Apple and raisin "frittelle"

My friend Mara asked if I could make her favourite Mardi Gras "frittelle",
so here you are with another fun recipe to celebrate "Carnevale".

Apple and raisin "frittelle"

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 glass milk
2 TBS sugar
350 g flour
1tsp baking powder
1 golden apple
100 g raisin
Half lemon

In a bowl mix flour with sugar, baking powder and salt.
Dice apple and cover with half lemon juice and add half lemon peel grated.
Soak raisin in water.
In another bowl beat eggs with milk, then add flour mixture little by little alternating with raisin and apple.
Fill in a frying pan with lots of vegetable oil (peanut or corn oil) and
warm it up.
When oil is warm fry small dollops of dough till they are golden on both sides
(use a small teaspoon to take dough and another one to help remove it
into the oil).
Transfer them on paper towel to absorb excess oil.
Dip them, one by one, in a bowl of sugar so they get well covered.

Serve them with a nice cup of tea!

The Carnival "Chiacchiere"

Carnival or Mardi' Gras will arrive soon and I'm ready to welcome it
happily making fragrant "Chiacchiere".
When I was young I knew this tipycal Carnival dessert with the name
of "Cioffe"(dialect for bow).
Stripes of sweet pasta dough were shaped like bows, fryed and sprinkled
with powder sugar.
They have different names in different regions (cenci, crostoli, frappe,etc.)
and shapes can be very different.
Here you find my recepe as published in my book "Memorie d'Infanzia".

Ingredients:

250 g flour
50 g sugar
25 g butter
2 eggs
1 TBS Martini Bianco
1tsp grated lemon peel
confectionary sugar
vegetable oil

Dispose flour on a wooden board and make a hole in the middle.
Add eggs, sugar and liquor and beat lightly with your hand.
Mix liquid with a little bit of flour then add soft butter and
mix well.
When you obtain a homogeneous dough, flatten it with a rolling pin.
Once very thin, cut dough in stripes 3 cm wide and 10 cm long,
then pinch each stripe in the middle to give it a bow shape.
Fry in warm oil (it is at right temperature when you put in a
small piece of pasta and small bubbles appear)till brown on both sides
(it happens very quickly).
Put them on a kitchen paper to absorb excess oil then transfer on a plate
and sprinkle with confectionary sugar.

Share them happily with friends!