. I discovered Pizza Crust Yeast a while back and I've fallen in love with it. It's my go to for making Pizza Dough now. And because there's no waiting for the dough to rise, I don't have to plan ahead when I want pizza.
As a kid, I used to go to the Italian Festival. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than an Italian festival. What they say about Italians is true. They love to cook and feed you. So much food, the aromas from all the booths. Just thinking about it makes me crave some sausage and peppers. One of my favorite treats to get there was the Zepolle. Now this isn't the "true" Zepolle that you'll find recipes for all over the internet. I have it from a reliable source that what I was eating all those years ago was a fried Pizza Dough. Nothing fancy. Fast, easy, doused with powdered sugar. Served in a paper lunch sack. If you like a funnel cake, I promise, you'll love this more.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ - 2 ¼ cup flour
- 1 envelope pizza crust yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- â…” cup very warm water
- 3 tablespoons oil I used vegetable
- Powdered sugar
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Start your oil preheating. You'll want it to reach a temperature of around 280, hot enough when you drop a small bit of dough in, the dough will float to the top with all those frying bubbles surrounding it.
- Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir it around, to combine the yeast into the other ingredients. Add water and oil and stir until all combined. It'll be a sticky, wet glob. Slowly add more flour as you continue to mix, until a soft dough forms. Knead dough for about 4-5 minutes more, adding a bit of flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers.
- Roll dough into a long roll and cut dough into balls about the size of a walnut. Drop dough carefully into hot oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Just till a golden brown. Remove from oil to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
- Place about ¼-1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a paper lunch bag (you can use a bowl) add fried dough and toss to coat.
Here's some great step by step shots from Joan while making her fried dough. I love watching the process of it coming together. Absolutely making me want to run right into my kitchen and whip some up. Sadly my kitchen is across the country right now so I'll just stare longingly at Joan's gorgeous photos instead.
Joan dividing her dough!
Joan starting to fry them!
Joan perfecting the fry, Lunie getting really hungry right now!
Joan letting them rest, allowing the excess oil to drip off. This is where I'd be shoving them in my mouth 2 x 2 right now!
The dunking bag, you gotta have a dunking bag with all that delicious powdered sugar in it. Seriously need to head down to the donut shop near B-Dude's apartment right now! This is making me so hungry!
Joan it's totally cool if I just stop by your place on our drive home to pick up bag or 10 of these right?
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Thank you so much to Joan for tempting us all with this little balls of heaven. Honestly I'm going to run down to the donut/coffee shop near our hotel and demand they make me some of these right now. I'm sure they would right. Or I might just pop in on Joan on the way home.
I encourage everyone to head over to Chocolate, Chocolate and More to check out Joan's wonderful blog. She is such an amazing cook and baker. Plus she's just a nice person, so warm and welcoming. You will love spending time there. Make sure you follow her blog by RSS or email. Also check her out on Facebook, and Pinterest. Stalk her folks, us bloggers love stalkers.
I'll be waving to you all from Banff today. We're heading over there for our last day here. Going to soak up the last of our time with B-Dude before we hit the open road again. Hopefully none of us getting eaten by a bear or giant cat. I would however love to see either, from a distance, for photos of course. From a safe distance, preferably in my car, with the doors locked. Can't wait to share the vacation photos with you. It's been a blast. Tomorrow will be hard to drive away and leave my son in another province. I have no idea how I'm going to do this. Wish me luck!
Toodles and smoochies! xx
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
Yum! When I was a kid my mother would go to the local bakery (the one that delivered) and buy bread dough and bring it home and fry it and serve it with her homemade maple syrup. Imagine the time she'd have saved if she did it this way 🙂 Looks delicious.
Kim Bee
That is such a cool memory Maureen. I bet they taste amazing. I want to try these ones here. We did filled ones once and they were the bomb.
Kayle (The Cooking Actress)
NOMYGOD! I love funnel cakes. And I know I'd love these. oooooooooh this is daaaangerous!
Kim Bee
But oh so good. Lol!
Jen @ Juanita's Cocina
Oh holy moly. I think I just peed myself with anticipation. Making these. Today.
Kim Bee
Roflmao!
kitchenriffs
Fried dough is delicious stuff. I think every culture has some sort of fried dough, often several varieties. Good guest post. Have a safe drive home, Kim!
Kim Bee
And thank goodness for it. I love fried dough in any form. SO good!
Oy, I think you heard about the drive home from doom. Lol!
DB-The Foodie Stuntman
Lemme see, sweet, deep fried dough. What's not to like?
Kim Bee
Right!!
mjskit
Oh my! Being a beignet and sopapilla fan, I know that I would find this fried dough irresistible! I already find the pictures irresistible! So good!! Glad to see you here Joan!
Kim Bee
I like the way you think. Fried dough is awesome.
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious
Fried dough - is there anything better?!
Kim Bee
Nope. Not even a little.
torviewtoronto
delicious to snack wonderfully done
Kim Bee
Thanks for visiting Ahkeela.
Suzanne Perazzini
These look like great snacks to fill that hole in the belly. An Italian festival sounds like heaven.
Kim Bee
I'd probably eat a few dozen to fill my belly hole. *giggles*
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious
You had me at fried 🙂
Kim Bee
Lol, I like the way you think Gerry.
kalamitykelli
Oooooohhhh! These looks fantastic! Just a few could stop a big sugar craving for me - that is, if I can stop at a few!
Kim Bee
I'd probably eat a trough full. Not gonna lie.
Anita at Hungry Couple
During the summer, Manhattan has several large street festivals with all kinds of food including the infamous funnel and zepolle vendors. There are also merchants selling wares but...who cares. Whenever I announce to Brian that there's a street festival over the weekend, we both look at each other and say "fried dough!!!" Now...where the hell is that festival schedule???
Kim Bee
Lol Anita. I would probably be saying the same thing.
Tina
Yummm!!! Quick and easy and I can bet it's addictive 🙂
Kim Bee
So good right. I would not be able to stop eating these.
Debra
They look VERY good.
Arshia
Hi,
What exactly is pizza crust yeast? Can I use normal yeast? Thanks (:
I haven't tried it out but I can tell this one's a five star 😀
Joan@Chocolate and More
Hi Arshia, Pizza Crust yeast is a specialty yeast by Fleishmanns http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com/ it very simmilar to a rapid rise yease so that could be easily substituted. Fried dough is definitely worth trying!
Sharon
for those of you looking for a short cut: I use the frozen bread or roll dough! thaw first then cut in small pieces! really fast but when I have the time to spare, I'm gonna make this from scratch recipe! thanks for sharing Joan!
Pat J.
I know these have to be amazing but i do have a question. What is the difference in pizza dough yeast and regular or quick rise yeast? Im just wondering.
Kim Beaulieu
Hi Pat. That's a great question! The pizza yeast has a special relaxer designed specifically for pizza dough. It keeps the dough from snapping back so when you're stretching or rolling it stays put.
That said, it's not a deal breaker if you can't find pizza dough yeast for a recipe. You can use regular or quick rise. I often do when I run out of pizza yeast.
Hope that helps.