The Sicilian crespelle for the feast of Saint Joseph is the dessert that cannot miss on Father’s Day. When I was a child, my mom baked them and I competed for the biggest one.
The name in dialect is sfincie or crispeddi and they are soft balls of leavened dough. The recipe is very simple and the result is good enough to make you lick your chops!
Sicilian crespelle: the recipe
The ingredients are few and easy to find:
- 250 gr flour
- 200 gr water
- 12 gr fresh brewer’s yeast
- 1 pinch of salt
- Sugar
- 100 gr raisins
- Lemon peel
- Cinnamon
To prepare them I use a kneading machine but, of course, you can do it by hand, just knead quickly and powerfully.
First of all, soak raisins in some warm water. Then pour the flour into the bowl and add the warm water in which we have dissolved the yeast and added a pinch of salt and lemon peel. Knead until the mixture is liquid and without lumps.
After having obtained the desired mixture, incorporate the raisins squeezed and continue to knead for a few minutes. Finally, cover the bowl and let it rise for about two hours in a dry place. Later, heat some vegetable oil in a small pan, form balls with a spoon and deep fry them at a moderate temperature. Cover the golden and crunchy balls with sugar which you have previously mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Your Sicilian crespelle or sfincie are ready! Enjoy!
Sicilian crespelle: salty version
In particular, in the province of Messina, locals use to make a salty version of the sfincie, replacing the raisins with anchovies and adding nepitella, an aromatic herb that has a flavour similar to mint.
My job as a tour guide in Sicily oftenallows to tell about our culinary traditions and these crispeddi of Saint Joseph, are especially my favourites!
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