Irish Soda Bread - Italian Style

While our Irish friends are already looking forward to St Patrick's Day, those of us who's name's end in a vowel will celebrate the Feast of St Joseph on March 19th.
Our friends honor St Patrick & we honor St Joseph.
Our friends will wear green and we will don red.
Our friends will drink green beer while we will enjoy wine.
Our friends love their Irish Soda Bread which is the equivilent to our St Joseph Zeppole! Try this recipe & celebrate St Joseph with us!





Sfinge di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Cream Puffs)

Sfinge:
1 cup water
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 TBSP sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
1 cup sifted flour
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 TBSP Cognac or vanilla

Zeppole Recipe for St. Joseph's Day
Ingredients:

Pastry cream

2 cups milk, divided
1 tbsp lemon zest
1-2 cinnamon sticks
3 tbsp cornstarch
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Powdered Sugar for dusting
24 cherries (optional)
Preheat oven at 400 F.

Place the water, salt and butter in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil.
Remove the pan from the heat and dump the flour in all at once, whisking it all in &
Cook, stirring constantly, until the dough starts to pull easily from the sides of the pan and forms a ball, about 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir until lukewarm, 6 to 8 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring in each one completely before adding the next egg.Stir in the vanilla. Cool completely.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the dough into a pastry bag with a 1-inch star tip and pipe 2-inch rings onto the trays.
Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes, then at 375 F for 15-20 minutes until evenly browned. Cool.
Pastry Cream
In a small sauce pan bring 1 3/4 cup milk with the sticks and lemon zest to a boil.
Meanwhile, mix 1/4 cup milk with the 3 tbsp cornstarch.
Mix well and set aside.
Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar.
Return mixture to sauce pan and whisk in the milk cornstarch mixture. Continue whisking over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.
Remove from heat, pour in a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent from forming a skin.
Chill before using.
Assemble the zeppole:
Slice the choux pastry in half and fill the bottom half with the pastry cream. Replace top half and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Top with cherry if desired.
Refrigerate.